Developer Pledges $1 Million to Toronto Chabad House

Larry Robbins, a real estate developer and board leader of the Erin Mills Development Corporation, recently pledged more than $1 million to Chabad of Mississauga for an endowment fund earmarked for educational programs.

He has promised $1,080,000 in seed money for the Robbins Family Endowment Fund, because, he told The CJN in a phone interview, the amount is “six times 180,000. I do everything with chai. Even in business, I try to work it out to chai.”

As well, he admires Rabbi Yitzchok Slavin and his wife, Sara, for their hard work in building something “from nothing,” and for the services they provide to the Jewish community in Mississauga, Brampton, Hamilton, Milton and Oakville.

By coincidence or serendipity, Rabbi Slavin, who started Chabad of Mississauga in 2003, lives on the first street that Robbins built in the area almost three decades ago.

The two men have a relationship that dates back about five years, when Rabbi Slavin first called Robbins because he had heard that Robbins and his wife, Miriam, who has since died, had a Torah they wanted to donate.

Miriam’s father, the late Rabbi Isaac Aronoff, ran a shul in his home, and the Torah had belonged to him.

The couple donated the Torah to Chabad of Mississauga (also known as Chabad in Erin Mills), and the rabbi subsequently asked Robbins for advice on buying a building. Chabad is now located in a 6,300-foot facility on Dundas St. called the Turk Family Chabad Jewish Discovery Centre.

The two men developed a friendship, Robbins told The CJN.

Robbins – via the Erin Mills Development Corporation at the time – also helped the congregation when its second mortgage came due. As well, Chabad’s Hebrew School is named for Miriam Robbins.

“Above all, our focus is on education,” Rabbi Slavin said in a news release.

Likewise, education was important to Miriam Robbins. In large part for that reason, Robbins was a benefactor to United Synagogue Day School last year, and it was renamed Robbins Hebrew Academy.

Rabbi Slavin told The CJN that, although Mississauga and Oakville each had a Reform temple when he arrived (a small Conservative congregation was established in the area a year later), there was a large population of unaffiliated Jewish people in the area.

He knew only two people in the community at the time and started running services in his basement.

Today, Rabbi Slavin said, Chabad of Mississauga has a mailing list of almost 500 people, and an average Shabbat morning attendance of about 30 people. Last year, between 70 and 95 people attended High Holiday services.

Over the years, hundreds of people have come through his doors, the rabbi said, referring to attendees of Hebrew school, adult education programs, and summer day camp in addition to religious services.

Robbins’ gift will put all the educational programs “under one umbrella,” Rabbi Slavin said. As well, he added, it will enable Chabad to create more educational options for people of all ages. A new teens’ club and a new Mommy & Me program will also offer Judaic-related education.

For Chabad of Mississauga, which doesn’t charge membership dues, the fund offers some security, although it will provide only 15 to 18 per cent of its annual budget, Rabbi Slavin said.

A gala dinner to honour Robbins and pay tribute to his wife’s memory is planned for mid-2012, when the new institute will be formally dedicated.