Chabad of Puerto Rico will hold a groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday, Dec. 10, for a new Chabad center that locals and visitors will be able to call their home away from home. Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García Padilla and a number of other public dignitaries are slated to attend.
Founded by Rabbi Mendel and Rachel Zarchi in 1999, the new Chabad of Puerto Rico facilities will comprise an 11,000-square-foot center in the suburbs of San Juan.
It will house the first synagogue in Puerto Rico to be built from the bottom up, as well as Puerto Rico’s first mikvah, says Rabbi Levi Stein, director of Chabad’s Welcome Center there. The new space will also feature a social hall, commercial kitchen, classrooms for Hebrew school and a preschool.
Chabad has owned the property for the last seven years, operating out of a small house that has now been demolished. The building—in the Isla Verde neighborhood of Carolina—is within walking distance to popular area hotels and will help Chabad better serve the 2,000 to 3,000 Jews who reside nearby, in addition to the thousands more who visit each year.
“It’s very important because obviously, we’ve outgrown the space,” says Stein.
Chabad also provides kosher food to visitors and residents alike, which it will be better-equipped to do in the new facility. Currently, it offers daily services, holiday programming, women’s events, Hebrew school and more. “The new building will mean a permanent presence,” adds the rabbi, “and it will help build the community.”
The groundbreaking will include a breakfast celebration, violin music and several keynote speeches.
Those planning to be on hand include the president of the Senate of Puerto Rico Eduardo Bhatia Gautier; the Secretary of Economic Development Lcdo. Alberto Bacó Bagué; the executive director of Puerto Rico Tourism Company Ingrid Rivera Rocafort; and a representative of Puerto Rico's Secretary of State.
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