Couple brings effort for Chabad outreach to Wallingfords’ Jews

Rabbi Baruch Kaplan sat on a couch in his living room Tuesday night and spoke about his Jewish heritage with a great sense of pride. He has another couch for anyone wishing to join him.

Kaplan moved to Wallingford just over a month ago with his wife Raizy and their two young daughters to serve as the directors of the local Chabad-Lubavitch movement, a worldwide Jewish outreach organization.

The organization, which began in America over 60 years ago, is headquartered in Brooklyn and has more than 4,000 emissary families scattered throughout the world.

The idea is for the families to become part of the community so they can better understand its people and its needs.

“Our goal is to go out into little communities throughout the world and spread the word and warmth about Judaism,” said Kaplan, 28. “It’s imperative to be inside the community. People don’t want people to just come in to teach them something and then leave. I think when you live in the community, people feel much stronger about you because you’re really giving yourself to them.”

Kaplan was born in New Jersey and grew up in Philadelphia before moving to Brooklyn. He has directed Chabad centers in Seattle and Bellevue, Wash., and directed a center near Oakland during the past year. His brother has been involved in centers in India, China and Vietnam and his cousin has done the same in Thailand.

He said there are regional directors all over the country who choose a community they feel is in need of a Chabad presence. There are around 20 Chabad centers in Connecticut and none require any sort of formal membership, Kaplan said.

“Especially in this area, the Jews are all dispersed,” Kaplan said. “There’s no central area for all the Jews. We hope to attract those people who are looking for something and just don’t know where to find it.”

Rabbi Sheya Hecht is the Chabad director for the Greater New Haven area and is also the headmaster at the Southern Connecticut Hebrew Day School in Orange, where both Kaplan and his wife are now teachers.

“The Chabad is more about exposing rather than imposing the Jewish way of life on people,” Hecht said. “I think Rabbi Kaplan and his wife are very dedicated and special people and I think they’ll revitalize this community.”

Kaplan plans to do that by holding educational classes for families in his home until he finds a place to use as a more formal Chabad center.

“One of the first things we begin with are classes,” Kaplan said. “We believe education is truly important. A lot of people know they’re Jewish and they’ve done all these different types of things, but they don’t know what any of it means. We want to add a little meaning to it and give them the basics of Judaism.”

“It’s also providing a home for everyone,” said Raizy Kaplan. “If somebody needs somewhere to go or wants to celebrate a holiday, we’re basically here to provide a home for those people.”

Kaplan has already begun contacting people in Wallingford and the surrounding area. He said he simply looks for people with Jewish names and gives them a call.

“Many Jews have heard of Chabad and they mention how it’s made quite an impact around the world,” Kaplan said. “We’ve had some nice conversations just to tell them who we are. We’re slow and we don’t try to push anyone. What we’re offering, quite frankly, is an opportunity for them to get something out of this.”

He has also contacted Eliana Falk, a student rabbi and spiritual leader of Beth Israel Synagogue, 22 N. Orchard St.

“I look forward to meeting Rabbi Kaplan and discussing how the Jewish community can grow in Wallingford,” Falk said Wednesday afternoon.

The Chabad-Lubavitch movement in America began in the early 1940s when Rabbi Yosef Schneerson appointed his son-in-law, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson to head the organization.

The word Chabad is a combination of chachmah (wisdom), binah (comprehension) and da’at (knowledge). Lubavitch is the name of a town in Russia where the movement was based for more than a century. Lubavitch in Russian translates to “The City of Brotherly Love.”

“I don’t think our goal will ever go fulfilled,” Kaplan said. “We will never really reach our goal until every Jew feels connected.”

As a way to help connect with local Jews, Kaplan will hold a menorah lighting to celebrate Hanukkah at Johanna Manfreda Fishbein Park on Dec. 25 at 4:15 p.m.

Town officials refused to allow a menorah to be left at the park in 1995 when they decided it was a religious symbol that would violate the separation of church and state. They later allowed the menorah lighting and have since continued to do so.

“We believe there’s a lot of joy in Judaism,” Kaplan said. “There are so many holidays and we’re very fortunate for that, so we want people to learn a little bit about them and enjoy them. One of our focuses is to build our Jewish pride. The menorah is a symbol of that pride. When people see it, they know it means a lot to them.”

Although Kaplan and his family have moved around quite a bit over the years, he said he hopes to become a fixture in the Wallingford community for a long time.

“Your whole life and your whole family is involved in it and that’s the beauty of it,” Kaplan said. “You’re giving of yourself to help others and when you give to someone or to something …you’re really receiving.”