Douglas County, smack dab in the middle of Colorado’s fastest-growing Jewish community, got its first permanent synagogue in the grand opening of the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Center of South Metro Denver.
First Synagogue Opens Doors to South Denver Community
Douglas County, smack dab in the middle of Colorado’s fastest-growing Jewish community, got its first permanent synagogue in the grand opening of the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Center of South Metro Denver.
According to officials, the new building – which also houses The Garden Preschool, believed to be suburban Denver’s first Jewish preschool – comes just in time for a community that the Allied Jewish Federation of Denver predicts will grow 130 percent over the next decade.
“We’ve made a community center for every Jew to feel at home,” stated Rabbi Avraham Mintz, director of the five-year-old organization that until this summer, operated out of a rented storefront. “We expect many, many people to come through our doors and we look forward to hosting them.”
More than 400 people attended the Aug. 30 ribbon-cutting ceremony in Lone Tree, including State Sen. Ted Harvey, Mayor David Casiano of nearby Parker, and Federation president and CEO Doug Sesserman.
Costing $2.5 million to complete, the center’s new home reflects the area’s skyrocketing Jewish population. Over the last five years, the Hebrew school operated by the rabbi and co-director Hindy Mintz has seen its enrollment triple. Over the same time period, attendance at High Holiday services has quadrupled.
In addition to a synagogue built to seat 400 people, and classrooms for the preschool and Hebrew school, the building also houses the local branch of the Friendship Circle – a Chabad-Lubavitch program that pairs teenage volunteers with children with special needs – a library, Judaica shop, and 13,000-square-foot playground.
