S. Antonio’s Day of Celebration

By COLlive staff

More than 300 people gathered on Sunday, May 12th 2013 in S. Antonio, Texas to dedicate the new Chabad Center for Jewish Life & Learning and pay tribute to the remarkable accomplishments of the local branch of the worldwide Chabad Lubavitch movement.

Neither Mother’s Day responsibilities nor a basketball playoff Spurs game could stop the crowd from participating in the grand dedication.

Founded in 1985 by Rabbi Chaim and Rivkie Block on a hope and a prayer and a blessing by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the organization moved to the North Central vicinity of S. Antonio in 1987 and operated out of a large house for many years.

In 1996 a new preschool building was built and in 1998 Rabbi Yossi and Malkie Marrus joined the Chabad staff. In the last 5 years, Chabad has seen tremendous growth with the arrival of Rabbi Levi and Rochel Teldon joining the rabbinic staff, the dedication of another Sefer Torah, the construction of a new Early Childhood Classroom underwritten by the Slager Foundation and the groundbreaking of its new center.

The event began with a cantorial rendition of the Shehechiyanu blessing sung by guest Cantor Yehoshua Samuels of Queens, NY and words of greeting by the Mayor Julian Castro of S. Antonio.

After the cutting of the ribbon the Mezuzah was placed on the magnificent stone archway entrance to the center by Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, Chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, the educational and outreach arm of Chabad-Lubavitch.

Music and dancing and a Chuppah canopy accompanied the Torah scrolls into the new center where the crowd heard words of greeting and Torah by Elaine Cohen, Building Committee Chairperson, Rabbis Levi Teldon, Yossi Marrus, Chaim Block, Jeff Shapiro – Vice Chair of the Jewish Federation of S. Antonio, Rabbi Shimon Lazaroff -Regional Director of Chabad in the State of Texas, and Rabbi Krinsky.

Cantor Samuels entertained the crowd with a special Mother’s Day rendition of “A Yiddishe Mame” and “Sheyebone Beis Hamikdosh” accompanied by pianist Choni Zuker.

The new center includes a beautiful sanctuary and social hall, administrative offices, educational classrooms, the Hurvitt Library, dedicated by Dan Markson in memory of his grandfather who studied in the original Tomchei Temimim in Lubavitch and an outdoor Jerusalem plaza and a state-of-the art Mikvah.