In The Last Word, we sit down with an industry expert to share their wealth of knowledge. In the January/February issue, the conversation features Larry Skolnick, the former president and CEO of Memphis Jewish Community Center.
1. How did you get started in the community recreation industry?
LS: I’ve been involved in the community rec industry for almost 30 years, and I always say this was the happiest accident of my life. After deciding my intended path of law was not for me, I realized the happiest I had been was when I worked as a summer camp unit head at the JCC in Louisville, Kentucky during my college years. I decided to enroll in the master’s program in Recreation at Indiana University, and the rest is a very fortunate and gratifying history.
2. What’s been a key to your team’s success? What are you most proud of?
LS: The primary key to my team’s success is we truly function as a unified team. Though everyone has their individual job, we don’t allow ourselves to become siloed and approach every initiative and program as a true team. I’m most proud of the significant and vast impacts that my teams at the JCC’s in West Palm Beach, Florida; Dayton, Ohio; and now Memphis, Tennessee, have made. Knowing we’ve enhanced, enriched and positively touched so many people is incredibly gratifying.
3. What’s been one of the biggest accomplishments of your career?
LS: There are so many things of which I’m incredibly proud. I would say the work I’ve done at the Memphis Jewish Community Center is my biggest accomplishment. I’ve spent the last 13 years diversifying revenue sources, creating an incredibly large endowment, renovating existing facilities and adding to our campus footprint with new recreation facilities, as well as building a strong and unified team that will carry this JCC well into the future.
4. What’s been one of the biggest challenges you have faced in your career?
LS: Shortly after arriving in Memphis, there was a long-standing and very controversial operational issue that needed to be addressed. I knew regardless of the outcome, there would be people who would be disappointed. I strongly believe the process we use is sometimes more important than the outcome itself. Thus, I focused my efforts on creating and enacting a good and solid process, so everyone could agree it had been fairly explored. When I’m faced with challenges, I remind myself of one of my favorite quotes by Martin Luther King, Jr., “The ultimate measure of a man isn’t where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
5. What’s one lesson that you have learned that other community recreation professionals can learn from?
LS: First, don’t be afraid to think outside of the box, try new things, take risks and work hard to make the big dreams a reality. Second is the significance and importance of interpersonal relationships. Our industry is about people and we must remember relationships with staff, members, participants and donors are the key to the success of any rec organization.
6. Tell us one fact about yourself that others may not know.
LS: I’m completing my 13th year here as the president and CEO of the Memphis Jewish Community Center. My 13th year will be my final year here, as I’m honored and humbled to have been selected as the new CEO of the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center in Houston and will begin my tenure there in 2026.
