Arizona Chabad continues to grow
LEISAH NAMM
Managing Editor
As the Chabad-Lubavitch movement grows throughout Europe - and worldwide - this expansion is also reflected in the Valley.
Twenty-eight years ago, Rabbi Zalman and Tziporah Levertov moved to Phoenix and started a synagogue that met in a garage and struggled to find a minyan. Since then, Chabad of Arizona has multiplied sevenfold throughout Arizona; centers are now in Chandler, Glendale, North Phoenix, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe and Tucson.
The next city on Chabad's list is Anthem, a master-planned community north of Phoenix. Rabbi Yossi Friedman and his wife Rivky, the Levertovs' son-in-law and daughter, will start programming in Anthem this month, says Levertov, director of Chabad of Arizona. The Friedmans, who ran High Holiday services for Anthem residents in fall 2004, will also head Chabad of Phoenix's adult education program.
Plans are also in the works to open a Chabad center in Ahwatukee this summer, Levertov says.
"Chabad in the Valley has an enviable record about being a positive force in the area of outreach," says Rabbi David Rebibo, spiritual leader of Beth Joseph Congregation, an Orthodox synagogue in Phoenix. "They have certainly been the first to extend their hands and their services to all corners of the Valley."
Rebibo has worked with the Levertovs since their arrival in Phoenix and says Chabad is "a very necessary component of the overall landscape of the community."
"They fill tremendous gaps that the classical organizations are not able to address or to reach," he says.
In 2003, Rabbi Shmuel Tiechtel and his wife Chana came to the Arizona State University campus in Tempe to open Chabad at ASU. Rabbi Barton Lee, who has headed the Hillel Jewish Student Center at ASU since 1972, says that the "relationships, professional and personal, (between the two groups) are very good."
They have even held joint events, such as a Chanukah party, and work together to avoid major scheduling conflicts.
In July, Chabad plans to open a center on the campus of the University of Arizona in Tucson, Levertov says. Rabbi Yossi and Naomi Winner will move to Tucson from New York in July.
Another couple, Rabbi Mendy and Tzippy Lipskier, will move to Chandler in July and join the staff of Chabad of the East Valley, headed by Rabbi Mendy Deitsch, Levertov says. Rabbi Mendy Lipskier, the brother of Deitsch's wife Shternie, and his wife will run the new Chandler Jewish Preschool.
In addition, Rabbi Amnon Tzadikov, a Bucharian rabbi, has joined the staff of Chabad of Arizona and will run a Bucharian synagogue with his wife Mazal in a facility rented by Chabad at 16th Street and Bell in Phoenix, Levertov says.
"The community is growing," says Levertov, "and there's a need to expand a little. We're answering the needs of the people."
Visit www.chabadaz.com.
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