Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Area F.R.E.E. Celebrates 26 Years

When a Maine Township, Illinois synagogue marked its 25th anniversary last year, it was a notable occasion. But 26 years is equally so.

In Jewish tradition, 26 is a number with special numerological meaning, explained Rabbi Naftoly Hershkovich of the Lubavitch Chabad and F.R.E.E. (Friends of Refugees from Eastern Europe) congregation at 9401 Margail Ave. in unincorporated Maine Township. Each letter in the Hebrew alphabet has a value, and when the letter values of the Hebrew word for God are added up, the sum is 26, Hershkovich said.

That alone was reason to again celebrate another year of the synagogue’s presence in the community, which members came together to do on Aug. 25 when an anniversary lunch was held. Going forward, there are plans to annually mark the synagogue’s anniversary with special gatherings as well.

Chabad and F.R.E.E. began in 1987 as an effort to expand Chabad centers outside of Chicago’s West Rogers Park neighborhood, explained Rabbi Binyomin Scheiman, the synagogue’s director. Knowing that many attendees of a Jewish summer camp run by Scheiman’s organization resided in Maine Township, the neighborhood of north of Ballard Road seemed like a perfect location to establish a new religious center.

“In 1987 (unincorporated Maine Township) was a mix of the original homeowners — a high percentage of Jewish people — and there was also a wave of immigrant residents from the former Soviet Union,” Scheiman explained.

It was for this reason that Hershkovich, representing Friends of Refugees from Eastern Europe, joined Scheiman in the establishment of a new synagogue.

It was a humble beginning.

“The synagogue actually started in my basement,” Scheiman said. For four years followers from the neighborhood — enough to fill the basement for prayers — met inside Scheiman’s duplex at Hamlin Avenue and Emerson Street until the congregation purchased a home on Margail Avenue. Extensive renovations to the building were completed last year.

Though the community is small, the synagogue does draw large numbers of faithful during the high holidays. For Yom Kippur, the day of atonement and the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Chabad and F.R.E.E. rents out the gym of the Golf-Maine Park District’s Feldman Center to accommodate the crowds, Scheiman said.

Saturday services are attended by about 60 to 70 people.

“I tell people they don’t have to come just on Yom Kippur,” Hershkovich said. “I tell them, ‘Every day is Yom Kippur.’”

Hershkovich remains proud that, beginning in 2011, Chabad and F.R.E.E. was able to host a public menorah in Niles during Hanukkah after struggling for some time to make it happen. That menorah, he says, is a symbol of the freedom to celebrate one’s faith — something that likely hits close to home for those members of the synagogue who were unable to practice Judaism under communist regimes in their home countries.

Over the last 26 years, the population of Maine Township has changed as waves of Hindu, Muslim and Christian immigrants have settled into the duplexes and houses once occupied by a large Jewish community. In 2010, the Maine Township Jewish Congregation on Ballard Road shut its doors due to dropping membership, leaving only the Chabad.

Scheiman said it is “gratifying” that his synagogue remains part of the community.

“We came in, we’re still here and we’re not thinking of moving,” he said. “We’re maintaining a synagogue so people who do live here are not abandoned. We hope other people will find the neighborhood and we hope it will repopulate with a few new Jewish people.”

“We’re a very unique place,” Hershkovich said. “We are small, we are serving for 26 years and we are here to stay.”

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