15 Years ‘Is Long Enough’ for Chabad without Permanent Home

Chabad of East Boca Raton has been without a permanent home for over 15 years, now the center’s director Rabbi Ruvi New has submitted plans to build a 15,000 square foot, $8 million center and is having its first public community hearing today.

by Sun Sentinel

A proposal to move a little less than a mile away from its current, downtown location and grow the Chabad’s community center by 15,000 square feet will have its first public hearing Thursday.

Boca Raton’s planning board will be reviewing the plans for the Orthodox congregation’s new facility at 770 E. Palmetto Park Road at its 6:30 p.m. meeting at City Hall.

In addition to having a worship center capable of holding 156 people, the proposal calls for a museum, a café, and a basement parking area. It would be built where La Veille Mason, a storied French restaurant, once stood on the city’s beach side, near the Por La Mar neighborhood.

“We’ve been in Boca for 15 years, which is an awfully long time not to have a permanent center,” said Rabbi Ruvi New, co­director of the Chabad. “It’s part of our natural growth.”

The congregation has about 75 families, New said.

Location of a Chabad is often key to a community. Observant Jews prefer to live close to their synagogues because they walk to services on the Sabbath.

Chabad planners are asking that the two­story structure be allowed to exceed the 30­foot height maximum in the area by 10 feet, 8 inches. The plans would also allow some traffic changes, but city planners are recommending these changes be allowed.

The Chabad of East Boca Raton is now paying to rent its home at 120 NE First Ave.

If the city’s planning board gives the project a nod, it will go on to City Council review. But Rabbi New said his community is planning an informal introduction to the project for anyone with questions at a meeting on March 29.

The new space is badly needed, the rabbi said.

“We’re very excited and we feel that it going to be a good fit for the area,” New said. “We see ourselves as very much a part of the community.”

City records show about a dozen residents have written to the city about the prospect of the new facility, both for and against.

Chief among the new features, there’s going to be a museum with a 6,000­square­foot main exhibit called “My Israel Center.

“It’s going to be a very high­tech, educational center that will be open to the public to educate about the history of Israel in a highly interactive way,” New said.

An outdoor playground at the facility, estimated to cost $8 million, will introduce children to Noah’s Ark, the walls of Jericho and the Jordan River.