Lancaster Online
Rabbi Elazar Green at the new Rohr Chabad Jewish Center in Lancaster, PA.

Pennsylvania Chabad Center Has New Home

The Chabad Jewish Enrichment Center once shared a home with Rabbi Elazar Green and his family on Race Avenue.

Now it has a new name, the Rohr Chabad Jewish Enrichment Center, and a $900,000 home of its own, at 1024 Harrisburg Pike., near Franklin & Marshall College.

A grand opening for the center, which serves campuses and communities of Lancaster and York, is planned for September.

Green, a Pittsburgh native, came to Lancaster in 2003, when Rabbi Shaya Sackett, of Congregation Degel Israel, invited him to teach Hebrew half time at the Lancaster Yeshiva Center, which offers Torah study and vocational training at the synagogue.

Green devoted the other half of his workday to establishing a local branch of Chabad, a Jewish outreach organization with about 3,000 centers in 80 countries.

“One of its fundamental teachings is to love everybody, accept everybody and help them travel along their road,” Green says.

Green serves as general contractor for renovations to the former Harrisburg Pike carpet store, previously a beer distributor, which is an addition on the front of an 1880s farmhouse. Students at the Yeshiva helped with construction.

“They needed a project, and we needed workers,” Green says. “It was a match made in heaven. They re-stabilized the building. They probably saved us tens of thousands of dollars.”

The first floor of the center, across from the F&M soccer/lacrosse field, features a large multipurpose room for Shabbat dinners, classes and meetings, separate kitchens for meat and dairy to prepare kosher meals, Green’s office and a study room for F&M students.

“We’ll be working together with the Chabad student group, Chabad of F&M,” says Green, who advises the group. “We own the building, but they will be in charge. We give students a lot of ownership.”

The second floor of the original farmhouse is being remodeled as an apartment with four bedrooms, three baths and a kitchenette for visiting scholars, F&M parents and alumni and guests. A large warehouse for storage occupies the rear of the building, which has 12 parking spaces.

The center was renamed in honor of philanthropists George and Pamela Rohr, of New York, who donated $250,000 to the project.

“They’re very interested in providing for the Jewish community on (or near) college campuses throughout the United States,” Green says. “There are dozens of Rohr centers across the country.”

The Rohrs, he says, usually don’t give to centers for small schools, but they made an exception because two couples — F&M alumni Steve and Vicki Zuckerman, of Lancaster, and Arthur and Paulette Wiener, of New York City — matched their donation.

Area resident Eleanor Isaacson, whom Green describes as a devout Christian, gave $25,000 for Green’s office in the center. Isaacson frequently attends classes that Green offers at the Lancaster Jewish Community Center.

“People of all faiths appreciate what we’re doing,” Green says.

Green began raising funds for the new center about three years ago and plans to pay for the project without a mortgage.

“We need another $100,000 to get to $900,000,” he says.

Green began Chabad as a community project. Then parents of an F&M student called him and asked him to invite their son to a Friday night Shabbat supper. He came with a friend, and over the years, more and more students came,

“We’re there for the students,” Green says. “They know when they’re in Lancaster, we’re their family. They become close to us and our kids (ages 11, 9, 6 and 2). It’s sad when they graduate (and have to move away).”

A few years ago, the suppers outgrew the Greens’ living room. He and his wife, Shira, began looking for a building nearby. They happened to stop in at the carpet store just as it was about to go on the market.

“We bought it for $285,000 two years ago and here we are,” Green says. “I feel like I’m in a dream.”

4 Comments

  • yossi A

    This is hashgacha protis.
    Is there a daily minyan? Is there a kosher shop near there? We are planning to visit Lancaster ant the Amish soon.
    Thanks for any info you can give us.

  • CT Emah 2 4

    We will be coming to tour Franklin and Marshall College, and will certainly stop in to say hello.