The Deal Sephardic Network Community Center (DSN) exists today as an epicenter to the Sephardic Jewish community located on the Jersey Shore. The organization which boasts a fairly new and busy community center including youth programs, adult programs, and fitness galore stands tall and proud with thousands of members to date. Recently, DSN celebrated its ten year anniversary at their facilities with their dedicated staff and members and reminisced on how it all got started.  

In Feb. 2008, DSN got its start in what is currently known as the Sephardic Social Center, a small building behind the Magen David West Deal Synagogue. DSN’s founders saw a need for the Deal community to come together and have a place to hold activities, events, and more.

At the time, parents felt that there was a lack of social activities for the children of the Jersey Shore community. Because of this, families were leaving and moving to New York where the community was more active. The families left behind on the shore committed to making the Jersey Shore an active and vibrant community where kids could grow up, have an active and social life within the framework of our community, and want to one day raise their own families in that area.  

The entrance to the DSN Community Center in Oakhurst, NJ.

DSN, essentially, started out as a grass-roots movement to save Deal, NJ from being empty in the Winter or from having the families assimilate into the non-Jewish surroundings of the area. DSN gave the community exactly what it needed to stay intact, and more than that, to grow.

In Dec. 2014, DSN moved to its new building which was constructed specifically for this community center. This gave the organization the proper facilities it needed to really grow and fulfill its overall mission. The DSN Community Center’s mission is to provide a healthy, exciting and social environment for youth, teens and adults through daily fitness, educational, recreational, and sports programs, while promoting the important values of community and leadership.

Since its start, DSN has succeeded at just that. With its top of the line new building, DSN has created the perfect welcoming space for members to get together. Some of the building’s entertainment features include an arcade room, basketball gym, indoor playground with morning babysitting hours, fitness center, toddler classrooms, exercise rooms, multi-purpose room for parties, and much more. With the help of its founders, the board, volunteers, and a passionate staff, DSN has become many things in its ten years for the community members it serves.

DSN Winter members enjoying a Hanukkah celebration at the DSN Community Center.

In the Winter season, DSN hosts roughly 2,300 year-round members while they serve an additional 2,400 members in the Summer months. Over 4,000 summer and winter members of all ages flock to DSN for the pristine exercise classes, great sports leagues, creative programs, and more.

One greatly utilized part of the DSN building is its multi-purpose room. DSN hosts birthday parties frequently for its members who want a special venue to celebrate their special days. The party director on staff works with parents to understand their vision, theme, and budget for a child's birthday party and takes over from there. The director handles the food, decor, set up, entertainment, and even creates and sends invitations. It’s a nice way to relieve the stress of throwing a party and is always a great time.

The facilities at the DSN Community Center.

Since the new trend of Brooklyn and Manhattan young families making the move to the Jersey Shore area, DSN has seen an increase in membership. These, in fact, are the families who come in the most frequently and put their children in the programs most often according to Sammy Sitt, Executive Director of DSN.

“They come to meet people and to help their children make friends by placing them in any one of our incredible after school and Sunday programs,” said Sitt. “In this way, we are helping our community grow and making the quality of life a lot better. The new families feel at home much quicker when they frequent DSN.”

Technology is a tool that DSN uses to make their facility safe and also convenient for their members. Over 60 security cameras are strategically placed in and around the building. Additionally, security guards are at the entrance to assure only those who belong there can enter.

The website and app are helpful tools for members to get the most out of their experience. When a particular exercise class is expected to fill up quickly, you can reserve your spot with a few taps on the app. The app is also helpful when checking the class schedule. The website is key for registering children for programs and sports. This keeps costs relatively low for DSN since they don’t have to employ people to register members. This is part of the reason they have been able to keep programs affordable for families.

Aside from the major accomplishment of uniting the shore community, DSN has had a bunch of other successes that warrant highlighting. DSN runs sports leagues throughout the year with over 1,500 participants. They also run a highly engaged teen program that enables the youth of our community to relax and enjoy each other’s company in a safe space.

In 2016, DSN opened a beach club right next to the Deal Casino. It has six basketball courts and two volleyball courts. Throughout the warmer months, it has been ideal for DSN sports leagues and tournaments alike.

Celebrations for the ten year anniversary at the DSN Community Center on display.

To celebrate their ten year anniversary, DSN decorated the building with balloons and handed out free water bottles with the DSN tenth anniversary logo. They also hosted a series of special tenth anniversary exercise classes that featured raffles at the end in which winners would receive Amazon gift cards. DSN also gave out complementary smoothies to members to mark the occasion.

Nathan Ades showing off his prize at the tenth anniversary celebration.

“It was very festive,” remarked Sitt of the tenth anniversary celebration. “Members were Mabruking staff to which they replied Mabruk yourselves, we’re here because of you!”

So what’s next for this burgeoning community center? DSN plans to continue to grow both in quantity of members as well as quality of programs. They always hope and aim to pick up on new trends as well as the desires of their members in order to continue to improve.

DSN also hopes in the future to construct a building at their Beach Club. This building would be used for social events and future programs. It would also feature a roof top area with a view of the ocean and a cafe. DSN is only in the planning phase of this project but it’s an exciting one for their members.

“I’d like everyone to know that our hard working staff as well as the large amount of community volunteers is what makes DSN the special and successful place that it is,” added Sitt.

To Learn more about DSN, to join, or to donate, head to DSNlive.org.

Frieda Schweky

Frieda@sephardic.org

Frieda Schweky is Sephardic.Org's official community events reporter. For inquiries and to get involved with our site, please contact Frieda via email.