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The Offbeat Is Helping Some Jews Reconnect

Chabad Rabbis’ Modern Outreach Methods Are Controversial but Forge Ties

With ice cream sundaes, iPod giveaways, spa days and yoga classes, a group of Orthodox rabbis in the Washington area is employing decidedly unorthodox methods to address a growing problem: the fading involvement of Jews in local Jewish life.

Although the region has one of the largest and youngest Jewish communities in the country, recent studies have found that a shrinking proportion of Jews– as elsewhere in the country — is joining synagogues, community centers, Jewish schools and other centers of Jewish life.

Chabad Finds New Home in Bonita

Bonita Springs, FL — Their new home is tucked away at the rear of a Bonita Springs strip mall, in a hall of a room containing only a table, an unhung portrait and a few stacks of folding chairs. Construction noise next door echoed through the mostly empty office suite from time to time, and outside the suite, there was no sign to indicate who rented this space or why.

A New Home for Chabad: East of the River

Glastonbury, CT — Six years ago, Rabbi Yosef Wolvovsky and his wife Yehudis ran the fledgling Chabad: East of the River from their small two bedroom apartment in Glastonbury. As demand for their programs grew, Chabad events were held in rented spaces at local schools or banquet halls.

Now the Wolvovskys are set to formally open and dedicate Chabad’s new home east of the river n The Benet Rothstein Chabad Jewish Center in Glastonbury, a 5,000-square-foot community center that will house all of Chabad’s programming- from services and holiday observances, to adult education classes, to social events, like bar mitzvahs, engagement parties, etc.

More pictures in the Extended Article!