Chabad Lubavitch of Baltimore, at 6701 Old Pimlico Road, has received Baltimore County’s approval to build a 3,600-square-foot addition on the site of an existing playground.
But the synagogue’s Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan said there are no immediate plans to activate the plan. “It’s too early to know if we will build,” he said. “We have to do fund raising first.”
Don Rascoe, of the county’s Department of Permits and Development, said the congregation came to the county several times with versions of the addition proposal. “We agreed to a refinement of a previously approved plan,” he said.
The initial plan was submitted in October 2008. Paul Abrams, a neighbor, said he received a letter from the county informing him of a hearing. Mr. Abrams said he and about eight other neighbors raised questions about the plan and met with Rabbi Kaplan and his wife, Rochelle.
Mr. Abrams said his neighbors were satisfied with the Kaplans’ plan, but he was not.
Another hearing was held last January. County Deputy Zoning Commissioner Thomas Bostwick heard testimony about the plan for a 11⁄2-story addition that would be connected to the main building via a covered hallway. The plan required an amendment to the existing zoning, which Mr. Bostwick subsequently approved.
Mr. Abrams said he attended this hearing and protested the plan, which in his opinion would disrupt the neighborhood. He also brought up the issue of parking, saying the synagogue has a small parking lot that would not accommodate additional activities. No appeals were filed regarding Mr. Bostwick’s decision within the required 30 days.
Mrs. Kaplan said the addition is 11⁄2 stories because of the topography of the land. On the lower level, she said, there would be a social hall and on the main level an adult ed center.
Showing posts with label Synagogue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Synagogue. Show all posts
Friday, June 05, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Where we Worship: Chabad Lubavitch of Northwest CT
Chabad Lubavitch of Northwest Connecticut is one of 5,000 centers worldwide where Jews of all backgrounds, who are not members of the syna gogue, can stop in anytime for worship.
“We come together and build communities.
That’s what Chabad is,” Rabbi Joseph Eisenbach said. He and his wife, Mina, came to Litchfield to start the community center in 1996. “Since then it’s grown in leaps and numbers,” he said. “I’ve seen it grow from one person to standing room only on Jewish holidays.”
Services are Fridays at 6 p.m. and Saturdays at 9 a.m. The Saturday service is followed with an 11:30 a.m. lunch each week. The Friday night service is also followed with a traditional meal.
Services are held in Litchfield at 7 Village Green Drive, behind the Blockbuster.
“We’re the alternative entertainment,” Eisenbach joked.
Since membership is not required, he said worship attendance varies from 15 up to 120, de pending on the time of year. “We’re the only temple in the northwest where no membership is required. Chabad is the biggest mix of everyone together because there are no labels, we have people from all walks of life,” Eisenbach said. “The warmth and family spirit here is very unique.” The synagogue also hosts two Hebrew schools for children. One is held in Litchfield and one is held in Waterbury.
Eisenbach said he hopes next year to launch one in Southbury.
Currently, through Chabad’s Jewish Learning Institute, adults can participate in a course called “Biblical Reflections.” “It’s fabulous because you find yourself in the main stories in the Bible,” he said, noting that chabads throughout the world are teaching the same course.
Eisenbach added that Chabad’s Internet ministry is an important aspect of the synagogue.
“Years ago you had to travel to a house of worship to learn and study, today you can be any where and everywhere and connect, study and learn. That’s the beauty of our web program, everything is right in your living room,” Eisenbach said.
For information on Chabad Lubavitch visit www.chabadnw.org
“We come together and build communities.
That’s what Chabad is,” Rabbi Joseph Eisenbach said. He and his wife, Mina, came to Litchfield to start the community center in 1996. “Since then it’s grown in leaps and numbers,” he said. “I’ve seen it grow from one person to standing room only on Jewish holidays.”
Services are Fridays at 6 p.m. and Saturdays at 9 a.m. The Saturday service is followed with an 11:30 a.m. lunch each week. The Friday night service is also followed with a traditional meal.
Services are held in Litchfield at 7 Village Green Drive, behind the Blockbuster.
“We’re the alternative entertainment,” Eisenbach joked.
Since membership is not required, he said worship attendance varies from 15 up to 120, de pending on the time of year. “We’re the only temple in the northwest where no membership is required. Chabad is the biggest mix of everyone together because there are no labels, we have people from all walks of life,” Eisenbach said. “The warmth and family spirit here is very unique.” The synagogue also hosts two Hebrew schools for children. One is held in Litchfield and one is held in Waterbury.
Eisenbach said he hopes next year to launch one in Southbury.
Currently, through Chabad’s Jewish Learning Institute, adults can participate in a course called “Biblical Reflections.” “It’s fabulous because you find yourself in the main stories in the Bible,” he said, noting that chabads throughout the world are teaching the same course.
Eisenbach added that Chabad’s Internet ministry is an important aspect of the synagogue.
“Years ago you had to travel to a house of worship to learn and study, today you can be any where and everywhere and connect, study and learn. That’s the beauty of our web program, everything is right in your living room,” Eisenbach said.
For information on Chabad Lubavitch visit www.chabadnw.org
Monday, March 30, 2009
Chabad to offer new Orthodox services
The Jewish organization Chabad will begin holding Orthodox services at the University this Saturday, following their dedication of a new Torah last Sunday afternoon.
Though the Center for Jewish Life (CJL) offers a variety of services, the Chabad services will target a different audience, Chabad Rabbi Eitan Webb said in response to concerns of Orthodox students within the CJL that the new services will promote competition between the groups. Webb explained that the Chabad services will aim to provide students who are currently not very involved in Jewish life with an opportunity to learn more about how Orthodox services work.
“Over the years, we’ve been asked [by students] for a group … where they can learn how the services work,” Webb said, adding that Chabad’s new Torah provided the extra motivation and opportunity to start it.
The Torah scroll was given to Chabad by the Sandra Brand Torah Project, which refurbishes old Torahs and donates them to colleges for young people to learn and reconnect with their Jewish heritage.
“The gift was one to which you can’t say no, and when you receive a Torah, you must try your best to provide services, and since we don’t have to start another one, we thought a learner’s minyan [Jewish prayer service] would be the best idea,” Chabad on Campus student president Ethan Ludmir ’11 said.
Though the Yavneh House of Princeton, the CJL Orthodox student group, was initially worried that the new service would drive students away from the CJL services, these concerns have since been dispelled, Yavneh president Zahava Stadler ’11 said.
“I’ve spoken to Rabbi Webb and the student board president of Chabad and showed initial concern, but it is my understanding that they have an explicitly educational purpose,” Stadler said.
Hilana Lewkowitz-Shpuntoff ’10, co-chair of the Chabad Torah committee, said she does not foresee the new service detracting from ones already offered by the CJL.
“The purpose of the service is not designed to have any competition with the CJL,” she said. “The target audience is people who want to learn more, regardless of where they stand.”
Chabad on Campus contacted CJL representatives as soon as it received word of the Torah donation and was mindful of the CJL services when planning the new one, Stadler said.
“I didn’t have to make any agreements or stipulations because their plans were already addressing any concern I would have,” she explained.
The considerations included offering monthly services on Saturdays, which would not interfere with Yavneh’s Friday night services, and targeting students not currently involved in Jewish life.
Chabad’s efforts to not encroach on CJL service attendance have alleviated initial concerns of several CJL representatives about Chabad’s decision to offer the services, Webb said.
“I think they’ve been supportive. They understand that the goal is to create further Jewish learning at the University,” Webb said. “Anything to help the student body is a positive force, and everyone is willing to work and try to achieve that.”
Members of both Chabad and the CJL said they hope that once students learn more about the workings of the Orthodox services through Chabad services, they will feel more comfortable attending the more conventional services offered at the CJL.
“It is certainly possible that once people gain more understanding of how the Orthodox services work, they will want to attend [CJL services],” Stadler said.
Lewkowitz-Shpuntoff echoed those sentiments, saying there was “no conflict” between the Chabad services and those offered by the CJL. “If anything, [attendance at the CJL] will increase because people will feel more confident attending the services,” she said.
Though the Center for Jewish Life (CJL) offers a variety of services, the Chabad services will target a different audience, Chabad Rabbi Eitan Webb said in response to concerns of Orthodox students within the CJL that the new services will promote competition between the groups. Webb explained that the Chabad services will aim to provide students who are currently not very involved in Jewish life with an opportunity to learn more about how Orthodox services work.
“Over the years, we’ve been asked [by students] for a group … where they can learn how the services work,” Webb said, adding that Chabad’s new Torah provided the extra motivation and opportunity to start it.
The Torah scroll was given to Chabad by the Sandra Brand Torah Project, which refurbishes old Torahs and donates them to colleges for young people to learn and reconnect with their Jewish heritage.
“The gift was one to which you can’t say no, and when you receive a Torah, you must try your best to provide services, and since we don’t have to start another one, we thought a learner’s minyan [Jewish prayer service] would be the best idea,” Chabad on Campus student president Ethan Ludmir ’11 said.
Though the Yavneh House of Princeton, the CJL Orthodox student group, was initially worried that the new service would drive students away from the CJL services, these concerns have since been dispelled, Yavneh president Zahava Stadler ’11 said.
“I’ve spoken to Rabbi Webb and the student board president of Chabad and showed initial concern, but it is my understanding that they have an explicitly educational purpose,” Stadler said.
Hilana Lewkowitz-Shpuntoff ’10, co-chair of the Chabad Torah committee, said she does not foresee the new service detracting from ones already offered by the CJL.
“The purpose of the service is not designed to have any competition with the CJL,” she said. “The target audience is people who want to learn more, regardless of where they stand.”
Chabad on Campus contacted CJL representatives as soon as it received word of the Torah donation and was mindful of the CJL services when planning the new one, Stadler said.
“I didn’t have to make any agreements or stipulations because their plans were already addressing any concern I would have,” she explained.
The considerations included offering monthly services on Saturdays, which would not interfere with Yavneh’s Friday night services, and targeting students not currently involved in Jewish life.
Chabad’s efforts to not encroach on CJL service attendance have alleviated initial concerns of several CJL representatives about Chabad’s decision to offer the services, Webb said.
“I think they’ve been supportive. They understand that the goal is to create further Jewish learning at the University,” Webb said. “Anything to help the student body is a positive force, and everyone is willing to work and try to achieve that.”
Members of both Chabad and the CJL said they hope that once students learn more about the workings of the Orthodox services through Chabad services, they will feel more comfortable attending the more conventional services offered at the CJL.
“It is certainly possible that once people gain more understanding of how the Orthodox services work, they will want to attend [CJL services],” Stadler said.
Lewkowitz-Shpuntoff echoed those sentiments, saying there was “no conflict” between the Chabad services and those offered by the CJL. “If anything, [attendance at the CJL] will increase because people will feel more confident attending the services,” she said.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Vilnius, Lithuania - Chabad Rabbi in Vilna Banned from Main Shul by the Jewish Kehilla
Vilnius, Lithuania - The Jewish community in Vilna refuses to allow the local Chabad rabbi to enter the main shul, even though the rabbi has to say Kaddish and has no other minyan where he can say it.
Tense, acrid relations have existed between the Jewish community and Rabbi Krinsky since 2004, when the community passed Rav Krinsky by for the rabbinate and chose instead Rabbi Chaim Burstein, a former St. Petersburg refusenik who had studied in Litvish yeshivos in Israel. Despite Rabbi Krinsky living in Vilna and being involved with the community since 1994, the kehilla said they had a tradition of being misnagdim and preferred a rabbi who was a Litvak.
Fisticuffs broke out in the shul between pro-Krinsky and pro-Burshtein factions during Shavuot services in 2004. The fracas was covered extensively by the local and foreign media.
Burshtein was later roughed up by Krinsky supporters during tefillos in the shul. When Krinsky's hooliganism continued, he and his followers were barred from the synagogue. They countered by holding vigils in the courtyard for months while pouting to foreign journalists about their "victimization".
The ensuing embarrassment and seeing no end to the conflict caused the kehilla to close the synagogue for more than a year, while services were held in the kehilla building. The community took Krinsky to court, and an arrangement was finally reached where the rabbi had to retreat to his Chabad center. The shul reopened in August 2005, and morning and evening services have since been held daily - without Krinsky, who presides over his own services in a first-floor room at the Chabad center.
The ban against Rav Krinsky entering the main shul means that he cannot enter the shul to recite Kaddish for his mother who passed away a few days ago. His own synagogue doesn't have a regular minyan of worshippers. Krinsky grumbled, "The doors are closed, and the guards know me and won't let me enter. How can one say 'no' to a Jew who wants to say Kaddish for his mother?"
Rabbi Yosef Aharanov, the head of Israeli shlichim, was shocked. "Banning a Jew, kal v'chomer one who is a rav of a kehilla, is extremely serious. Such a thing is not done except under the most extreme circumstances."
Mr. Alperowitz, the community president, says, "Krinsky should blame himself that he doesn't have a minyan. He distanced people from himself."
Both Krinsky and Alperowitz accuse each other of violence, and being motivated by the long-awaited restitution of Jewish communal property, which in Lithuania eventually will include at least 200 buildings and an estimated $60 million in compensation for property that cannot be returned.
Local observers claim that Krinsky's attempt to grab control of the Vilna kehilla follows a Chabad pattern to usurp power from local rabbis elsewhere in Eastern Europe which in recent years occurred in Kiev, Prague, Russia and Germany.
Lita has today about 4,500 Jews, most of them living in Vilna.
Tense, acrid relations have existed between the Jewish community and Rabbi Krinsky since 2004, when the community passed Rav Krinsky by for the rabbinate and chose instead Rabbi Chaim Burstein, a former St. Petersburg refusenik who had studied in Litvish yeshivos in Israel. Despite Rabbi Krinsky living in Vilna and being involved with the community since 1994, the kehilla said they had a tradition of being misnagdim and preferred a rabbi who was a Litvak.
Fisticuffs broke out in the shul between pro-Krinsky and pro-Burshtein factions during Shavuot services in 2004. The fracas was covered extensively by the local and foreign media.
Burshtein was later roughed up by Krinsky supporters during tefillos in the shul. When Krinsky's hooliganism continued, he and his followers were barred from the synagogue. They countered by holding vigils in the courtyard for months while pouting to foreign journalists about their "victimization".
The ensuing embarrassment and seeing no end to the conflict caused the kehilla to close the synagogue for more than a year, while services were held in the kehilla building. The community took Krinsky to court, and an arrangement was finally reached where the rabbi had to retreat to his Chabad center. The shul reopened in August 2005, and morning and evening services have since been held daily - without Krinsky, who presides over his own services in a first-floor room at the Chabad center.
The ban against Rav Krinsky entering the main shul means that he cannot enter the shul to recite Kaddish for his mother who passed away a few days ago. His own synagogue doesn't have a regular minyan of worshippers. Krinsky grumbled, "The doors are closed, and the guards know me and won't let me enter. How can one say 'no' to a Jew who wants to say Kaddish for his mother?"
Rabbi Yosef Aharanov, the head of Israeli shlichim, was shocked. "Banning a Jew, kal v'chomer one who is a rav of a kehilla, is extremely serious. Such a thing is not done except under the most extreme circumstances."
Mr. Alperowitz, the community president, says, "Krinsky should blame himself that he doesn't have a minyan. He distanced people from himself."
Both Krinsky and Alperowitz accuse each other of violence, and being motivated by the long-awaited restitution of Jewish communal property, which in Lithuania eventually will include at least 200 buildings and an estimated $60 million in compensation for property that cannot be returned.
Local observers claim that Krinsky's attempt to grab control of the Vilna kehilla follows a Chabad pattern to usurp power from local rabbis elsewhere in Eastern Europe which in recent years occurred in Kiev, Prague, Russia and Germany.
Lita has today about 4,500 Jews, most of them living in Vilna.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Shomrei Habrith reborn as Chabad Center
By Carol Balinski
Religion Editor
2/7/2009
- Faced with dwindling membership and financial challenges, Congregation Shomrei Habrith, Berks County's only Orthodox Jewish synagogue, has been transformed into Chabad Lubavitch of Berks County.
Chabad Lubavitch is a Jewish outreach organization that is known worldwide. The Brooklyn-based movement sends emissaries to Jewish communities large and small around the world as a means of strengthening Jewish identity
Rabbi Yosef Lipsker, who has been the congregation's rabbi since 1997, will stay on as Chabad rabbi.
Lipsker said Shomrei Habrith's declining membership made the synagogue's continued operation at 2310 Hampden Blvd. no longer viable. The congregation voted unanimously in November to make the change.
In describing what the change means, Lipsker said Shomrei Habrith was membership based, while Chabad Lubavitch has an open-door policy. No dues will be collected, as was the policy under Shomrei Habrith, but donations will be welcomed and there will be some fundraising. Lipsker hopes to reach out to attract people from all walks of Jewish life and those who want to learn more about Jewish tradition.
"I think people (in the congregation) are happy," Lipsker said. "They felt it was a blessing."
The Chabad Center will continue to offer services Friday nights at 5:30 and Saturday mornings at 9:30. Lipsker said the Chabad services use a prayer book that is slightly different than the Orthodox congregation had been using.
Lipsker said members of the congregation did not want to sell the building and decided to lease it to Chabad Lubavitch, with an option to buy it. The lease, finalized in December, stipulates that the organization provide funds for upkeep of the congregation's cemetery in Cumru Township.
Before coming to Reading, Lipsker worked for Chabad in Connecticut, England and Florida establishing youth clubs, adult education classes and running a boys high school.
He said some events will be held in sites away from the Chabad Center to reinforce the message of inclusiveness.
Lipsker said he views the Chabad Center's activities as a supplement to the work of other Jewish institutions in the area. He said he has good relationships with the Conservative and Reform rabbis in the community
"We (Chabad centers) are very traditional, but we're known as welcoming," he said.
Paul Safir, a longtime member who served on the board for Shomrei Habrith, said, "As long as the services are conducted the same way, it should remain the same as far as the religious end of it goes."
Regarding Chabad Lubavitch, Safir termed it a fine thing which does excellent work to help people.
Safir said the congregation lives on even though it no longer has its own building.
• Contact Religion Editor Carol Balinski at 610-371-5007 or cbalinski@readingeagle.com.
Religion Editor
2/7/2009
- Faced with dwindling membership and financial challenges, Congregation Shomrei Habrith, Berks County's only Orthodox Jewish synagogue, has been transformed into Chabad Lubavitch of Berks County.
Chabad Lubavitch is a Jewish outreach organization that is known worldwide. The Brooklyn-based movement sends emissaries to Jewish communities large and small around the world as a means of strengthening Jewish identity
Rabbi Yosef Lipsker, who has been the congregation's rabbi since 1997, will stay on as Chabad rabbi.
Lipsker said Shomrei Habrith's declining membership made the synagogue's continued operation at 2310 Hampden Blvd. no longer viable. The congregation voted unanimously in November to make the change.
In describing what the change means, Lipsker said Shomrei Habrith was membership based, while Chabad Lubavitch has an open-door policy. No dues will be collected, as was the policy under Shomrei Habrith, but donations will be welcomed and there will be some fundraising. Lipsker hopes to reach out to attract people from all walks of Jewish life and those who want to learn more about Jewish tradition.
"I think people (in the congregation) are happy," Lipsker said. "They felt it was a blessing."
The Chabad Center will continue to offer services Friday nights at 5:30 and Saturday mornings at 9:30. Lipsker said the Chabad services use a prayer book that is slightly different than the Orthodox congregation had been using.
Lipsker said members of the congregation did not want to sell the building and decided to lease it to Chabad Lubavitch, with an option to buy it. The lease, finalized in December, stipulates that the organization provide funds for upkeep of the congregation's cemetery in Cumru Township.
Before coming to Reading, Lipsker worked for Chabad in Connecticut, England and Florida establishing youth clubs, adult education classes and running a boys high school.
He said some events will be held in sites away from the Chabad Center to reinforce the message of inclusiveness.
Lipsker said he views the Chabad Center's activities as a supplement to the work of other Jewish institutions in the area. He said he has good relationships with the Conservative and Reform rabbis in the community
"We (Chabad centers) are very traditional, but we're known as welcoming," he said.
Paul Safir, a longtime member who served on the board for Shomrei Habrith, said, "As long as the services are conducted the same way, it should remain the same as far as the religious end of it goes."
Regarding Chabad Lubavitch, Safir termed it a fine thing which does excellent work to help people.
Safir said the congregation lives on even though it no longer has its own building.
• Contact Religion Editor Carol Balinski at 610-371-5007 or cbalinski@readingeagle.com.
Chabad Center welcome addition
The Chabad movement is a great addition to Berks County ("Shomrei Habrith reborn as Chabad Center," Reading Eagle, Feb. 7).
Having lived throughout the United States, I have had the great pleasure of meeting many Chabad emissaries. The one quality they all share is that they are selfless in their giving to accommodate a passing traveler or a member of the community.
Although it is an Orthodox Jewish movement, it accepts all without passing judgment. Rabbi Yosef Lipsker has been a welcomed part of this community since 1997 and has many supporters and fans. I am hopeful that the community helps in making the Chabad Center of Berks County flourish. I offer my support.
Alan Tootman
Alsace Township
Having lived throughout the United States, I have had the great pleasure of meeting many Chabad emissaries. The one quality they all share is that they are selfless in their giving to accommodate a passing traveler or a member of the community.
Although it is an Orthodox Jewish movement, it accepts all without passing judgment. Rabbi Yosef Lipsker has been a welcomed part of this community since 1997 and has many supporters and fans. I am hopeful that the community helps in making the Chabad Center of Berks County flourish. I offer my support.
Alan Tootman
Alsace Township
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Chabad La Costa plans new synagogue
Big changes are under way at the Chabad La Costa synagogue.
Last March, after years of renting the site, the Orthodox Jewish congregation purchased its half-acre parcel and building at 1980 La Costa Ave. Plans are now in the works to tear down the 1,600-square-foot structure and replace it with a worship center to better serve the congregation's needs.
Unlike the original structure, which is more than 40 years old, said Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort, the future building will be larger, wired for technology, and built "green," with the environment in mind. He said the plan represents "a new era" in the synagogue's growth and development.
If La Costa Chabad gets its "dream building," said Eilfort, the project will probably cost about $3 million and take at least two years to complete. A few hundred thousand dollars have been pledged, said Eilfort, who believes that contributions and fundraisers will help the dream become a reality.
"I am confident that when the time comes, the money will come," he said, "and that God will bless us."
The future synagogue "will offer a warm and inviting Old World-style atmosphere," Eilfort said, as well as meeting modern technology needs such as providing Internet access. The ideal new building would allow the synagogue to double the size of its sanctuary, add several classrooms for its Hebrew school and adult education program, and offer a larger social hall and kitchen for special events.
He said he would also like the new building to take advantage of the area's spectacular views, with the Bataquitos Lagoon to the west and the La Costa Resort golf course and rolling hills to the east.
Members of Chabad La Costa, founded in 1990, originally met in the home of Eilfort and his wife, Nechama. The couple, who now have eight children, moved to Carlsbad from Orange County, where Eilfort was director of education of Chabad of Irvine. As membership at the Carlsbad synagogue grew, he said, it became necessary to find a larger space to worship.
In 1991, the congregation settled in its current building, once owned by the nearby La Costa Resort & Spa. The land and nearby property, where an Albertsons grocery store and other businesses now stand, was later sold to a Newport Beach developer. The synagogue purchased its half-acre and building for $300,000, a transaction delayed until after the shopping center was completed.
"It was a long time coming," said Eilfort, "but it taught us patience." Money was raised through pledged donations and "with help from the Almighty," he said.
An architect and final plan for the future synagogue have not been selected, said Eilfort, but he has received help from congregation members who have construction, architectural and decorating experience. They are volunteering their time and materials to help bring the concept to life.
Non-members throughout the community could also play a role in the building's construction. Over the years, said Eilfort, "we've had tremendous community support. People like to see that a positive organization such as ours is here, and I think they know we try to help people outside of the Jewish religion as well."
General contractor and congregation member Mike Perez, who owns High Point Builders in San Marcos, has helped Eilfort with numerous projects at the site. He recently consulted with architect Russell Tsuchida of La Mesa, who provided a preliminary rendering of what the synagogue might look like.
"I'd like to be involved with this future facility from the ground up, if I'm asked," said Perez, whose parents, Elias and Rachel, were two of the synagogue's founding members.
Synagogue member Joel Barnett, owner of Light Bulbs Unlimited and Lighting Distinctions in Encinitas, has improved lighting at the building, which he said at one point was "falling apart." Barnett said he plans to be involved in designing lighting for the new building, which he said will be more energy-efficient and offer a warm, welcoming atmosphere for worshippers.
He said he enjoys giving to Chabad La Costa because "it is for such a good cause, and the people are so good to you. God has always been good to me. It's the least I can do."
Last March, after years of renting the site, the Orthodox Jewish congregation purchased its half-acre parcel and building at 1980 La Costa Ave. Plans are now in the works to tear down the 1,600-square-foot structure and replace it with a worship center to better serve the congregation's needs.
Unlike the original structure, which is more than 40 years old, said Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort, the future building will be larger, wired for technology, and built "green," with the environment in mind. He said the plan represents "a new era" in the synagogue's growth and development.
If La Costa Chabad gets its "dream building," said Eilfort, the project will probably cost about $3 million and take at least two years to complete. A few hundred thousand dollars have been pledged, said Eilfort, who believes that contributions and fundraisers will help the dream become a reality.
"I am confident that when the time comes, the money will come," he said, "and that God will bless us."
The future synagogue "will offer a warm and inviting Old World-style atmosphere," Eilfort said, as well as meeting modern technology needs such as providing Internet access. The ideal new building would allow the synagogue to double the size of its sanctuary, add several classrooms for its Hebrew school and adult education program, and offer a larger social hall and kitchen for special events.
He said he would also like the new building to take advantage of the area's spectacular views, with the Bataquitos Lagoon to the west and the La Costa Resort golf course and rolling hills to the east.
Members of Chabad La Costa, founded in 1990, originally met in the home of Eilfort and his wife, Nechama. The couple, who now have eight children, moved to Carlsbad from Orange County, where Eilfort was director of education of Chabad of Irvine. As membership at the Carlsbad synagogue grew, he said, it became necessary to find a larger space to worship.
In 1991, the congregation settled in its current building, once owned by the nearby La Costa Resort & Spa. The land and nearby property, where an Albertsons grocery store and other businesses now stand, was later sold to a Newport Beach developer. The synagogue purchased its half-acre and building for $300,000, a transaction delayed until after the shopping center was completed.
"It was a long time coming," said Eilfort, "but it taught us patience." Money was raised through pledged donations and "with help from the Almighty," he said.
An architect and final plan for the future synagogue have not been selected, said Eilfort, but he has received help from congregation members who have construction, architectural and decorating experience. They are volunteering their time and materials to help bring the concept to life.
Non-members throughout the community could also play a role in the building's construction. Over the years, said Eilfort, "we've had tremendous community support. People like to see that a positive organization such as ours is here, and I think they know we try to help people outside of the Jewish religion as well."
General contractor and congregation member Mike Perez, who owns High Point Builders in San Marcos, has helped Eilfort with numerous projects at the site. He recently consulted with architect Russell Tsuchida of La Mesa, who provided a preliminary rendering of what the synagogue might look like.
"I'd like to be involved with this future facility from the ground up, if I'm asked," said Perez, whose parents, Elias and Rachel, were two of the synagogue's founding members.
Synagogue member Joel Barnett, owner of Light Bulbs Unlimited and Lighting Distinctions in Encinitas, has improved lighting at the building, which he said at one point was "falling apart." Barnett said he plans to be involved in designing lighting for the new building, which he said will be more energy-efficient and offer a warm, welcoming atmosphere for worshippers.
He said he enjoys giving to Chabad La Costa because "it is for such a good cause, and the people are so good to you. God has always been good to me. It's the least I can do."
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Police seek leads in hate crimes
By LORRAINE SWANSON
Editor
$20,000 reward offered for arrests in vandalism of synagogues and schools
At a Martin Luther King Day press conference, the Anti-Defamation League of Chicago and the Jewish Federation announced a $20,000 reward for information leading to arrests in hate crimes in West Ridge and Lake View. Standing with representatives from the Chicago police and the Commission on Human Relations at the commission's office at 740 N. Sedgewick, local Jewish leaders offered the reward for leads in the throwing of a Molotov cocktail at Temple Sholom in Lake View last month and spray-painting and brick throwing this month at two synagogues and two high schools in West Ridge.
On Dec. 29, a witness reported seeing someone throwing a Molotov cocktail from a car and shouting an ethnic slur at a passerby at Temple Sholom at 3840 N. Lake Shore Dr. around 2 a.m., according to a Chicago Police Department spokesman.
Shortly after midnight on Jan. 10, 24th District police discovered the words "Death to Israel" spray-painted on a sign in front of Hanna Sachs Bais Yaakov High School, an Orthodox girls' school at 3201 W. Devon.
Three more acts of vandalism and anti-Israel graffiti were also reported that same morning at Anshe Motele Congregation at 6520 N. California, Lubavitch Boys High School at 2756 W. Morse, and the Congregation of Young Israel of West Rogers Park, at 2706 W. Touhy.
Orange spray paint was used in each incident where anti-Israel graffiti was reported. All instances are being investigated as hate crimes by the Chicago Police Department's Area 3 detective division's hate crime unit at Belmont and Western.
At Lubavitch and Young Israel, bricks were thrown through the glass doors and windows. The incidents all occurred in West Ridge, where many of the neighborhood's Orthodox Jews reside.
The Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation in suburban Lincolnwood just outside the Chicago city limits also reported its glass windows and doors shattered by two men in ski masks early Saturday morning.
Jenna Benn, assistant director of the Anti-Defamation League of Chicago, said the five incidents may be related to increased tensions in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. She reported a similar trend in assaults against Jews and sacred places of worship in 2006 during Israel's war with Lebanon.
"Assaults against Jews and communities locally and worldwide are on the rise," Benn said. "In Europe, Jews have been threatened and beaten on the streets and synagogues have been fire-bombed."
Benn denounced the hate crimes, adding that "the intention of the reward fund is to provide law enforcement with the necessary leads to bring the perpetrators to justice in the five incidents that appear to be linked."
Area 3 Deputy Chief of Patrol Bruce Rottner said Chicago police are working with the FBI to investigate and monitor the incidents that occurred in the 24th Police District that covers Rogers Park and part of Edgewater.
"We're re-canvassing all these areas in Rogers Park where these crimes occurred," Rottner said. "We know there is someone out there who saw something or heard something who hasn't come forward yet."
Police still haven't determined if the Temple Sholom incident is related to the defacement of synagogues and schools in West Ridge.
"All are being investigated together by the detective division and our hate crime unit," Rottner added. "We're leaving no stone unturned."
Rottner would not comment on surveillance video that was said to capture one of the West Ridge incidents or the number of individuals that police are seeking to question about the crimes. According to 24th district police reports, a security camera at Lubavitch High School revealed three males - two wearing ski masks and a third acting as a lookout - throwing an object at the school's door.
"There was surveillance video. I'm not going to comment any further," the deputy chief said. "We're looking for several people. [The video] captures part of the incident taking place."
Benn said that the Anti-Defamation League's special investigator who monitors anti-Semitic incidents locally and internationally has been in constant touch with Area 3's hate crime unit. Until Monday, she was unaware that more than one person may be involved in defacing the West Ridge synagogues and schools.
Since the Jan. 10 vandalism, Jewish synagogues, schools and other institutions in Rogers Park have been placed on a special watch.
Meanwhile, Chicago police and the FBI will continue to work with the public to generate intelligence and alleviate fears and tension in both neighborhoods.
"We have strategies in place that I obviously can't share," he said. "Interestingly enough in two of [the West Ridge] incidents, two were discovered by police. We were proactive."
Editor
$20,000 reward offered for arrests in vandalism of synagogues and schools
At a Martin Luther King Day press conference, the Anti-Defamation League of Chicago and the Jewish Federation announced a $20,000 reward for information leading to arrests in hate crimes in West Ridge and Lake View. Standing with representatives from the Chicago police and the Commission on Human Relations at the commission's office at 740 N. Sedgewick, local Jewish leaders offered the reward for leads in the throwing of a Molotov cocktail at Temple Sholom in Lake View last month and spray-painting and brick throwing this month at two synagogues and two high schools in West Ridge.
On Dec. 29, a witness reported seeing someone throwing a Molotov cocktail from a car and shouting an ethnic slur at a passerby at Temple Sholom at 3840 N. Lake Shore Dr. around 2 a.m., according to a Chicago Police Department spokesman.
Shortly after midnight on Jan. 10, 24th District police discovered the words "Death to Israel" spray-painted on a sign in front of Hanna Sachs Bais Yaakov High School, an Orthodox girls' school at 3201 W. Devon.
Three more acts of vandalism and anti-Israel graffiti were also reported that same morning at Anshe Motele Congregation at 6520 N. California, Lubavitch Boys High School at 2756 W. Morse, and the Congregation of Young Israel of West Rogers Park, at 2706 W. Touhy.
Orange spray paint was used in each incident where anti-Israel graffiti was reported. All instances are being investigated as hate crimes by the Chicago Police Department's Area 3 detective division's hate crime unit at Belmont and Western.
At Lubavitch and Young Israel, bricks were thrown through the glass doors and windows. The incidents all occurred in West Ridge, where many of the neighborhood's Orthodox Jews reside.
The Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation in suburban Lincolnwood just outside the Chicago city limits also reported its glass windows and doors shattered by two men in ski masks early Saturday morning.
Jenna Benn, assistant director of the Anti-Defamation League of Chicago, said the five incidents may be related to increased tensions in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. She reported a similar trend in assaults against Jews and sacred places of worship in 2006 during Israel's war with Lebanon.
"Assaults against Jews and communities locally and worldwide are on the rise," Benn said. "In Europe, Jews have been threatened and beaten on the streets and synagogues have been fire-bombed."
Benn denounced the hate crimes, adding that "the intention of the reward fund is to provide law enforcement with the necessary leads to bring the perpetrators to justice in the five incidents that appear to be linked."
Area 3 Deputy Chief of Patrol Bruce Rottner said Chicago police are working with the FBI to investigate and monitor the incidents that occurred in the 24th Police District that covers Rogers Park and part of Edgewater.
"We're re-canvassing all these areas in Rogers Park where these crimes occurred," Rottner said. "We know there is someone out there who saw something or heard something who hasn't come forward yet."
Police still haven't determined if the Temple Sholom incident is related to the defacement of synagogues and schools in West Ridge.
"All are being investigated together by the detective division and our hate crime unit," Rottner added. "We're leaving no stone unturned."
Rottner would not comment on surveillance video that was said to capture one of the West Ridge incidents or the number of individuals that police are seeking to question about the crimes. According to 24th district police reports, a security camera at Lubavitch High School revealed three males - two wearing ski masks and a third acting as a lookout - throwing an object at the school's door.
"There was surveillance video. I'm not going to comment any further," the deputy chief said. "We're looking for several people. [The video] captures part of the incident taking place."
Benn said that the Anti-Defamation League's special investigator who monitors anti-Semitic incidents locally and internationally has been in constant touch with Area 3's hate crime unit. Until Monday, she was unaware that more than one person may be involved in defacing the West Ridge synagogues and schools.
Since the Jan. 10 vandalism, Jewish synagogues, schools and other institutions in Rogers Park have been placed on a special watch.
Meanwhile, Chicago police and the FBI will continue to work with the public to generate intelligence and alleviate fears and tension in both neighborhoods.
"We have strategies in place that I obviously can't share," he said. "Interestingly enough in two of [the West Ridge] incidents, two were discovered by police. We were proactive."
Arson damages Paris kosher warehouse
January 25, 2009
PARIS (JTA)
A major kosher food warehouse in Paris was badly damaged in an arson attack.
Molotov cocktails were found after Friday night's attack near the warehouse, which provides kosher meat and other products for much of the Paris region.
A video camera showed one person firebombing a car parked in front of the shop in the eastern Paris suburb of Montreuil Sous Bois. Police said the flames from the vehicle could have spread to the warehouse.
While police say it is too early to conclude a motive for the attack, the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism said in a statement Sunday that it has "no doubt" the attack was anti-Semitic. The group noted that the store was clearly marked with religious symbols on its exterior.
A sharp rise in anti-Jewish crime has plagued France since the start of Israel's operation in Gaza. French government officials and Jewish institutions believe recent massive, flag-burning anti-Israel protests have incited some to attack Jewish individuals and institutions. During several marches, police have stopped some protesters who tried heading toward the nearest synagogue.
Despite the Israel-Hamas cease-fire, French pro-Palestinian organizations are still calling for sanctions against Israel and marching to demand Israel be tried for war crimes. Nearly 10,000 people, including leaders of the far-left Communist and Green political parties, participated Saturday in such a march in Paris, according to police and the French press agency AFP. The march did not end in riots, as has happened in recent weeks.
In another incident, the the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism reported that a father and son were spit on and threatened Saturday as they left a synagogue that was firebombed Jan. 11 in the northern Paris suburb Saint-Denis.
According to the bureau, the Chabad-Lubavitch father and son were called "dirty Jews," were told they would be killed and had beer bottles thrown at them by four men of North and sub-Sahara African origin.
PARIS (JTA)
A major kosher food warehouse in Paris was badly damaged in an arson attack.
Molotov cocktails were found after Friday night's attack near the warehouse, which provides kosher meat and other products for much of the Paris region.
A video camera showed one person firebombing a car parked in front of the shop in the eastern Paris suburb of Montreuil Sous Bois. Police said the flames from the vehicle could have spread to the warehouse.
While police say it is too early to conclude a motive for the attack, the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism said in a statement Sunday that it has "no doubt" the attack was anti-Semitic. The group noted that the store was clearly marked with religious symbols on its exterior.
A sharp rise in anti-Jewish crime has plagued France since the start of Israel's operation in Gaza. French government officials and Jewish institutions believe recent massive, flag-burning anti-Israel protests have incited some to attack Jewish individuals and institutions. During several marches, police have stopped some protesters who tried heading toward the nearest synagogue.
Despite the Israel-Hamas cease-fire, French pro-Palestinian organizations are still calling for sanctions against Israel and marching to demand Israel be tried for war crimes. Nearly 10,000 people, including leaders of the far-left Communist and Green political parties, participated Saturday in such a march in Paris, according to police and the French press agency AFP. The march did not end in riots, as has happened in recent weeks.
In another incident, the the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism reported that a father and son were spit on and threatened Saturday as they left a synagogue that was firebombed Jan. 11 in the northern Paris suburb Saint-Denis.
According to the bureau, the Chabad-Lubavitch father and son were called "dirty Jews," were told they would be killed and had beer bottles thrown at them by four men of North and sub-Sahara African origin.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Paris area synagogue hit in firebomb attack
SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Two Molotov cocktails were hurled at a synagogue north of Paris, the latest attack in what France's interior minister said Monday is a new wave of anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim attacks over the violence in Gaza. No injuries were reported.
President Nicolas Sarkozy met with religious leaders and reiterated the need to avoid "transposing" onto French soil a foreign conflict the country has been working to ease, his office said.
Firebombs broke a window and charred the walls of a pizzeria on the ground floor at Chabad House Ohr Manahem, in the town of Saint-Denis, said Isroeil Belinow, the synagogue's assistant rabbi. Belinow said police found 15 other unignited firebombs nearby.
Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said France has faced a "very clear increase" in anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim attacks since Israel started an offensive against the militant group Hamas in Gaza on Dec. 27.
"We must do everything to stop the importation into our country of the situation that's taking place in the Middle East," Alliot-Marie told RTL Radio.
She declined to provide specific figures on the increase, though insisted police have been instructed to protect religious sites and places of worship.
France has Western Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim populations, and Middle East tensions have in the past spilled over into vandalism or other incidents.
In the Chabad House attack, prayers had just finished and the rabbi was getting ready to go home Sunday night when he heard an explosion, Belinow said. Neighbors saw flames and called police.
President Nicolas Sarkozy met with religious leaders and reiterated the need to avoid "transposing" onto French soil a foreign conflict the country has been working to ease, his office said.
Firebombs broke a window and charred the walls of a pizzeria on the ground floor at Chabad House Ohr Manahem, in the town of Saint-Denis, said Isroeil Belinow, the synagogue's assistant rabbi. Belinow said police found 15 other unignited firebombs nearby.
Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said France has faced a "very clear increase" in anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim attacks since Israel started an offensive against the militant group Hamas in Gaza on Dec. 27.
"We must do everything to stop the importation into our country of the situation that's taking place in the Middle East," Alliot-Marie told RTL Radio.
She declined to provide specific figures on the increase, though insisted police have been instructed to protect religious sites and places of worship.
France has Western Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim populations, and Middle East tensions have in the past spilled over into vandalism or other incidents.
In the Chabad House attack, prayers had just finished and the rabbi was getting ready to go home Sunday night when he heard an explosion, Belinow said. Neighbors saw flames and called police.
Chicago synagogues hit by hate crime spree
Vandals struck four Chicago-area synagogues early Saturday morning, shattering glass doors and windows with bricks and rocks and spray-painting anti-Israel graffiti.
The caretakers at Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation in the normally quiet village of Lincolnwood just outside Chicago woke up to the sound of shattering glass and saw two adults running through the synagogue's parking lot in ski masks. Four bricks were thrown through the building's front doors, but the vandals were unable to gain entry.
"Death to Israel Free Palestine," was the message left behind on the walls in bright orange spray paint.
Similar incidents occurred around the same time not far away at three synagogues and schools in Chicago's West Rogers Park, a neighborhood dominated by Orthodox Jews. Two windows were shattered at Young Israel of West Rogers Park, "Death to Israel" was spray-painted on the wall of Congregation Anshe Motele and rocks broke a glass window at the Lubavitch Mesivta school.
Lubavitch Mesivta's Rabbi Moshe Perlstein told the Chicago Sun-Times that cameras captured video of the men damaging his school at around 4:40 a.m. The footage shows one man spray-painting the side of the building while the other ran around to the front and threw rocks at the front door, breaking a glass window, he said. The video has been turned over to police.
Lincolnwood and Chicago police and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force will check whether there was a connection between Saturday's incidents and the December 29 throwing of a Molotov cocktail into Temple Sholom, one of Chicago's oldest and most ornate synagogues, in the Lakeview neighborhood.
The city's Ida Crown Jewish Academy high school received a mailed bomb threat two weeks ago that warned of attacks at other Chicago-area Jewish institutions, including day schools.
A pro-Israel rally was held at Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation on Sunday afternoon to respond to the spate of hate crimes and support Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip. The synagogue's rabbi, Joel Lehrfield, called the perpetrators of the hate crime "cowardly thugs who support Hamas."
"We're more worried about Israel than we are about ourselves," Lehrfield said.
Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago executive vice president Michael Kotzin said it was ironic that he was on a solidarity mission in southern Israel when he heard about the attacks back home.
"I wouldn't say that we're in the front lines in Chicago like here, but there are people who are hostile to and hate Jews here and there, and we have to address it," Kotzin said. "It's important that law enforcement takes it seriously. But we won't be frightened or intimidated, just like the people of Israel. Their behavior strengthens us."
The caretakers at Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation in the normally quiet village of Lincolnwood just outside Chicago woke up to the sound of shattering glass and saw two adults running through the synagogue's parking lot in ski masks. Four bricks were thrown through the building's front doors, but the vandals were unable to gain entry.
"Death to Israel Free Palestine," was the message left behind on the walls in bright orange spray paint.
Similar incidents occurred around the same time not far away at three synagogues and schools in Chicago's West Rogers Park, a neighborhood dominated by Orthodox Jews. Two windows were shattered at Young Israel of West Rogers Park, "Death to Israel" was spray-painted on the wall of Congregation Anshe Motele and rocks broke a glass window at the Lubavitch Mesivta school.
Lubavitch Mesivta's Rabbi Moshe Perlstein told the Chicago Sun-Times that cameras captured video of the men damaging his school at around 4:40 a.m. The footage shows one man spray-painting the side of the building while the other ran around to the front and threw rocks at the front door, breaking a glass window, he said. The video has been turned over to police.
Lincolnwood and Chicago police and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force will check whether there was a connection between Saturday's incidents and the December 29 throwing of a Molotov cocktail into Temple Sholom, one of Chicago's oldest and most ornate synagogues, in the Lakeview neighborhood.
The city's Ida Crown Jewish Academy high school received a mailed bomb threat two weeks ago that warned of attacks at other Chicago-area Jewish institutions, including day schools.
A pro-Israel rally was held at Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation on Sunday afternoon to respond to the spate of hate crimes and support Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip. The synagogue's rabbi, Joel Lehrfield, called the perpetrators of the hate crime "cowardly thugs who support Hamas."
"We're more worried about Israel than we are about ourselves," Lehrfield said.
Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago executive vice president Michael Kotzin said it was ironic that he was on a solidarity mission in southern Israel when he heard about the attacks back home.
"I wouldn't say that we're in the front lines in Chicago like here, but there are people who are hostile to and hate Jews here and there, and we have to address it," Kotzin said. "It's important that law enforcement takes it seriously. But we won't be frightened or intimidated, just like the people of Israel. Their behavior strengthens us."
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Chabad Richmond Hill opens new building
TORONTO — After 11 years in temporary quarters, Chabad Lubavitch of Richmond Hill is gearing up for an inaugural banquet Jan. 15 and an open house three days later, featuring food, crafts, music and dancing at its new 10,000-square-foot building.
Chabad Lubavitch of Richmond Hill’s new building, the Chabad Romano Centre, features windows in the shape of a menorah. [Frances Kraft photo]
The open house will run from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 18.
The Chabad Romano Centre is located at 10,500 Bathurst St.on a 2.5-acre tract of land south of Teston Road.
Land developer Mario Romano, who is also contributing to the cost of the synagogue, donated the land to Chabad. In a 2006 article, Romano told The CJN that when he was growing up in Buenos Aires, most of his neighbourhood friends were Jewish, and that he wanted to “have respect for” the Jewish community in the area of the new centre.
The building’s sanctuary, featuring a dark-stained ark and windows forming the shape of a menorah, can seat “300 comfortably,” according to Rabbi Mendel Bernstein, spiritual leader of the congregation.
At 10,000 square feet, the $3 million building is more than triple the size of the 3,000-square-foot space Chabad occupied in rented premises diagonally across the road, at the northeast corner of Bathurst Street and Elgin Mills Road, for the past half-dozen years.
Rabbi Bernstein said that there is enough land to more than double the current size of the new synagogue, but that finances did not permit a larger building right now. “This is phase one,” he said.
“It’s absolutely a dream come true. A real shul is something we’ve looked forward to from the day we moved here,” said Rabbi Bernstein in an interview in a basement classroom of the the new centre Dec. 22, as construction continued upstairs.
Sitting in the as yet unfurnished classroom, its floor covered with fine dust from the ongoing work, the rabbi recalled that after he and his wife Toby first moved to Richmond Hill in 1997, their basement served as the synagogue for almost five years.
The congregation’s growth is also reflected by the hiring two years ago of Rabbi Shlomo Vorovitch as program and youth director.
Rabbi Bernstein said the new shul’s four classrooms would serve Chabad’s preschool students and “hopefully also [part of] the Hebrew school.”
Almost 250 children from senior kindergarten through Grade 7 attend Chabad’s Hebrew school in Richmond Hill. Classes are currently held in rented public school premises.
The new building had its ground-breaking on June 15. Its lease expired at the end of December.
In the rented premises, a large preschool classroom doubled as the sanctuary, which served about 100 worshippers on an average Shabbat morning.
“We had to fold away our small shul after every Shabbos,” said the rabbi. “Everything had to be on wheels.”
Chabad Richmond Hill also holds twice-daily services, mornings and evenings.
For further information about the synagogue or its opening events, go to www.chabadrc.org., or call 905-770-7700. Tickets for the banquet cost $150 per person; the daytime event is free.
Chabad Lubavitch of Richmond Hill’s new building, the Chabad Romano Centre, features windows in the shape of a menorah. [Frances Kraft photo]
The open house will run from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 18.
The Chabad Romano Centre is located at 10,500 Bathurst St.on a 2.5-acre tract of land south of Teston Road.
Land developer Mario Romano, who is also contributing to the cost of the synagogue, donated the land to Chabad. In a 2006 article, Romano told The CJN that when he was growing up in Buenos Aires, most of his neighbourhood friends were Jewish, and that he wanted to “have respect for” the Jewish community in the area of the new centre.
The building’s sanctuary, featuring a dark-stained ark and windows forming the shape of a menorah, can seat “300 comfortably,” according to Rabbi Mendel Bernstein, spiritual leader of the congregation.
At 10,000 square feet, the $3 million building is more than triple the size of the 3,000-square-foot space Chabad occupied in rented premises diagonally across the road, at the northeast corner of Bathurst Street and Elgin Mills Road, for the past half-dozen years.
Rabbi Bernstein said that there is enough land to more than double the current size of the new synagogue, but that finances did not permit a larger building right now. “This is phase one,” he said.
“It’s absolutely a dream come true. A real shul is something we’ve looked forward to from the day we moved here,” said Rabbi Bernstein in an interview in a basement classroom of the the new centre Dec. 22, as construction continued upstairs.
Sitting in the as yet unfurnished classroom, its floor covered with fine dust from the ongoing work, the rabbi recalled that after he and his wife Toby first moved to Richmond Hill in 1997, their basement served as the synagogue for almost five years.
The congregation’s growth is also reflected by the hiring two years ago of Rabbi Shlomo Vorovitch as program and youth director.
Rabbi Bernstein said the new shul’s four classrooms would serve Chabad’s preschool students and “hopefully also [part of] the Hebrew school.”
Almost 250 children from senior kindergarten through Grade 7 attend Chabad’s Hebrew school in Richmond Hill. Classes are currently held in rented public school premises.
The new building had its ground-breaking on June 15. Its lease expired at the end of December.
In the rented premises, a large preschool classroom doubled as the sanctuary, which served about 100 worshippers on an average Shabbat morning.
“We had to fold away our small shul after every Shabbos,” said the rabbi. “Everything had to be on wheels.”
Chabad Richmond Hill also holds twice-daily services, mornings and evenings.
For further information about the synagogue or its opening events, go to www.chabadrc.org., or call 905-770-7700. Tickets for the banquet cost $150 per person; the daytime event is free.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Jewish life flourishes where Kazakh gulag once stood
KARAGANDA, Kazakhstan (JTA) -- Liza Luchanskiy was born to a poor, Yiddish-speaking family in Berdichev, the historic, heavily Jewish city deep in the Pale of Settlement. Lured by Soviet promises of equality, she became a communist true believer, working her way up to serve on a committee in Siberia that targeted so-called enemies of the revolution.
But her zeal wasn’t enough to save her or her similarly devoted husband, Josef.
They were swept up during the frenzy of Stalin’s Great Terror, from 1937 to 1939. Josef was shot by a firing squad in 1938, and Liza was exiled by cattle car to Karaganda.
Luchanskiy was sentenced to eight years in the vast network of forced-labor camps here, on the southern edge of Stalin’s fearsome gulag. Enduring extreme cold, hunger and exhaustion, which afflicted her health ever after, Luchanskiy never let go of her faith in communism, her grandson says.
“She never blamed the system, only Stalin,” says Vilen Molotov-Luchanskiy, an internist who today heads the Jewish Cultural Center in Karaganda.
As many as 1.2 million Soviet citizens -- spanning practically all the myriad ethnic groups nationwide -- were worked to death or near death in the 75 camps that comprised Karaganda. Among them were many Jews, including many rabbis.
“There is no separate story of Jews here in Stalin’s gulag,” offers Mikhail Kreichman, who teaches Jewish history and tradition in Astana. “Many, many other nations suffered in there.”
The heart of the Karaganda slave labor machine was the railroad hub of Karaganda city, in central Kazakhstan. Once the camps were closed and emptied, it became a virtual “city of ex-convicts.”
Visiting the city today, remnants of that era can be felt still in the collective psyche and in the identity of the Jews that remain, making the Karagandan community among the more unique in the Diaspora. It may be the least assimilated Jewish community in Kazakhstan, which has some 15,000 to 20,000 Jews, because so many of the Jews here are children or grandchildren of rabbis and other traditional Jews sent to the Karaganda labor camps.
The purges of the late 1930s injected large numbers of Jews to Kazakhstan. Before that, the few Jews here either were descendants of Russian Jewish soldiers who settled in the area in the 19th century or fragments of Silk Road Bukharan Jews.
Jewish life pulsates today in Karaganda, which has 1,500 registered Jews. Chabad-Lubavitch opened its second day school in Kazakhstan here. There is a rabbi in town. The community hosts an annual festival for Jewish youth that draws some 200 participants from around the region. Last Purim, some Jews from Karaganda took a four-hour bus ride to the Kazakh capital Astana to celebrate the holiday at a synagogue there.
But the Jews here are best known for the painful history of Karaganda. When local Jews travel to other ex-Soviet republics, the mere mention of their hometown -- now Kazakhstan’s third-largest city -- typically elicits the same reaction.
“ ‘Your family was in this camp?’ That’s what they know about Karaganda,” says Bela Kamenetskaya, the head of the local Hesed welfare office. “If they come here, they expect it to look like Auschwitz. They’re surprised to see we have streets, city squares and an airport.”
Jews here say they share a special bond with their Karaganda neighbors because they all suffered together.
“The pain that every family suffered unites us even today,” says David Bitsadze, a taxi driver.
Karaganda has a lone monument to its victims nestled within a modest park. Among the trees is a striking wooden memorial, part of it carved with a cross, an Islamic crescent and a Star of David. Another part reveals tormented faces covered in barbed wire. A marble slab reads, “This soil is soaked with blood, covered by bones of the dead.”
The gulag kicked into high gear after World War II, as Moscow exploited its bottomless slave labor to rebuild a ravaged country. The region was home to four special camps renowned for brutality, as highlighted in Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s landmark expose “The Gulag Archipelago.”
Stalin’s prisoners, convicted as “enemies of the people,” were shipped to the hinterlands, typically for eight to 10 years, to toil in mines, factories or farming. In Karaganda, they extracted coal and copper, with some agriculture. Most died of starvation, disease or the cold.
One camp here was designated for the Wives of Traitors of the Motherland, housing women and their children after the husbands were shot. Still others were deported here as “internal exiles,” restricted to living in certain villages.
In a rare sign of resistance, rebellions erupted in late 1952, and again shortly after Stalin’s death in 1953. The next year the camps were shuttered.
Free to go, those who had family waiting for them back home left. Those who didn’t stayed. In some cases their laid-off jailers lived nearby.
Meanwhile, with the camps abolished, Karaganda turned boomtown. The 1960s saw a new wave of Jews: young professionals or recent graduates either ordered to the Soviet empire’s outer reaches to fill a need, or seeking work opportunities in the “virgin soil” of Kazakhstan.
Jewish professors were instrumental in creating Karaganda’s medical school, which became one of the Soviet Union’s finest, says local Jewish activist Alexander Abramovich.
“They knew they wouldn’t be deported from here,” Abramovich says with a smile.
Today, little commemorates Karaganda’s notorious past beyond the sleepy village of Dolinka, the administrative center of the camp network, 30 miles southwest of the city.
On one side of the road to Dolinka is a former labor camp, recognizable by its watchtower -- conveniently it’s been converted into a prison for garden-variety criminals. On the other side is a village of yellow sandstone homes built exclusively for officers who ruled the gulag.
In Dolinka itself, abandoned barracks that once housed women are crumbling from age and neglect. The commander’s villa is inhabited, though, with two satellite dishes planted in the front yard. A memorial museum sees a trickle of somber visitors, many of whom have come to learn about the fate of loved ones.
Moscow continues to withhold many files, says museum director Marina Klyshnikova, perhaps because of sensitivity over the perpetrators.
“Some of them are still alive,” she says.
Molotov-Luchanskiy says his grandmother spoke daily about her earlier life until she died in 1980 at age 81. Speaking Yiddish, she would tell him tales of the camp and of his grandfather.
“She wanted me to know that life wasn’t so simple, or so easy,” Molotov-Luchanskiy says.
“Hers was actually a story of a happy woman," he adds. "In life she had a great purpose, a great love and great suffering. She thought it was everything an ordinary Jewish girl could want.”
But her zeal wasn’t enough to save her or her similarly devoted husband, Josef.
They were swept up during the frenzy of Stalin’s Great Terror, from 1937 to 1939. Josef was shot by a firing squad in 1938, and Liza was exiled by cattle car to Karaganda.
Luchanskiy was sentenced to eight years in the vast network of forced-labor camps here, on the southern edge of Stalin’s fearsome gulag. Enduring extreme cold, hunger and exhaustion, which afflicted her health ever after, Luchanskiy never let go of her faith in communism, her grandson says.
“She never blamed the system, only Stalin,” says Vilen Molotov-Luchanskiy, an internist who today heads the Jewish Cultural Center in Karaganda.
As many as 1.2 million Soviet citizens -- spanning practically all the myriad ethnic groups nationwide -- were worked to death or near death in the 75 camps that comprised Karaganda. Among them were many Jews, including many rabbis.
“There is no separate story of Jews here in Stalin’s gulag,” offers Mikhail Kreichman, who teaches Jewish history and tradition in Astana. “Many, many other nations suffered in there.”
The heart of the Karaganda slave labor machine was the railroad hub of Karaganda city, in central Kazakhstan. Once the camps were closed and emptied, it became a virtual “city of ex-convicts.”
Visiting the city today, remnants of that era can be felt still in the collective psyche and in the identity of the Jews that remain, making the Karagandan community among the more unique in the Diaspora. It may be the least assimilated Jewish community in Kazakhstan, which has some 15,000 to 20,000 Jews, because so many of the Jews here are children or grandchildren of rabbis and other traditional Jews sent to the Karaganda labor camps.
The purges of the late 1930s injected large numbers of Jews to Kazakhstan. Before that, the few Jews here either were descendants of Russian Jewish soldiers who settled in the area in the 19th century or fragments of Silk Road Bukharan Jews.
Jewish life pulsates today in Karaganda, which has 1,500 registered Jews. Chabad-Lubavitch opened its second day school in Kazakhstan here. There is a rabbi in town. The community hosts an annual festival for Jewish youth that draws some 200 participants from around the region. Last Purim, some Jews from Karaganda took a four-hour bus ride to the Kazakh capital Astana to celebrate the holiday at a synagogue there.
But the Jews here are best known for the painful history of Karaganda. When local Jews travel to other ex-Soviet republics, the mere mention of their hometown -- now Kazakhstan’s third-largest city -- typically elicits the same reaction.
“ ‘Your family was in this camp?’ That’s what they know about Karaganda,” says Bela Kamenetskaya, the head of the local Hesed welfare office. “If they come here, they expect it to look like Auschwitz. They’re surprised to see we have streets, city squares and an airport.”
Jews here say they share a special bond with their Karaganda neighbors because they all suffered together.
“The pain that every family suffered unites us even today,” says David Bitsadze, a taxi driver.
Karaganda has a lone monument to its victims nestled within a modest park. Among the trees is a striking wooden memorial, part of it carved with a cross, an Islamic crescent and a Star of David. Another part reveals tormented faces covered in barbed wire. A marble slab reads, “This soil is soaked with blood, covered by bones of the dead.”
The gulag kicked into high gear after World War II, as Moscow exploited its bottomless slave labor to rebuild a ravaged country. The region was home to four special camps renowned for brutality, as highlighted in Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s landmark expose “The Gulag Archipelago.”
Stalin’s prisoners, convicted as “enemies of the people,” were shipped to the hinterlands, typically for eight to 10 years, to toil in mines, factories or farming. In Karaganda, they extracted coal and copper, with some agriculture. Most died of starvation, disease or the cold.
One camp here was designated for the Wives of Traitors of the Motherland, housing women and their children after the husbands were shot. Still others were deported here as “internal exiles,” restricted to living in certain villages.
In a rare sign of resistance, rebellions erupted in late 1952, and again shortly after Stalin’s death in 1953. The next year the camps were shuttered.
Free to go, those who had family waiting for them back home left. Those who didn’t stayed. In some cases their laid-off jailers lived nearby.
Meanwhile, with the camps abolished, Karaganda turned boomtown. The 1960s saw a new wave of Jews: young professionals or recent graduates either ordered to the Soviet empire’s outer reaches to fill a need, or seeking work opportunities in the “virgin soil” of Kazakhstan.
Jewish professors were instrumental in creating Karaganda’s medical school, which became one of the Soviet Union’s finest, says local Jewish activist Alexander Abramovich.
“They knew they wouldn’t be deported from here,” Abramovich says with a smile.
Today, little commemorates Karaganda’s notorious past beyond the sleepy village of Dolinka, the administrative center of the camp network, 30 miles southwest of the city.
On one side of the road to Dolinka is a former labor camp, recognizable by its watchtower -- conveniently it’s been converted into a prison for garden-variety criminals. On the other side is a village of yellow sandstone homes built exclusively for officers who ruled the gulag.
In Dolinka itself, abandoned barracks that once housed women are crumbling from age and neglect. The commander’s villa is inhabited, though, with two satellite dishes planted in the front yard. A memorial museum sees a trickle of somber visitors, many of whom have come to learn about the fate of loved ones.
Moscow continues to withhold many files, says museum director Marina Klyshnikova, perhaps because of sensitivity over the perpetrators.
“Some of them are still alive,” she says.
Molotov-Luchanskiy says his grandmother spoke daily about her earlier life until she died in 1980 at age 81. Speaking Yiddish, she would tell him tales of the camp and of his grandfather.
“She wanted me to know that life wasn’t so simple, or so easy,” Molotov-Luchanskiy says.
“Hers was actually a story of a happy woman," he adds. "In life she had a great purpose, a great love and great suffering. She thought it was everything an ordinary Jewish girl could want.”
Monday, December 22, 2008
Mumbai attack victims remembered on Long Island
Mumbai attack victims remembered on Long Island
BY LAURA RIVERA
December 22, 2008
Reb Nachman Holtzberg said he knows no words to express his grief at the violent death of his son.
Yet, at a West Hempstead memorial yesterday for the victims of the Mumbai terror attacks, Holtzberg found a way to urge others to continue the work of his slain son, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg.
Among the six Jews killed in the attacks last month, Holtzberg, 29, and his wife, Rivka, 28, died in the Chabad center they had operated since 2003. Inside, officials recovered a damaged Torah. According to an Israeli news report, the scroll had a bullet hole in a Leviticus chapter, which narrates divine instructions to Aaron after his sons' death.
It is a position Holtzberg now finds himself in - and, he said, he knows what he must do.
More than 200 people packed a hall inside Young Israel of West Hempstead on Hempstead Avenue to hear Holtzberg's message in his first public appearance since his son's burial in Israel.
Following a video of the events and the groundswell of public outcry that followed, Holtzberg called on the audience to strengthen the Jewish presence in Mumbai by building a bigger Chabad center there.
"We will have a bigger building and everybody who has an interest [in Judaism] in India will have a place to stay," Holtzberg said, his voice rising.
"You don't need to fight against darkness," he said. "A little light spreads."
In a spirit of solidarity with victims and their families, Rabbi Yossi Lieberman, director of Chabad of West Hempstead, asked those gathered to attend a public menorah lighting for Hanukkah.
It is scheduled for 7 p.m. today in West Hempstead at Hall's Pond Park, at Nassau Boulevard and Hempstead Avenue.
Beyond that act, said Rabbi Tuvia Teldon, director of Chabad Lubavitch of Long Island, the faithful should commit to do good acts. "This is the power of every single one of us," said Teldon, regional director of Chabad of Long Island. "To make sure we add to the world more than just the light."
Copyright © 2008, Newsday Inc.
BY LAURA RIVERA
December 22, 2008
Reb Nachman Holtzberg said he knows no words to express his grief at the violent death of his son.
Yet, at a West Hempstead memorial yesterday for the victims of the Mumbai terror attacks, Holtzberg found a way to urge others to continue the work of his slain son, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg.
Among the six Jews killed in the attacks last month, Holtzberg, 29, and his wife, Rivka, 28, died in the Chabad center they had operated since 2003. Inside, officials recovered a damaged Torah. According to an Israeli news report, the scroll had a bullet hole in a Leviticus chapter, which narrates divine instructions to Aaron after his sons' death.
It is a position Holtzberg now finds himself in - and, he said, he knows what he must do.
More than 200 people packed a hall inside Young Israel of West Hempstead on Hempstead Avenue to hear Holtzberg's message in his first public appearance since his son's burial in Israel.
Following a video of the events and the groundswell of public outcry that followed, Holtzberg called on the audience to strengthen the Jewish presence in Mumbai by building a bigger Chabad center there.
"We will have a bigger building and everybody who has an interest [in Judaism] in India will have a place to stay," Holtzberg said, his voice rising.
"You don't need to fight against darkness," he said. "A little light spreads."
In a spirit of solidarity with victims and their families, Rabbi Yossi Lieberman, director of Chabad of West Hempstead, asked those gathered to attend a public menorah lighting for Hanukkah.
It is scheduled for 7 p.m. today in West Hempstead at Hall's Pond Park, at Nassau Boulevard and Hempstead Avenue.
Beyond that act, said Rabbi Tuvia Teldon, director of Chabad Lubavitch of Long Island, the faithful should commit to do good acts. "This is the power of every single one of us," said Teldon, regional director of Chabad of Long Island. "To make sure we add to the world more than just the light."
Copyright © 2008, Newsday Inc.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Deliberations Begin on Chabad
By Fay Abrahamsson, Courier Senior Staff Writer:
If an exit poll was conducted of the Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) members as they departed the first day of deliberations on the Chabad’s application, the mood could only be described as favorable to the applicant.
That’s because as members tossed around opinions, arguments, and facts concerning the application, only one person appeared skeptical that the application met the requirements of a special permit.
In its first meeting held to deliberate the Chabad-Lubavitch of the Shoreline’s application for a special permit to build a 13,700 square foot house of worship and day care center at 181 Goose Lane, Chairman Shirley Girioni stressed that the decision can be based only on information received by the commission during the public hearings, which closed Nov. 19.
“No more discussion or emails can be done or letters can be read,” said Girioni.
The discussion regarding the Chabad’s application was informal as the members discussed the standards of a special permit. The PZC did not make a motion in favor or against the application and no vote was taken. A vote is likely at its next scheduled meeting, Dec. 17.
The location of the Chabad’s proposed synagogue is currently zoned residential. The property to the direct north is also zoned residential; the property to the direct south is zoned commercial.
Criteria of a special permit include such things as the proposed type, character, and size of the building should be in harmony with the neighborhood; that the building must have adequate access for fire protection; and that it will not create an undue traffic hazard or congestion. In addition, the lot must be of sufficient size for the use, the proposed building cannot be detrimental to the neighborhood or adjacent lots, and the design of the building cannot conflict with the architectural design and style of adjacent properties, among other criteria.
The PZC is allowed to impose as many conditions as it feels necessary should it grant a special permit in this case. For example, the Inland Wetlands Commission, in its approval of the construction of Guilford Commons on the “Rockpile,” listed more than 50 conditions.
Commission member David Grigsby questioned many of the applicant’s plans, including the level of use proposed for the synagogue and social hall.
“Are we in a position that we can enforce a limit of maximum occupancy?” he asked.
Town attorney Charles Andres said certain terms of use such as occupancy could be included as one of the conditions of approval.
Grigsby’s initial hesitancy regarding the amount of people using the facility, which the applicant said could reach 200, was apparent as he spoke about the possible impact of increased traffic and noise such a crowd could bring to the site.
“It is difficult to believe that there will be absolutely no impact on the property to the north,” said Grigsby.
Commission member Ray Bower agreed with Grigsby about an increase in traffic to the area, but noted that the PZC’s impartial traffic expert and the chief of police believe there would be no traffic issues.
Girioni said that she feels the applicant’s property “is an area of transition,” and that any impacts such as traffic and noise are already present.
“This lot is directly across the street from a major interstate,” said Girioni. “There are hospitals and doctors’ offices to the south, the largest industrial zone in Guilford across the street, and to the north, a residential home used for a doctor’s office and medical practice.”
PZC member Robert Richard agreed, voicing that the area is not strictly residential.
“If you drew an imaginary circle around the applicant’s site, you would find that it is mixed–a mixture of different zones,” he said.
The Guilford Planning & Zoning Commission may be prepared to render a decision on the Chabad’s application at its next meeting, Wednesday, Dec. 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Greene Community Center on Church Street.
If an exit poll was conducted of the Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) members as they departed the first day of deliberations on the Chabad’s application, the mood could only be described as favorable to the applicant.
That’s because as members tossed around opinions, arguments, and facts concerning the application, only one person appeared skeptical that the application met the requirements of a special permit.
In its first meeting held to deliberate the Chabad-Lubavitch of the Shoreline’s application for a special permit to build a 13,700 square foot house of worship and day care center at 181 Goose Lane, Chairman Shirley Girioni stressed that the decision can be based only on information received by the commission during the public hearings, which closed Nov. 19.
“No more discussion or emails can be done or letters can be read,” said Girioni.
The discussion regarding the Chabad’s application was informal as the members discussed the standards of a special permit. The PZC did not make a motion in favor or against the application and no vote was taken. A vote is likely at its next scheduled meeting, Dec. 17.
The location of the Chabad’s proposed synagogue is currently zoned residential. The property to the direct north is also zoned residential; the property to the direct south is zoned commercial.
Criteria of a special permit include such things as the proposed type, character, and size of the building should be in harmony with the neighborhood; that the building must have adequate access for fire protection; and that it will not create an undue traffic hazard or congestion. In addition, the lot must be of sufficient size for the use, the proposed building cannot be detrimental to the neighborhood or adjacent lots, and the design of the building cannot conflict with the architectural design and style of adjacent properties, among other criteria.
The PZC is allowed to impose as many conditions as it feels necessary should it grant a special permit in this case. For example, the Inland Wetlands Commission, in its approval of the construction of Guilford Commons on the “Rockpile,” listed more than 50 conditions.
Commission member David Grigsby questioned many of the applicant’s plans, including the level of use proposed for the synagogue and social hall.
“Are we in a position that we can enforce a limit of maximum occupancy?” he asked.
Town attorney Charles Andres said certain terms of use such as occupancy could be included as one of the conditions of approval.
Grigsby’s initial hesitancy regarding the amount of people using the facility, which the applicant said could reach 200, was apparent as he spoke about the possible impact of increased traffic and noise such a crowd could bring to the site.
“It is difficult to believe that there will be absolutely no impact on the property to the north,” said Grigsby.
Commission member Ray Bower agreed with Grigsby about an increase in traffic to the area, but noted that the PZC’s impartial traffic expert and the chief of police believe there would be no traffic issues.
Girioni said that she feels the applicant’s property “is an area of transition,” and that any impacts such as traffic and noise are already present.
“This lot is directly across the street from a major interstate,” said Girioni. “There are hospitals and doctors’ offices to the south, the largest industrial zone in Guilford across the street, and to the north, a residential home used for a doctor’s office and medical practice.”
PZC member Robert Richard agreed, voicing that the area is not strictly residential.
“If you drew an imaginary circle around the applicant’s site, you would find that it is mixed–a mixture of different zones,” he said.
The Guilford Planning & Zoning Commission may be prepared to render a decision on the Chabad’s application at its next meeting, Wednesday, Dec. 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Greene Community Center on Church Street.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Chabad granted permit for campus synagogue
University of Wisconsin students and Madison Jewish community members will soon have an on-campus synagogue due to a conditional use permit granted to the Chabad organization.
The property, located at 223 W. Gilman St., is currently owned by Chabad, which provides education and services for the local Jewish community.
The approval of the conditional use permit allows for constructional alterations on the first floor to provide a place of worship for members. The two-unit apartment building will be converted into a first floor synagogue, while the second floor will house the rabbi and his family.
Ald. Mike Verveer, whose District 4 includes the Gilman Street property, said the new location for the synagogue is “obviously very convenient for a lot of students.”
Chabad at UW is home to one of the largest Jewish student populations at the university, and the construction of the new synagogue would be at a convenient location for Jewish students and faculty to attend multiple services.
Rabbi Mendel Matusof, owner and developer of the property, lives on the main level with his family and provides services to Jewish students. The upper level is currently rented out to students.
Matusof said the first floor would be remodeled from an apartment to a large synagogue area. A small kitchen would be added, as would handicap access to bathrooms.
A modest addition to the back of the house, along with an accessible ramp for disabled persons, would help fit about 73 worshippers on the first floor, Verveer said.
He added the synagogue would mostly be geared toward the UW community, and neighborhood residents are happy and supportive of the old but popular house. The house was built in 1921 and survived initial attempts at converting it into a parking ramp.
“I support the conditional use permit,” Verveer said. “I think it’s actually cool that the family will be living there.”
The Hillel foundation on Langdon Street is another Jewish organization that provides programs and activities for students. Matusof said it serves a “different function” than the synagogue on Gilman Street would.
Matusof said Hillel is “a lot more of a Jewish student center, and ours is a much more synagogue-family base.” Overall, he added, it would have the feel of a “smaller family-style service.”
Construction is to begin in late January 2009, with the anticipated date of completion around September of that year.
“It’s nice that students of the Jewish faith will have this option for them to follow their faith, so to speak,” Verveer said.
Verveer mentioned the existence of a couple other synagogues on the west side of campus, on Regent and Monroe streets, which are farther away on campus and less convenient for students to get to.
Matusof said the Hillel foundation is planning a construction project to build a larger student center in 2009.
The property, located at 223 W. Gilman St., is currently owned by Chabad, which provides education and services for the local Jewish community.
The approval of the conditional use permit allows for constructional alterations on the first floor to provide a place of worship for members. The two-unit apartment building will be converted into a first floor synagogue, while the second floor will house the rabbi and his family.
Ald. Mike Verveer, whose District 4 includes the Gilman Street property, said the new location for the synagogue is “obviously very convenient for a lot of students.”
Chabad at UW is home to one of the largest Jewish student populations at the university, and the construction of the new synagogue would be at a convenient location for Jewish students and faculty to attend multiple services.
Rabbi Mendel Matusof, owner and developer of the property, lives on the main level with his family and provides services to Jewish students. The upper level is currently rented out to students.
Matusof said the first floor would be remodeled from an apartment to a large synagogue area. A small kitchen would be added, as would handicap access to bathrooms.
A modest addition to the back of the house, along with an accessible ramp for disabled persons, would help fit about 73 worshippers on the first floor, Verveer said.
He added the synagogue would mostly be geared toward the UW community, and neighborhood residents are happy and supportive of the old but popular house. The house was built in 1921 and survived initial attempts at converting it into a parking ramp.
“I support the conditional use permit,” Verveer said. “I think it’s actually cool that the family will be living there.”
The Hillel foundation on Langdon Street is another Jewish organization that provides programs and activities for students. Matusof said it serves a “different function” than the synagogue on Gilman Street would.
Matusof said Hillel is “a lot more of a Jewish student center, and ours is a much more synagogue-family base.” Overall, he added, it would have the feel of a “smaller family-style service.”
Construction is to begin in late January 2009, with the anticipated date of completion around September of that year.
“It’s nice that students of the Jewish faith will have this option for them to follow their faith, so to speak,” Verveer said.
Verveer mentioned the existence of a couple other synagogues on the west side of campus, on Regent and Monroe streets, which are farther away on campus and less convenient for students to get to.
Matusof said the Hillel foundation is planning a construction project to build a larger student center in 2009.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
GUILFORD-The night after Tuesday's election will see another chapter written on whether or not Chabad of the Shoreline synagogue will be built at 181
The proposal - hotly contested by area residents led by Dr. Donna Criscenzo but supported by a number of shoreline men and women - is unlikely to be approved or rejected by the Planning and Zoning Commission Wednesday.
The 7:30 p.m. meeting at the community center will see a continuation of the previous two public hearings.
Opponents of the synagogue have cited increased traffic, noise, a drop in surrounding property values and a dramatic change in the quality of life in the neighborhood as reason for their opposition. They also claim the 17,000 square foot project is not appropriate in an R-5 zone.
Chabad and its Rabbi, Yossi Yaffe, have said none of the neighbors concerns are based on fact. Chabad insists its studies show the synagogue would not cause any appreciable increase in traffic, no drop in property values, little noise and no change in the quality of neighborhood life
Experts hired by both sides have debated these and other issues.
The controversy has raised considerable interest.
Town Planner George Kral has pointed out that religious institutions are permitted in all zones if they meet special permit requirements.
Whether the synagogue proposal meets those requirements will decide the issue.
Chabad is a Hasidic Jewish organization now operating out of a small office in Branford.
The 7:30 p.m. meeting at the community center will see a continuation of the previous two public hearings.
Opponents of the synagogue have cited increased traffic, noise, a drop in surrounding property values and a dramatic change in the quality of life in the neighborhood as reason for their opposition. They also claim the 17,000 square foot project is not appropriate in an R-5 zone.
Chabad and its Rabbi, Yossi Yaffe, have said none of the neighbors concerns are based on fact. Chabad insists its studies show the synagogue would not cause any appreciable increase in traffic, no drop in property values, little noise and no change in the quality of neighborhood life
Experts hired by both sides have debated these and other issues.
The controversy has raised considerable interest.
Town Planner George Kral has pointed out that religious institutions are permitted in all zones if they meet special permit requirements.
Whether the synagogue proposal meets those requirements will decide the issue.
Chabad is a Hasidic Jewish organization now operating out of a small office in Branford.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Welcoming the New Year in a Different Paris
October 23, 2008 - Mara Sokolsky, Jewish Exponent Feature
This past erev Rosh Hashanah found my husband and I scurrying through the streets of Paris's Jewish quarter. Hours earlier, those streets pulsed with the sounds of schmoozing and shopping. We, along with local Parisians and a gaggle of tourists feasted on Mi-va-mi's falafel l'authentique and Sacha Finkelsztajn's Viennese strudel.
But now the streets were quiet, the shops closed. The new year was at hand.
More than 30 years ago, I spent my junior year abroad in Paris. Young, eager and fluent in French, I soaked up the beauty and culture of that city like a happy sponge. Now, on our first big empty-nest vacation, I wanted to share some of that long-ago magic with my husband.
And magic it was. We glided on a boat under the magnificent bridges traversing the Seine. We climbed the hills of Montmartre; we sat with our espresso and watched passers-by from a string of outdoor cafes.
As Rosh Hashanah approached, we finalized our holiday plans with the local Chabad rabbi. He directed us, in Yiddish-tinged French, to a shteibel, a small house of prayer on the second floor of a nondescript building in the heart of the Jewish quarter. That's where my husband and I were hurrying as the old year fell away.
Lubavitch Chasidim are wonderfully hospitable, but they aren't known for their decorating style. The shteibel had all the makings of a beautiful, old Paris apartment: delicate moldings, chandeliers, hand-painted designs along the tops of the walls. Yet, mostly what you saw was a crowded, makeshift shul, with chairs, benches and tattered prayerbooks strewn next to a small women's section.
I sat alone in that section. Of course! The Lubavitch wives were home preparing dinner. Ultimately, three young women with various nose and lip piercings joined my ranks. They were traveling together from Australia and, like us, had invitations to go home with one of the families after the davening.
Our host was a warm, chatty dentist who had become Lubavitch in his early 20s. His cultured wife spoke excellent English. Only five of their 10 children were at home, but they had guests around their table from Algiers and Berlin. In a lively polyglot of languages, we chatted, gorged ourselves, and dribbled enough honey to help ensure a sweet new year.
But we needed to hear the shofar. In the morning, we went to the Synagogue des Tournelles, which we'd heard was beautiful and was within walking distance of where we were staying.
Tickets weren't required, but our admission depended upon a convincing argument to the guards posted outside. When they finally accepted that we were wandering Jews looking to be with our brethren, they opened the doors to the most- breathtaking house of worship I'd ever seen, much like a lavish European opera house.
I climbed the stairs to the balcony. Few women were listening to the service; most were chatting amiably. Occasionally, I'd hear a line in Arabic. So many Jews in France have North African roots. The Sephardic melodies were mesmerizing, so distinct from our Ashkenazi ones at home.
My husband remarked later that the men occasionally davened, but mostly kissed each other (four times on the cheek in true French fashion) and chatted as much as the women.
But when it came time for the shofar, the shul became still. All the men raised their tallitot over their heads. The women whipped out scarves and held them over their heads. It was a bit like watching everyone go under his or her own chupah.
I marveled at this ritual. Although far from home, it felt entirely natural to experience a connection with fellow Jews in heeding the call to be awake and centered as we entered the promise of the new year.
Mara Sokolsky is a freelance writer living in Providence, R.I.
This past erev Rosh Hashanah found my husband and I scurrying through the streets of Paris's Jewish quarter. Hours earlier, those streets pulsed with the sounds of schmoozing and shopping. We, along with local Parisians and a gaggle of tourists feasted on Mi-va-mi's falafel l'authentique and Sacha Finkelsztajn's Viennese strudel.
But now the streets were quiet, the shops closed. The new year was at hand.
More than 30 years ago, I spent my junior year abroad in Paris. Young, eager and fluent in French, I soaked up the beauty and culture of that city like a happy sponge. Now, on our first big empty-nest vacation, I wanted to share some of that long-ago magic with my husband.
And magic it was. We glided on a boat under the magnificent bridges traversing the Seine. We climbed the hills of Montmartre; we sat with our espresso and watched passers-by from a string of outdoor cafes.
As Rosh Hashanah approached, we finalized our holiday plans with the local Chabad rabbi. He directed us, in Yiddish-tinged French, to a shteibel, a small house of prayer on the second floor of a nondescript building in the heart of the Jewish quarter. That's where my husband and I were hurrying as the old year fell away.
Lubavitch Chasidim are wonderfully hospitable, but they aren't known for their decorating style. The shteibel had all the makings of a beautiful, old Paris apartment: delicate moldings, chandeliers, hand-painted designs along the tops of the walls. Yet, mostly what you saw was a crowded, makeshift shul, with chairs, benches and tattered prayerbooks strewn next to a small women's section.
I sat alone in that section. Of course! The Lubavitch wives were home preparing dinner. Ultimately, three young women with various nose and lip piercings joined my ranks. They were traveling together from Australia and, like us, had invitations to go home with one of the families after the davening.
Our host was a warm, chatty dentist who had become Lubavitch in his early 20s. His cultured wife spoke excellent English. Only five of their 10 children were at home, but they had guests around their table from Algiers and Berlin. In a lively polyglot of languages, we chatted, gorged ourselves, and dribbled enough honey to help ensure a sweet new year.
But we needed to hear the shofar. In the morning, we went to the Synagogue des Tournelles, which we'd heard was beautiful and was within walking distance of where we were staying.
Tickets weren't required, but our admission depended upon a convincing argument to the guards posted outside. When they finally accepted that we were wandering Jews looking to be with our brethren, they opened the doors to the most- breathtaking house of worship I'd ever seen, much like a lavish European opera house.
I climbed the stairs to the balcony. Few women were listening to the service; most were chatting amiably. Occasionally, I'd hear a line in Arabic. So many Jews in France have North African roots. The Sephardic melodies were mesmerizing, so distinct from our Ashkenazi ones at home.
My husband remarked later that the men occasionally davened, but mostly kissed each other (four times on the cheek in true French fashion) and chatted as much as the women.
But when it came time for the shofar, the shul became still. All the men raised their tallitot over their heads. The women whipped out scarves and held them over their heads. It was a bit like watching everyone go under his or her own chupah.
I marveled at this ritual. Although far from home, it felt entirely natural to experience a connection with fellow Jews in heeding the call to be awake and centered as we entered the promise of the new year.
Mara Sokolsky is a freelance writer living in Providence, R.I.
The Dragon's Yarmulke: Jewish Communities in China
Though small, these are some of the newest and fastest growing Jewish communities in the world.
Release Date: 10/24/2008
By PAUL ROCKOWER
When Israeli Dvir Bar-Gal arrived in Shanghai some seven years ago, there were roughly 300 Jews in the city.
That community is now seven times larger. Jewish communities in China are expanding in a way that matches the frenetic expansion of the enigmatic land in which they live.
"The Jewish community of China is one the fastest growing Jewish communities in the world," said Bar-Gal, who today runs a Jewish history tour of Shanghai.
As China has opened itself to the outside world, Jewish communities are being reborn in China. Shanghai is home to the largest Jewish community, with upwards of 2,000 people, followed by Beijing at 1,500 to 2,000. Jews have migrated to work or study in China from Europe, North America, Australia and Israel. Many of those now residing in China are drawn by business pursuits, but there are also many Jewish students as well as Jewish families connected with the various diplomatic missions posted in China. Most of these migrants see China as a new land of economic opportunity, though not necessarily a permanent new home. Historically, however, Jews saw China as offering a different opportunity: the chance to escape persecution.
The history of Jewish communities in China dates back more than a millennium with the storied community of Kaifeng. In the modern era, however, the most important communities were in Harbin, Tianjin, and Shanghai. These were seen as places of tolerance in a hostile world. The emergence and resurgence of Shanghai's Jewish community illuminates the interplay between global trends and Chinese policies.
Shanghai's Jewish community began in the mid-19th century with the immigration of mercantilist Sephardic Jews from the Middle East, but the Russian turmoil of the early 20th century brought thousands of immigrants to China. Many Jews fled the Russo-Japanese war, the outbreak of pogroms, and disorder associated with World War I, the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil war and found haven in China. After the Russian Revolution, Jews came to Shanghai and settled in the Hongkou neighborhood. As European-style tenement houses were built and Jewish-owned shops, cafes and kosher delicatessens multiplied, residents and others began to call the area Little Vienna.
With Europe's descent into war in the 1930s, Shanghai again became a haven for Jews seeking refuge from Nazi persecution. As doors, including American ones, closed for European Jewish , Shanghai was one of the few remaining places that did not require papers or a visa for entry. From 1939 to 1941, 20,000 to 30,000 Jews immigrated to Shanghai to escape Nazi persecution.
With the 1937 Japanese occupation of Shanghai, the Japanese authorities designated the Jewish migrants as "stateless refugees" and restricted their habitation and commerce to a somewhat benign ghetto in the Hongkou neighborhood. The Hongkou neighborhood was also home to many displaced Chinese, who were refugees from the Japanese occupation.
Today, few of those Jewish refugees or their descendants remain in Shanghai. After World War II and the the Communist victory in China's civil war nearly all of Shanghai's Jews migrated to America, Canada, Australia or Israel.
The new Jewish communities of businesspeople, students and diplomats are growing and members are working together to create the infrastructure necessary to support the community and foster connections to the faith. Chabad, one of the largest Orthodox Jewish movements that runs thousands of outreach centers around the world, plays a major part in the Jewish life in China. In total, Chabad runs seven Jewish centers throughout China: Beijing, two in Shanghai, Guangzhou, two in Hong Kong, and Shenzhen.
Chabad set up shop in Beijing in 2001, and since then has built the foundations of Jewish communal life in China's capital, including a Jewish day school, community center and even a Chinese pagoda-style mikvah (Jewish ritual bath). Despite these familiarities, the Jewish lifestyle still faces challenges in China. Given the complexities of observing Kashrut—Jewish culinary law—in a land as gastronomically diverse as China, the ability for religious Jews to eat in a kosher fashion remains a constant challenge.
However, Western import grocery stores often help. "Thank God for the Western supermarkets," Rabbi Freundlich said. "It is possible to get some kosher foods in the form of Western products that happen to be kosher."
In addition, once a year, the communities in Beijing and Shanghai receive from Israel a container of dry goods, kosher wine and long-lasting milk. As for kosher meat and chicken, the Rabbi has a kosher slaughterer flown in either from South Africa or Australia. In addition, in March 2007, the Chabad Beijing opened Dini's, the only kosher restaurant in the city.
The situation in Shanghai is similar, with Chabad maintaining a Jewish center in both older city center and the newer Pudong area. The Jewish center at the Chabad Shanghai is complete with children's school and weekly Shabbat service, and a kosher café, as well as a kosher meal delivery service to hotels and offices.
But there are still obstacles. Judaism is not one of the five recognized religions in China, but the government has largely ignored it. The recent developments of these new, non-refugee communities coupled with their relatively miniscule population hasn't yet drawn the attention of the government.
"The Jewish community has a good relationship with the Chinese government," said Rabbi Shimon Freundlich of Chabad Beijing. "The Chinese government understands that the Beijing Jewish community respects the Chinese culture, and the wishes of the government and the Chinese people." Yet currently, Rabbi Freundlich's home serves as the temple, as the Jewish community is not permitted to build freestanding places of worship.
Meanwhile, the Jewish community is pushing for status as a non-recognized Western minority community, which will offer the Jewish community status as an official community in China. Currently, the Jewish community is prohibited from performing conversions of local Chinese people, and local Chinese are not allowed to participate in rituals unless they are married to a Jew. Despite the red tape, there is local interest in the faith.
"Chabad gets a call at least once a week from someone in a distant province who wants to convert to Judaism," Rabbi Freundlich said. "We counsel them that if they are serious, then they can do a conversion in Hong Kong or Australia, but not in Mainland China."
Given the minute size of China's Jewish community, and the relatively few Jews worldwide, in many ways the concept of "the Jewish people" has an outsized stature in China. Interestingly, the Jewish image in popular Chinese culture has a rather fascinating position. According to the Washington Post article "Sold on a Stereotype," there is even a field of self-help books in China dedicated to "the Jewish way of making money." This genre includes such titles as The Legend of Jewish Wealth and The Eight Most Valuable Business Secrets of the Jewish. Despite the somewhat anti-Semitic undertones of such literature, the Washington Post article observes that Chinese also perceive the Jewish community as having a great deal of intelligence and business acumen.
"We are attracted by Jewish wisdom, intelligence, success and survival," said Professor Xu Xin, director of the Glazer Institute of Jewish Studies at Nanjing University. "These are qualities the Chinese feel they can learn from. Both the Chinese and the Jews have a tradition of education and respect learning."
This sentiment has translated into a unique relationship in local populations, where Jewish residents are subject to no more discrimination than other foreign faces.
"[The sentiments] are the opposite of anti-Semitism, but rather appreciation," Bar-Gal said. "The majority of Chinese people don't know what ‘Jews' are—they have no concept. In big cities, some Chinese people know Jews, and view them as ‘smart' and ‘rich.' In China, there is positive thinking regarding business: if you are rich, you have achieved a goal. The Chinese want to copy and learn from the Jewish people—this is a compliment, not negative thought."
When asked about the future of the Jewish community in China, Bar-Gal had an intriguing, albeit tongue-in-cheek, answer: "I see the whole Jewish people's future here in China. With rising anti-Semitism in Europe, instability in Israel and financial troubles in the US, the entire Jewish world will come to live in China. You have a country that has a history free of anti-Semitism, and a culture that deeply respects the Jewish people. What is 12 million in a land of 1.3 billion?"
While this scenario is unlikely, the future for Jewish communities in China is indeed promising. The Jewish community in China is one of the fastest growing Jewish communities in the world; the increase in Jewish communal institutions in China ensures that Jewish communities can continue their extraordinary growth, and that over time Chinese will have a more realistic knowledge of the religion and its adherents in China.
Paul Rockower is a journalist who spent six weeks traveling in China. He writes a column for the Jerusalem Post on Jewish communities in far-flung places. Paul is currently pursuing a Master's in Public Diplomacy at USC.
Release Date: 10/24/2008
By PAUL ROCKOWER
When Israeli Dvir Bar-Gal arrived in Shanghai some seven years ago, there were roughly 300 Jews in the city.
That community is now seven times larger. Jewish communities in China are expanding in a way that matches the frenetic expansion of the enigmatic land in which they live.
"The Jewish community of China is one the fastest growing Jewish communities in the world," said Bar-Gal, who today runs a Jewish history tour of Shanghai.
As China has opened itself to the outside world, Jewish communities are being reborn in China. Shanghai is home to the largest Jewish community, with upwards of 2,000 people, followed by Beijing at 1,500 to 2,000. Jews have migrated to work or study in China from Europe, North America, Australia and Israel. Many of those now residing in China are drawn by business pursuits, but there are also many Jewish students as well as Jewish families connected with the various diplomatic missions posted in China. Most of these migrants see China as a new land of economic opportunity, though not necessarily a permanent new home. Historically, however, Jews saw China as offering a different opportunity: the chance to escape persecution.
The history of Jewish communities in China dates back more than a millennium with the storied community of Kaifeng. In the modern era, however, the most important communities were in Harbin, Tianjin, and Shanghai. These were seen as places of tolerance in a hostile world. The emergence and resurgence of Shanghai's Jewish community illuminates the interplay between global trends and Chinese policies.
Shanghai's Jewish community began in the mid-19th century with the immigration of mercantilist Sephardic Jews from the Middle East, but the Russian turmoil of the early 20th century brought thousands of immigrants to China. Many Jews fled the Russo-Japanese war, the outbreak of pogroms, and disorder associated with World War I, the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil war and found haven in China. After the Russian Revolution, Jews came to Shanghai and settled in the Hongkou neighborhood. As European-style tenement houses were built and Jewish-owned shops, cafes and kosher delicatessens multiplied, residents and others began to call the area Little Vienna.
With Europe's descent into war in the 1930s, Shanghai again became a haven for Jews seeking refuge from Nazi persecution. As doors, including American ones, closed for European Jewish , Shanghai was one of the few remaining places that did not require papers or a visa for entry. From 1939 to 1941, 20,000 to 30,000 Jews immigrated to Shanghai to escape Nazi persecution.
With the 1937 Japanese occupation of Shanghai, the Japanese authorities designated the Jewish migrants as "stateless refugees" and restricted their habitation and commerce to a somewhat benign ghetto in the Hongkou neighborhood. The Hongkou neighborhood was also home to many displaced Chinese, who were refugees from the Japanese occupation.
Today, few of those Jewish refugees or their descendants remain in Shanghai. After World War II and the the Communist victory in China's civil war nearly all of Shanghai's Jews migrated to America, Canada, Australia or Israel.
The new Jewish communities of businesspeople, students and diplomats are growing and members are working together to create the infrastructure necessary to support the community and foster connections to the faith. Chabad, one of the largest Orthodox Jewish movements that runs thousands of outreach centers around the world, plays a major part in the Jewish life in China. In total, Chabad runs seven Jewish centers throughout China: Beijing, two in Shanghai, Guangzhou, two in Hong Kong, and Shenzhen.
Chabad set up shop in Beijing in 2001, and since then has built the foundations of Jewish communal life in China's capital, including a Jewish day school, community center and even a Chinese pagoda-style mikvah (Jewish ritual bath). Despite these familiarities, the Jewish lifestyle still faces challenges in China. Given the complexities of observing Kashrut—Jewish culinary law—in a land as gastronomically diverse as China, the ability for religious Jews to eat in a kosher fashion remains a constant challenge.
However, Western import grocery stores often help. "Thank God for the Western supermarkets," Rabbi Freundlich said. "It is possible to get some kosher foods in the form of Western products that happen to be kosher."
In addition, once a year, the communities in Beijing and Shanghai receive from Israel a container of dry goods, kosher wine and long-lasting milk. As for kosher meat and chicken, the Rabbi has a kosher slaughterer flown in either from South Africa or Australia. In addition, in March 2007, the Chabad Beijing opened Dini's, the only kosher restaurant in the city.
The situation in Shanghai is similar, with Chabad maintaining a Jewish center in both older city center and the newer Pudong area. The Jewish center at the Chabad Shanghai is complete with children's school and weekly Shabbat service, and a kosher café, as well as a kosher meal delivery service to hotels and offices.
But there are still obstacles. Judaism is not one of the five recognized religions in China, but the government has largely ignored it. The recent developments of these new, non-refugee communities coupled with their relatively miniscule population hasn't yet drawn the attention of the government.
"The Jewish community has a good relationship with the Chinese government," said Rabbi Shimon Freundlich of Chabad Beijing. "The Chinese government understands that the Beijing Jewish community respects the Chinese culture, and the wishes of the government and the Chinese people." Yet currently, Rabbi Freundlich's home serves as the temple, as the Jewish community is not permitted to build freestanding places of worship.
Meanwhile, the Jewish community is pushing for status as a non-recognized Western minority community, which will offer the Jewish community status as an official community in China. Currently, the Jewish community is prohibited from performing conversions of local Chinese people, and local Chinese are not allowed to participate in rituals unless they are married to a Jew. Despite the red tape, there is local interest in the faith.
"Chabad gets a call at least once a week from someone in a distant province who wants to convert to Judaism," Rabbi Freundlich said. "We counsel them that if they are serious, then they can do a conversion in Hong Kong or Australia, but not in Mainland China."
Given the minute size of China's Jewish community, and the relatively few Jews worldwide, in many ways the concept of "the Jewish people" has an outsized stature in China. Interestingly, the Jewish image in popular Chinese culture has a rather fascinating position. According to the Washington Post article "Sold on a Stereotype," there is even a field of self-help books in China dedicated to "the Jewish way of making money." This genre includes such titles as The Legend of Jewish Wealth and The Eight Most Valuable Business Secrets of the Jewish. Despite the somewhat anti-Semitic undertones of such literature, the Washington Post article observes that Chinese also perceive the Jewish community as having a great deal of intelligence and business acumen.
"We are attracted by Jewish wisdom, intelligence, success and survival," said Professor Xu Xin, director of the Glazer Institute of Jewish Studies at Nanjing University. "These are qualities the Chinese feel they can learn from. Both the Chinese and the Jews have a tradition of education and respect learning."
This sentiment has translated into a unique relationship in local populations, where Jewish residents are subject to no more discrimination than other foreign faces.
"[The sentiments] are the opposite of anti-Semitism, but rather appreciation," Bar-Gal said. "The majority of Chinese people don't know what ‘Jews' are—they have no concept. In big cities, some Chinese people know Jews, and view them as ‘smart' and ‘rich.' In China, there is positive thinking regarding business: if you are rich, you have achieved a goal. The Chinese want to copy and learn from the Jewish people—this is a compliment, not negative thought."
When asked about the future of the Jewish community in China, Bar-Gal had an intriguing, albeit tongue-in-cheek, answer: "I see the whole Jewish people's future here in China. With rising anti-Semitism in Europe, instability in Israel and financial troubles in the US, the entire Jewish world will come to live in China. You have a country that has a history free of anti-Semitism, and a culture that deeply respects the Jewish people. What is 12 million in a land of 1.3 billion?"
While this scenario is unlikely, the future for Jewish communities in China is indeed promising. The Jewish community in China is one of the fastest growing Jewish communities in the world; the increase in Jewish communal institutions in China ensures that Jewish communities can continue their extraordinary growth, and that over time Chinese will have a more realistic knowledge of the religion and its adherents in China.
Paul Rockower is a journalist who spent six weeks traveling in China. He writes a column for the Jerusalem Post on Jewish communities in far-flung places. Paul is currently pursuing a Master's in Public Diplomacy at USC.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Focus, prayer on holiest day
Yom Kippur involves 26 hours of very intense introspection
October 10, 2008
By JUDY MASTERSON
JMASTERSON@SCN1.COM
GURNEE -- Note to editor: the next time you assign a story on Yom Kippur, do it before Yom Kippur.
It is next to impossible to speak to a rabbi on the great Day of Atonement, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. On Thursday, rabbis around the county had no time for reporters. They were busy helping the faithful focus on their souls, ask forgiveness for their sins and draw close to the one God.
Rabbi Sholom Tenenbaum stands outside the new Chabad Jewish Center in Gurnee during construction last month. Tenenbaum was focused on the duties of the day Thursday, Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.
After a morning of fruitless calls and unanswered voice-mail messages, I finally drove to the Chabad Jewish Center, 5101 Washington St., Gurnee, where I tracked down Rabbi Sholom Tenenbaum, who had just finished leading the Yizkor Memorial Service.
But Tenenbaum, who wore a prayer shawl and white sheath, could not speak with me, he briefly and politely explained.
According to the center's Web site, for 26 hours during Yom Kippur, observant Jews "afflict" their souls, spending time in intense introspection. They abstain from regular activities including work and school, eating and drinking, washing or lotioning their bodies. They do not wear leather shoes. They also abstain from marital relations.
In ancient Jerusalem, during Yom Kippur, the high priest entered into the "Holy of Holies" to offer the ketoret and the "casting of lots" over two goats, one to be offered to God and the other to bear the sins of Israel to the wilderness. Today, the faithful spend Yom Kippur in the synagogue. Some where a white garment called a kittel, to call to mind sinless angels and as a reminder of "the day of our death."
The most solemn day of the year includes five prayer services. It concludes with the Ne'illah, the "closing of the gates" service at sunset. The Ne'illah climaxes in the resounding cries of "Hear Oh Israel... God is one" and a single blast of the shofar, followed by song and dance and a festive breaking-of-the-fast meal.
Gene Sherman of Gurnee and his son Todd, 14, a freshman at Warren Township High School, spoke with me during a break from services at Chabad Center.
Sherman said that during this Yom Kippur, he has been thinking about "all the wars going on in the world."
"I've thought about all the Jews killed over the centuries," Sherman said. "And how I don't want to see it happen to anybody else."
October 10, 2008
By JUDY MASTERSON
JMASTERSON@SCN1.COM
GURNEE -- Note to editor: the next time you assign a story on Yom Kippur, do it before Yom Kippur.
It is next to impossible to speak to a rabbi on the great Day of Atonement, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. On Thursday, rabbis around the county had no time for reporters. They were busy helping the faithful focus on their souls, ask forgiveness for their sins and draw close to the one God.
Rabbi Sholom Tenenbaum stands outside the new Chabad Jewish Center in Gurnee during construction last month. Tenenbaum was focused on the duties of the day Thursday, Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.
After a morning of fruitless calls and unanswered voice-mail messages, I finally drove to the Chabad Jewish Center, 5101 Washington St., Gurnee, where I tracked down Rabbi Sholom Tenenbaum, who had just finished leading the Yizkor Memorial Service.
But Tenenbaum, who wore a prayer shawl and white sheath, could not speak with me, he briefly and politely explained.
According to the center's Web site, for 26 hours during Yom Kippur, observant Jews "afflict" their souls, spending time in intense introspection. They abstain from regular activities including work and school, eating and drinking, washing or lotioning their bodies. They do not wear leather shoes. They also abstain from marital relations.
In ancient Jerusalem, during Yom Kippur, the high priest entered into the "Holy of Holies" to offer the ketoret and the "casting of lots" over two goats, one to be offered to God and the other to bear the sins of Israel to the wilderness. Today, the faithful spend Yom Kippur in the synagogue. Some where a white garment called a kittel, to call to mind sinless angels and as a reminder of "the day of our death."
The most solemn day of the year includes five prayer services. It concludes with the Ne'illah, the "closing of the gates" service at sunset. The Ne'illah climaxes in the resounding cries of "Hear Oh Israel... God is one" and a single blast of the shofar, followed by song and dance and a festive breaking-of-the-fast meal.
Gene Sherman of Gurnee and his son Todd, 14, a freshman at Warren Township High School, spoke with me during a break from services at Chabad Center.
Sherman said that during this Yom Kippur, he has been thinking about "all the wars going on in the world."
"I've thought about all the Jews killed over the centuries," Sherman said. "And how I don't want to see it happen to anybody else."
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