Chabad Jewish Center Celebrates 30 Years in Greater Cincinnati
30 Years Ago:
With the blessing of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yisroel and Chana Alta Mangel with their month-old baby Mendel, moved to Cincinnati armed with a dream: A dream that every Jew, regardless of background or financial ability, would have a warm, welcoming place to nurture their spirituality at their own pace and to connect and celebrate with family. A dream that every individual be seen as a precious soul deserving of attention, support, and guidance, and as an integral part of Jewish community and continuity. A dream of that the age-old Torah values be shared with fresh enthusiasm and relevance through modern innovation and hands-on inspiration, and its divine wisdom be shared with increasing depth and accessibility.
With the help of a handful of people, the Mangels opened the Chabad Jewish Center in Blue Ash to realize this dream. Its goal? To serve the spiritual needs of the greater Cincinnati Jewish community, alongside Chabad of Southern Ohio, with a spirit of joy, dedication, and love of fellowman and with a particular focus on the needs of the uninvolved and unaffiliated section of the community that had been largely unaddressed by established organizations.
30 Years Later:
Chabad has touched countless lives and enhanced life in Cincinnati for all ages – whether it be through its fun, educational and engaging programming for children including early childhood, Hebrew School , C-teen, and Living legacy programs; its full variety of lectures and ongoing classes for adults; its family Shabbatons, lifecycle events, and community-wide holiday celebrations and outreach; its social sensitivity programs, including Friendship circle for children and young adults with special needs; the teaching of tolerance, morality, and spiritual awareness to the broader public; and for this past year, its quick and versatile adaption to online provision of the above services. Chabad Jewish Center has become a household name, permanently changing the landscape of Jewish Cincinnati for the better.
30 Years Celebration:
To mark this great accomplishment and to reaffirm Chabad’s solid commitment to the future—with firm acknowledgement of, and deep gratitude to, the vital friends and partners who have made it all happen—a roster of yearlong programs and projects have been planned.
Our first project for the year is the community-wide Mezuzah-300 campaign – to provide new mezuzah scrolls for local homes and businesses for rooms that do not yet have one, and to professionally inspect old mezuzahs to see whether they are in good shape or in need of fixing or replacement.
This mitzvah is especially relevant to these times, when the mezuzah-message of belief in the all knowing, all-present, all-powerful G-d is so needed, and when the extra measure of promised Divine protection associated with this mitzvah is so necessary.
Above all, each mitzvah will be just one more step in precipitating, and preparing our universe for, the long-awaited time of Moshiach, when the world will be filled with the knowledge of G-d and only goodness, kindness, and peace shall reign for eternity.
