Chabad Expands Jewish Communities in Tennessee’s Top Three Cities

MEMPHIS, TN — In honor of its Bar-Mitzvah year in Memphis, Chabad of this city home to some 15,000 Jews, purchased six lush acres and a sprawling building to house a Center for Jewish Life.

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A nine-acre former pear farm now belongs to Chabad of Nashville. Their Center for Jewish Life will stand alongside meditation gardens and spiritual hiking paths.

In a surprising move for a city with 3000 Jews, Chabad of Knoxville acquired property and a building for its flourishing Jewish day school.

The real estate deals come on the heels of other important developments suggesting that Tennessee is ready for its place in the spotlight. UJC selected Nashville as the site for its General Assembly, billed the world’s largest gathering of Jewish leaders. Six Fortune 500 companies – like FedEx and Autozone – are headquartered in the Volunteer State.

When Rabbi Levi and Rivky Klein look out over the acreage for Chabad of Memphis’s new home, they see space, space and room for horseback riding during community events.

“We intend to make the most of the great outdoors,” said Rabbi Klein.
Accustomed to borrowing space for events, Chabad will finally host its annual Rosh Hashannah dinner in its own social hall.

When Chabad of Memphis opened in 1994, it found a close-knit Jewish community of 10,000 already in place. Jews are not news in the state Al Gore calls home. Jewish settlers arrived decades before the Civil War. For Chabad fitting in means filling in where Memphis needs a boost. Rabbi Klein is the area’s only ritual circumciser. Chabad’s Bat Mitzvah Club and Jewish Learning Institute for adults draw participants from all segments of the community.

No longer the new kid on the block – especially since the Klein’s son, a native Tennessean, recently celebrated his bar mitzvah with 300 well wishers – the new property is “a coming of age for us here, too,” said Rabbi Klein. “Now people can see we have roots firmly planted in Memphis.”

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