Contractor Admits His Mistake

By COLlive reporter
Photos by Donald Woodrow

A host of dignitaries and community leaders attended the grand opening of the Chabad Jewish Center in Antwerp, Belgium, last week.

A project years in the making, the $3 million state-of-the-art building is located on the Belgeliei, the bustling main street in the city center of the Flemish region capital.

It includes a synagogue that can hold 250 people, a social hall, a Jewish library with in several languages, as expected from a country that has 3 officials languages (French, Dutch and German) and more spoken ones (Yiddish, Hebrew and English are taught in Jewish schools as well).

In addition to a youth center and multimedia room, Chabad offices and meeting space, classrooms, and a large playground, the 43,000 square feet of floor space will also house a Museum of Jewish Life in a later stage.

“Our new location will allow Chabad to expand its existing educational and social service programs and to start up many new ones,” declared Antwerp’s Head Shliach Rabbi Shabtai Slavaticki.

Working with him on those activities and at the center are fellow Shluchim: Rabbi and Mrs. Mendel Gurary, Rabbi and Mrs. Menachem Herz, Rabbi and Mrs. Mendy Tvardovitz and Rabbi and Mrs. Yossi Slavaticki.

Their dedicated work under the slogan “Reveal Your Diamond” was alluded to in remarks made at the ceremony by Kris Peeters, Prime Minister of Belgium’s Flemish region.

Peeters quoted chassidus that “every person is a diamond and our job is to polish and remove the mud and discover the brilliant light coming out of the diamond.”

Antwerp is home to the largest diamond center in the world with a turnover of 54 billion dollars.

The head of the Flemish Government in the northern region of Belgium mentioned the Rebbe‘s touching reply that when one counts precious gems, he does not tire. “This message is something we all need to learn from the Rebbe,” Peeters said.

In attendance were Governor of the province of Antwerp Cathy Berx, Antwerp Mayor Bart De Wever, Antwerp Chief Rabbi Dovid Moshe Lieberman and Merkos Vice Chair Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky who came in from New York.

The honor of affixing the Mezuzah on the front door was given to Rabbi Yakov Friedrich, from the elders of Chabad in the city who was moved to tears by the occasion.

Antwerp was home to 50,000 Jews before the Second World War. Some 20,000 Jews live there today. Unlike perceived, majority of its Jews are not necessarily chassidic.

As guests were enjoying the main course during a gala dinner, one of the contractors of the new building stood up and asked to speak, although he was not on the program.

“I was told not to deal with Jews,” he said about comments he got after being hired to build the new Chabad Jewish Center. “But after getting to know them, it really changed my life.”

His sincere words have made a lasting impression on the crowd, one participant said. The ceremony concluded with all on their feet singing “Ani Mamin.”