Daily Archives: May 27, 2007

Open Doors and Hearts

A Trinity couple’s home becomes a place where Jews can study, celebrate and grow.

New Port Richey, FL — This synagogue without walls is hoping to draw people to an oasis of Judaism.

“Our center utilizes various locations while developing plans for a facility of its own,” said 31-year-old Rabbi Yossi Eber.

The Chabad Jewish Center of West Pasco was established in 2006 by Eber and his wife, 27-year-old Dina. They purchased a one-way ticket from Brooklyn and moved to the West Pasco community of Trinity and opened the doors to their hearts and home to the Jewish populace.

Plano Synagogue Acquires Third Torah

Plano, TX — With each stroke of his quill pen, Rabbi Menachem Block came one step closer to completing the third and final Torah at the Chabad of Plano.

For certain Jewish holidays, some synagogues prefer to have three Torahs to read from different sections. Until the Torah dedication May 20, the Chabad of Plano had only two Torahs and had to borrow a third from neighboring synagogues.

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.