| The Shul of Bal Harbour | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Religion | |
| Leadership | Rabbi Sholom D. Lipskar |
| Status | Active |
| Location | |
| Location | 9540 Collins Ave, Surfside, Florida, U.S. |
| Geographic coordinates | 25°53′09″N80°07′22″W / 25.885843°N 80.122723°W |
| Architecture | |
| Completed | 1994 |
| Website | |
| www | |
The Shul of Bal Harbour is a Chabad-Lubavitch synagogue in Surfside, Florida named by Newsweek as one of America's 25 most vibrant congregations. [1]
The Shul was founded by Rabbi Sholom Lipskar, [2] who was sent as an emissary of the Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneersohn, to Miami Beach in 1969. [3]
After finding no active Jewish community in the Surfside area, Lipskar initially met in hotel rooms before moving to a storefront. [3] [4] [5]
In the early 1980s, Surfside was not welcoming to Jews with real-estate agents refusing to deal with Jewish clients. In 1982 the local Bal Harbor Club dropped its policy banning Jewish and Black people after a discrimination lawsuit. [6] [4]
The Shul moved to its current site in 1987. [4]
The $9 million, 34,000 square foot building was completed and opened in 1994 in time for Rosh Hashanah. [7] The building is colonnaded and the design resembles ancient Jerusalem sandstone. [4]
In 2016, The Shul announced a 40,000 square foot expansion at the cost of $20 million to be finished in two years. The expansion includes an all-glass wall 40 foot high social hall with glass ceilings accommodating crowds of up to 700 people. [4]
The congregation membership has 700 families representing 3,000 people. Programming includes adult education, programs for Latin American Jewry, early childhood, and five daily minyans. [4] [8]
The Shul is also the headquarters for the Aleph Institute, an organization assisting Jewish prisoners and military personnel, also founded by Lipskar.
After the Surfside condominium collapse, The Shul raised over $500,000 for families of the victims and distributed aid to displaced community members. [9] [10] [11]
Surfside is a town in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. Surfside is a primarily residential beachside community, with several multistory condominium buildings adjacent to Surfside Beach on the Atlantic Ocean. The town is bordered on the south by the North Beach neighborhood of Miami Beach, on the north by Bal Harbour, on the west by Biscayne Bay, and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean. It also serves as part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The population was 5,689 as of the 2020 census.
Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch, is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements. It is one of the largest Hasidic groups as well as one of the largest Jewish religious organizations in the world. Unlike most Haredi groups, which are self-segregating, Chabad mainly operates in the wider world and it caters to secularized Jews.
770 Eastern Parkway, also known as "770", is the street address of the World Headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement, located on Eastern Parkway in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The building is the center of the Chabad-Lubavitch world movement and considered by many to be an iconic site in Judaism.
Tomchei Tmimim is the central Yeshiva of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. Founded in 1897 in the town of Lubavitch by Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, it is now an international network of institutions of advanced Torah study, the United Lubavitcher Yeshivoth.
Moshe J. Kotlarsky is an Orthodox Hasidic rabbi who serves as Vice Chairman of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement which in turn oversees over 5,000 religious and educational institutions worldwide. Kotlarsky is a key movement fundraiser, and a powerful figure in the outreach operation. He also heads the Chabad on Campus International Foundation which is active on over two hundred and thirty campuses worldwide, and serves as chairman of the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute.
The Yeshiva College, also known as the Harry O. Triguboff Centre, is a Hasidic Jewish synagogue, learning centre, and library of the Chabad-Lubavitch nusach, located at 36 Flood Street, in the Sydney suburb of Bondi, New South Wales, Australia. The Centre runs various adult and child-based educational programs.
The Library Of Agudas Chassidei Chabad is a research library owned by Agudas Chasidei Chabad whose content was collected by the rebbes of Chabad-Lubavitch. The library is housed next to the Lubavitch world headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, New York, and is utilized by Chabad and general Judaic scholars. It is viewed by thousands of visitors each year.
Soho Synagogue was an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue located at 43 Crosby Street, in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, New York, in the United States.
The history of the Jews in South Florida dates back to the 19th century. Many South Florida Jews are Ashkenazi, and Latin American. Many are also French, Moroccan, Syrian, Bukharian, and Israeli. There is a significant Sephardic and Mizrachi population as well.
A public menorah is a large menorah displayed publicly during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. It is done to celebrate the holiday and publicize the miracle of Hanukkah, and is typically accompanied by a public event during one of the nights of Hanukkah attended by invited dignitaries who are honored with lighting the menorah.
Rabbi Levi Shemtov is the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad). He serves the Jewish community of Washington, D.C., as well as the daily governmental and diplomatic needs of the international Chabad-Lubavitch movement.
The Jewish community of Houston, Texas has grown and thrived since the 1800s. As of 2008, Jews lived in many Houston neighborhoods and Meyerland is the center of the Jewish community in the area.
Rabbi Zalman I. Posner was an American rabbi and writer associated with the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. Posner served as a congregational rabbi and community leader in the American Southeast for five decades, serving the Orthodox congregation Sherith Israel and founding an Orthodox Day School both in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Chassidim Shul also known as the Chabad House is a synagogue in Yeoville, Johannesburg, South Africa built in 1963 and designed by the firm of Morgensten & Morgensten, the husband and wife team of Jacques Morgenstern and Riva Morgenstern. They met at the University of the Witwatersrand in the Department of Architecture in the 1940s and ran a successful and award-winning architectural practice in Johannesburg.
The Vilna Congregation is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in the Society Hill section of Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The synagogue was traditionally home to an active Hasidic Ashkenazi congregation that held Shabbat and holy day services, was affiliated with Lubavitch of Center City. In more recent years, the synagogue became the home of an Orthodox women's mikvah run by the Lubavitch Hasidic community.
On June 24, 2021, at approximately 1:22 a.m. EDT, Champlain Towers South, a 12-story beachfront condominium in the Miami suburb of Surfside, Florida, United States, partially collapsed, causing the deaths of 98 people. Four people were rescued from the rubble, but one died of injuries shortly after arriving at the hospital. Eleven others were injured. Approximately thirty-five were rescued the same day from the un-collapsed portion of the building, which was demolished ten days later.
The city of Frederick, Maryland is home to a small but growing Jewish community. With roots dating to the colonial era, Frederick's Jewish community is home to three synagogues, a Hebrew school, and a Jewish community center.