Couple Brings International Flavor

By COLlive reporter

The expanding Jewish population in Gilbert, a town in the Phoenix metropolitan area, will be beginning the new Jewish year with a new rabbi and center.

Rabbi Shimi Ash, his wife Chavie (nee Lifshitz) and their 14-month-old son Mendel recently moved to Arizona to establish the Chabad Jewish Center of Gilbert.

They have been appointed by Rabbi Zalman Levertov, Head Shliach and Director of Chabad of Arizona.

“People say that Gilbert is fast-growing, but it’s already grown,” Rabbi Ash said about the most populous incorporated town in the United States.

There are an estimated 3,000 Jewish people living there, Ash told the East Valley Tribune. And while locals could travel to nearby cities for services and programs, he said that such a number of people warrants its own center.

Born in Melbourne to parents who are educators, Shimi studied in Chabad yeshivos in Israel, Los Angeles and New York. He was ordained at the Atlanta Smicha Program and also attended the Belz School of Jewish Music in New York.

He said that the experience he gained from servicing Jewish communities in Tel Aviv, Beijing, Hawaii and Russia will help him hold Torah classes, holiday programs and other activities in his new position.

Cincinnati born Chavie Ash also boats an international resume, having volunteered in youth education programs in Copenhagen, Detroit, London, Istanbul, Dublin and Kazakhstan, after graduating from Beit Chana Teaching Seminary in Tzfas.

Most recently, she has been the Assistant Director at an large Jewish preschool in Manhattan, a skill she will use while planning women’s and children’s programs.

With their home serving as the center, Chavie said they want residents “to feel this is their home.” The Friday night dinners they plan to regularly host will surely add to that feeling.

For more info, visit jewishgilbert.com