The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the Odessa Jewish community have formally dedicated the Beit Grand Jewish Cultural Center. The Beit Grand JCC – the central address for Jewish life in Odessa – has been supported and expanded through the generosity of philanthropists Nancy and Stephen Grand and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and serves one of the former Soviet Union’s most vibrant Jewish populations.

Beit Grand is home to the city’s Hesed Shaarey Tzion Welfare organization and its Jewish Family Services program, as well as Hillel and the Odessa Regional Association of Ghetto and Concentration Camp Survivors.

The building contains an extensive library and community gym, and features wide-ranging cultural programming including an arts studio, a Jewish writers club and a course for Jewish Odessa tour guides. The campus recently celebrated the opening of the Montessori-style Anavim Jewish kindergarten.