Thank You For Meeting The Needs Of Our Community As the new year approaches and we reflect back on this past year, we are filled with gratitude for the good you have done for our community in a challenging time. Thanks to you, Fairfield Forward, our capital improvements campaign, was a resounding success. You have helped to create a center that will meet the needs of the community. You have made it possible for people to participate in activities in a safer, more comfortable, and even more welcoming environment.
children, young people and seniors connect to their Judaism and become leaders in the community. Thank you! We are now in the month of Elul, leading up to Rosh Hashana. Let’s use this time to pray for blessings for our entire community.
Thanks to you, our community is not just surviving but thriving.
We look forward to greeting you in the New Year. May it be one of health, happiness, nachas, success, and inspiration for you and your loved ones.
As you will read in these pages, you’re impacting the community in a variety of ways. You’re helping
Rabbi Shlame & Miriam Landa
You Gave Stas The Opportunity To Be A Leader campus, they asked Stas to be a part of the fundraising effort. “They helped us so much over the years. I wanted to reciprocate.”
Stas and Gilana Gomberg
Stas Gomberg came to America from Russia as a young child. “Like many Russian Jews, my parents had a negative association with Judaism and didn’t practice very much,” says Stas. “My then-fiancée, Gilana, led me to Chabad. She had a similar background to me, but on her own she had a curiosity for Judaism. Chabad was the most open and accessible form of Judaism for us, nonpracticing Jews at the time.” When Rabbi Shlame and Miriam started Fairfield Forward, their project to renovate the Chabad
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Once Stas got involved, he wanted to do his best. He made fun social media memes to get younger people on board, and he made many phone calls to potential donors. “It’s surprising when the voices on the other end of the line are so receptive and open to a fundraising call. That really goes to show how the community felt about the Landas and Chabad in general.” The campaign was an overwhelming success. Stas says that he has changed through his involvement with Chabad and the fundraising campaign. “I don’t know how I did all those latenight phone calls, but I learned so much about faith and positivity from the Landas.” Thank you for giving people like Stas the opportunity to become leaders in the community, to volunteer and give back. “Your support of Chabad is exponentially helping the Jewish community in Fairfield,” Stas says with gratitude. “Thank you.”
You Gave Jen’s Daughters A Magical Jewish Summer Experience Jen was hesitant about sending her kids to a camp run by “Orthodox” Jews, but people said, “Just go, you have to experience it.” “It’s a little cliche,” says Jen, “but the experience that my kids come home with at the end of the day is enveloped in absolute love and acceptance.
her eyes. There’s a purity to that that I wasn’t able to give my children, even with my Ivy League education, and even with my Jewish education.
Jen Epstein’s daughter Georgia
“Even though many of the staff are religiously observant, your camp has figured out a way to meet other people where they are. You created a big happy family with no judgment. “I love the way that Jewish ethics, values, and customs are interwoven. My children are taught that they’re loved by G-d and by their fellow Jews. My little one at three was learning the prayers, and I saw her light the Shabbat candles with her hands over
“It’s a secret recipe that you all have. There’s an energy to teaching that I’ve never seen before. I think perhaps the magic is in the mystery.”
Jen says she’s learning from her daughters. “Thanks to your summer program, my girls don’t see delineations in our religion. They’re my teachers. I’m following their lead. You taught us to see the unity of our faith.” It is thanks to you that Jewish children in our community have this sense of connection to each other and to Judaism. You’ve given our children a hands-on Jewish experience they don’t get anywhere else. Thank you!
You Gave Sandra A Jewish Family Sandra is living on her own and is mostly homebound. Thanks to you, she is not alone. She has the opportunity to learn and grow. Sandra grew up in Brooklyn and belonged to a synagogue. Her parents kept kosher, and Sandra taught in the Hebrew Day School. When she moved to Connecticut, she found that things were different than in Brooklyn. “I wasn’t comfortable with any of the synagogues,” Sandra says. Then she met Chabad, and she finally felt comfortable. “They were completely nonjudgmental, which is extremely important to me.” When her husband and then her mother passed away, Chabad was there for her. Sandra told the rabbi, “For the first time, I feel like I’m part of a Jewish community.” He told her, “No, you’re part of our family.” When Sandra had spine surgery and couldn’t travel,
Rabbi Landa would come visit her and make sure she was ok. Sandra loves attending Torah classes offered by Chabad. “It’s interesting to me, because I find in learning who I am, and how it affects who I am. And that to me is worth everything.”
Sandra Lax
Sandra, who teaches elder law and family law at a university in Connecticut, including a class about death and dying, was particularly fascinated by a class on the journey of the soul. “I ask all these questions and drive the rabbi crazy. But he says it makes the class more interesting.” Sandra says, “Thank you for giving me a community and a family who is there to support me.”
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2021 Summer Appreciation Report
You Create A Strong And Permanent Connection What Lou Saw At The Rabbi’s House Lou was at the rabbi’s house one Friday afternoon when he witnessed this story:
The family feared for their daughter’s life, as she had attempted suicide several times in the past. They frantically called Chabad and asked for help.
It was a few hours before Shabbat, and the rabbi got a call from a frantic mother. Her daughter was in a residential treatment center in Fairfield that focuses on eating disorders, and they had sent her to a hospital Friday morning.
Chabad of Fairfield
“I ended up going down to the hospital and speaking to the Director of Admissions, and they let her in,” says Rabbi Shlame. Lou says, “It was right before Shabbat. Rabbi Shlame was home and he had a family. But when he got a call that a girl in local hospital needed help, he went. That’s Chabad for you.
The hospital examined her and cleared her to return to the residential center, but the center refused to accept responsibility for her. The hospital did not want to admit the young lady and instead wanted to send her to a halfway house.
“Because Chabad is different than other places that I’ve been. The rabbi and rebbetzin don’t have a job. They have a mission. They’re not going to be leaving in six months for a better assignment. So Lou Berkowitz when we support Chabad, you and I are investing in and helping create a connection that is stronger and more permanent. You and I become The girl said she refused to go to the halfway house part of the mission to help others and to make a real and would just walk out the door. difference in our community.” ב׳׳ה
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Chabad of Fairfield, 452 Brookside Dr, Fairfield, CT 06824 Phone: (203) 373-7551
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