New Center to Accommodate Growing Community

The Jewish community in Green Bay, Wisconsin will soon have a new place to call home.

A former church on Libal Street is being converted into a one-stop center where Jewish worshipers will be able to pray, study, socialize and celebrate.

Known as Chabad of the Bay Area, the facility at 3607 Libal St. will even include a one-of-a-kind bath for traditional spiritual cleansing.

Rabbi Michoel Feinstein said the Jewish community includes about 2,000 people in the Green Bay area. The new property, he said, provides much more room for people to participate in religious services, Hebrew classes and holiday celebrations.

“It’s perfect,” he said. “It’s exactly what we were looking for.”

For the past four years, the community center has operated in a small rented house at 220 Bellevue St. in Green Bay. The house can accommodate only about 20 people, and it has become too impractical for popular activities.

Steven Weinshel, of Oconto, a frequent worshiper, said there have been times that the current facility became overcrowded.

“This is going to be a lot more comfortable for people,” he said of the new center.

Of particular interest to many Jewish families is the inclusion of a mikvah, which is a large indoor pool used separately by men and women as a way of purifying themselves. The closest available mikvah now is in the Milwaukee suburbs.

Being able to provide such improved services was one of the major reasons for finding a new home, Feinstein said. Referring to the spiritual cleansing bath, he said, “That’s a huge thing.”

When it opens in a couple of weeks, the Chabad of the Bay Area also will feature a sanctuary large enough for 100 people, as well as two classrooms, a full kitchen, an office and a parking lot.

The facility will be used for daily school lessons, weekly prayer services and special festivities marking such Jewish holidays as Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.

A building dedication ceremony is planned during the upcoming Hanukkah holiday season.

Calling the new center cause for celebration, Weinshel said he hopes to see larger crowds of Jewish people turning out to share the facilities.

“It’s going to be so much different,” he said. “I hope more people take advantage of it.”