Chabad of Folsom Breaks Ground on New 23,000-Square-Foot Jewish Community Center
Hundreds gathered in Folsom, California, on Sunday for the groundbreaking of a new 23,000-square-foot Chabad Jewish Community Center, marking a major milestone for a community that began nearly two decades ago in the living room of its shluchim, Rabbi Yossi and Goldie Grossbaum.
The new center will serve Folsom, El Dorado Hills and the surrounding region, and will include a shul, social hall, classrooms, youth spaces, CTeen lounge, mikvah, offices and additional community spaces.
For the Grossbaums, who arrived on shlichus in 2007 with two young children, the groundbreaking was an opportunity to reflect on just how far the community has come.
“When Goldie and I came here 19 years ago, we didn’t come to build a building,” Rabbi Grossbaum said. “We came to build a community; one person at a time, one family at a time, one mitzvah at a time.”
That community grew steadily over the years. Programs that began in the Grossbaum home eventually moved into a rented space. Three years ago the Grossbaums welcomed Rabbi Yossi & Yudit Spiero to join them on their Shlichus in the capacity of Youth Directors. The rented space became increasingly inadequate as Hebrew School, CTeen, adult education, Shabbos and Yom Tov programs and community events continued to expand.
Sunday morning, surrounded by many of the people who have been part of that journey, the next chapter officially began.
The program was opened by Max Weinstein, a college student who grew up attending Chabad Hebrew School and CTeen, and Reneta Jenik, a longtime member of the community.
A video presentation, “Many Stories. One Community.”, shared the experiences of several local families and highlighted the different ways Chabad has become part of their lives.
Folsom Mayor Justin Raithel, California Assemblyman Josh Hoover and other elected officials and community leaders joined the celebration and spoke about Chabad’s contribution to the region and the significance of establishing a permanent home for Jewish life.
The groundbreaking carried added meaning coming just weeks after the old house on the property was demolished. Before coming down, the structure was made available to the Folsom Fire Department for fire and rescue training.
Rabbi Grossbaum drew a lesson from that progression.
“First came the demolition, and now comes the building,” he said. “That is so much of the Jewish story. A descent is ultimately there for the purpose of a greater ascent. We don’t respond to darkness by retreating. We build. We grow. We add more light.”
The ceremony also recognized the many families and supporters whose generosity has brought the project to this point, including major supporters Ezra Dovid Philipp and Perla Cegla, who were honored for their partnership in helping make the new center possible.
One particularly moving moment came when Bruce Nye, the project’s general contractor, announced his own commitment to the building. Nye, who is not Jewish, pledged to dedicate the men’s mikvah pool in the new center – an unexpected gesture that reflected how the project has already touched people well beyond the Jewish community.
Rabbi Grossbaum emphasized that the new building is ultimately not about its size or amenities.
“A Chabad House is not built out of concrete and steel,” he said. “It is built out of the people who walk through its doors and the Yiddishkeit that happens inside them.”
The new center represents the fulfillment of the Rebbe’s vision that every Jew, wherever he or she may live, should have a place to connect to Torah, mitzvos and Jewish life.
Following the speeches, community members joined together for the ceremonial turning of the soil, celebrating a moment nearly 20 years in the making.
“This building is about the future,” Rebbetzin Goldie Grossbaum reflected. “It’s about the children who will learn their Alef-Beis here, the families who will celebrate here, the people who will walk through these doors years from now looking for a connection to Yiddishkeit.”
“We may not know their names yet. But we’re building for them today.”
Learn more about the project at www.folsomfuture.org
