Puerto Rico Governor Attends Chabad Grand Opening

In 2008, Rabbi Mendel and Rachel Zarchi started planning and fundraising for a new facility to house Chabad’s activities on the island of Puerto Rico. Since then, the Puerto Rican government has slipped into a debt crisis.

After corporate tax breaks expired in 2006, companies started to leave the Caribbean island—a development widely reported in the media. The government now is more than $70 billion in debt, and the poverty rate exceeds 40 percent.

“Many of our potential donors had great losses or lost income, and they just couldn’t live up to their previous commitments. And it does take money to build a new center,” said Rabbi Zarchi.

Yet despite all these obstacles, a grand opening ceremony was held for the magnificent new Chabad Center on Sunday, September 11th, which was graced with the presence of the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Alejandro Javier García Padilla, and other elected national and local officials.

The 11,000 square-foot-building, including the purchase of land, cost $6 million. It features a synagogue, kosher dining hall, study room, classrooms and the island’s first mikvah, or Jewish ritual bath. That addition alone, Rabbi Zarchi says, makes the center “all the more meaningful and special.”

The interior is white, open and airy—typical of a place that gets plenty of natural light—with rich wood tones.

Amenities also include those for young families, including space for Hebrew school, children’s activities and the annual Gan Israel summer camp.

The rabbi notes that Chabad was able to complete the center because of the generosity of the very diverse Jewish community there. “It’s only through dedication and devotion of so many,” he insists, “that this was able to come to fruition.”

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