Jewish Community Center Of Orange County

The mission of the Merage JCC is to enrich Jewish identities and create a vibrant community through excellent programs and services rooted in shared values and traditions. Our values are:

Excellence: Exceeding expectations in leadership, staffing, operations programming and service.

Jewish Culture: Fostering meaningful connections to the land and people of Israel and the Jewish community worldwide and celebrating our Jewish identity, history, roots and culture l'dor v'dor (generation to generation).

Community: Always providing a warm, supportive environment, welcoming all no matter where or whether our community worships, whatever their age or lifestyle.

Family-oriented: Fitness, education and enrichments, Israel and Jewish connections, we have programs for all, from young to not-so-young. We have programs for families and for individuals. We are a place for your whole family.

Located in a 220,000 square foot facility on the Samueli Jewish Campus in Irvine near the intersection of Bonita Canyon and Turtle Ridge, the Merage Jewish Community Center is the place to be for programs that will challenge your body, spark your intellect, kindle your spirit and brighten your life.

Our extraordinary facility, with its inviting landscape and breathtaking views, includes an award-winning health and fitness complex, gymnasium, pickle ball courts, basketball programing, Jr. Olympic swimming pool, swim team, licensed preschool and toddler care, teen lounge and after-school program, senior center and programing, adult education rooms, art studio, state-of-the-art theater, and an auditorium with banquet facilities, Kosher café, the Blaze Bernstein Teaching Kitchen, and Holocaust Education Center and Memorial Garden.

Our programs and services celebrate family, foster health and well-being, embrace tradition, create friendships, and expand cultural horizons, all in a safe, positive, friendly, and inviting environment.

In 1977, nine determined Laguna Beach families turned a former hamburger stand into the JCC of South Orange County. After merging with the JCC of Central Orange County in Garden Grove in 1990, the community continued to grow and flourish. In 2004, the current Merage Jewish Community Center of Orange County was opened due to the generosity and vision of our founders and local philanthropists.

Now, twenty plus years later, the Merage JCC is a thriving, welcoming, multi-generational community center which sees 60,000 people walk through our doors each month. We are proud to serve the Jewish community and beyond, welcoming people of all ages, orientations, and religious and ethnic identities. Here in Orange County, we are the face of the modern Jewish movement—inclusive, diverse, and proud to share our core values with all who wish to join us.

2024 was a landmark year for the Merage JCC. Celebrating our 20th anniversary on the Samueli Jewish Campus, our membership grew to finally reach our pre-pandemic numbers. We are incredibly thankful to our community members and neighbors for supporting us through those difficult years.

Over 2024, we also launched our revitalized teen program into the newly dubbed Jewish Teens of Orange County (JTOC). The program was created to fill a need in our community: provide Jewish teenagers a safe and engaging space to socialize, learn, grow, rejoice in their shared culture, make friends, and be unabashedly themselves. This year over 130 teens from all over Orange County enjoyed over a dozen community events including a Global Shabbat dinner, karaoke and bowling, and Israeli Culture Day. On December 25, the JCC’s Day of Service, our JTeens hand-crafted over 400 burritos and 300 sweet treats for family, women’s and overnight shelters around Orange County.

In 2024, we also saw the opening of two brand-new centers: JDiscovery and JRecovery. Nestled within our fitness center, JDiscovery is an engaging STEM based childcare program, welcoming children from 18 months to 8 years old. In partnership with OC’s own DiscoveryCube, JDiscovery provides enrichment classes for the Aronoff Preschool, an early-morning drop-off program, and even STEM-based birthday party celebrations.

Right across the hall, we have the newly-launched JRecovery, a dedicated space equipped with tools to aid muscle recovery, reduce soreness, and promote relaxation. Featuring an infrared sauna, Cryo chair, Hydro chair, Hypervolt, and NormaTex Sleeves, sessions in JRecovery help members feel rejuvenated to stay active longer. JRecovery is a natural expansion to our 'Best of OC' Fitness Center, offering wellness options for long-term health and happiness.

In 2024, the Merage JCC also launched Sunrise Day Camp Orange County, a camp for children with cancer and their siblings, offered free of charge. Located at the Samueli Academy in Santa Ana, the goal of Sunrise is to bring back childhood pleasures to children fighting cancer. Sunrise provides an engaging, joyful, and safe summer camp experience tailored to the specific needs of children undergoing treatment. With 50 campers in our first year and now over 100 in our second, it is clear that the impact of this camp goes far beyond the individual experience. Every camper, volunteer, staff member, and benefactor can feel the collective joy, hope, and pride that exudes from every corner and every smile at Sunrise.

In 2025, we have a big year to follow and have plans to do so. Returning this summer after a few years' absence is the Jr Maccabi Games, a day-long athletic competition and celebration for ages 9 to 12. On August 1st, over 50 athletes and coaches from Team OC will travel to Pittsburgh for the first ever JCC Maccabi Campus Games. Maccabi provides the opportunity for our young athletes to witness and experience a Jewish community outside of our neighborhood, opening their eyes to what it means to be a people connected throughout the US and the world.

In the fall, we will be launching a renovation of our locker rooms to make them more energy-efficient, comfortable and secure. We will also be adding five gender-neutral/family changing rooms for increased ease and inclusivity.

The 2025 OC Jewish Arts Festival in November is already gearing up to be a sublime lineup of over a dozen shows, screenings, and panels highlighting Jewish performers, writers, chefs and artists. Our headliners Alex Edelman (HBO, The Paper) and Jake Cohen (NYTimes Bestsellers) are putting together three never-before-seen shows and experiences, including the world premiere of their “Friday with Friends” shabbat dinner. The mission of the OC Jewish Arts Festival is to bring Jewish culture to the forefront of the Orange County Arts and Culture scene, and this year will be a great opportunity to expand our reach wider than ever.

The greatest need for the Merage JCC is scholarship dollars for our children’s programing and senior social memberships. We are proud to have a robust scholarship program with an acceptance rate of over 92%. However, demand for scholarship funding across all our programing has gone through the roof over the last couple years. Post-pandemic inflation, increased cost of living, healthcare debt, and economic instability have all been factors cited on our scholarship applications. Beyond that, we are hearing stories of long-time camp families who are pulling their children from our programs because of layoffs, housing changes and more. The same financial crunch is hitting our senior population with the same regularity. At a time when our elders need community the most, between medical and living expenses, social membership is dropping off their list of affordable items. This is not merely a loss to our bottom line, this is watching our extended family disappear. And it's devastating.

Many people, even within our own community, assume that because we are a Jewish center, or because we are located between Irvine and Newport Beach, that all our community members are free from financial need or socioeconomic instability. In reality, Jewish community of Orange County mirrors the breadth of incomes and economic pressures of any other ethnic sub-group in our county. We want to be here for any Jewish person in Orange County who needs a community, regardless of their finances. Furthermore, we don't want our existing JCC families to think of Jewish education and community as luxury items that have to be cut when times get tough. We do not want these families to feel embarrassed or hesitate when experience hardship. We want to be the Jewish community that steps up for these families with pride and dignity.

Scholarship funding for Sunrise Day Camp Orange County, our camp for children with cancer and their siblings, is also a high-priority. Now in it’s second year, the camp has doubled in size. As Sunrise continues to grow to support more children in need – from every background and every corner or Orange County, we must grow our scholarship fund in kind.

Our last area of greatest need is our capital fund, which has been nearly depleted from security-enhancements and unexpected building repairs over the last two years. With the increase in antisemitic violence across the US, we have gone above and beyond in securing our facility with protections to give our families peace of mind as they learn, play, and socialize. This comes at a significant financial cost, which we must be prepared to support unconditionally and in perpetuity.

All of Orange County.

It is my pleasure to welcome and introduce you to the vibrant community of the Merage Jewish Community Center of Orange County. Though Jewish-identified people only make up an estimated 3% of the OC population, we are proud to call Orange County, California our home. Our members and staff come from all corners of the US, Israel, and world-wide Jewish diaspora, with Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi ancestry, with varied religious (from secular to orthodox) and inter-faith families. We pride ourselves on being an example of what modern-day Jewry looks like in the US—inclusive and broadly defined.

Though we come from such varied backgrounds, we all share the same Jewish values: Tikkun Olam (Repairing the World), Chesed (Loving-Kindness), Tzedakah (Righteous Giving), Shalom Bayit (Peaceful relationships and home life) and more. When Jewish people toast a glass in celebration, we say “l’chaim” which means “to life” – and that is how we operate at the Merage JCC. We help our members and our community live their lives to the fullest, with dignity, meaning, and collaboration.

At the Merage JCC, all are welcome to explore their identity, form deep connections, engage in lifelong learning, explore creative pursuits, and pursue physical, mental and emotional wellness. From the youngest yeladim (Hebrew for children) to our most-esteemed bubbehs and zaydehs (Yiddish for grandparents) we rejoice together in our shared culture, history and holidays. Some of my favorite celebrations here are our annual Community Hanukkah Celebration (where we cook and serve almost a thousand potato latkes) and our annual Purim parade (where our preschool students dress up and parade around our campus.)

Whether you’re a Jewish person in need of a home base, or a neighbor looking for a fitness center with all the works, we welcome you to our campus to rejoice in our safe and thriving community.

- Scott Braswell, CEO

The Merage JCC on the Samueli Campus is not just a building, but the true center of the Jewish community in the OC. It will continue to grow and prosper for generations to come.

- Hal Altman, Chairperson of the Board of Directors