By Avraham Lobock for COLlive.com
Shuls typically impact the lives of a few, but only a few Shuls have changed the lives of the many. While it may not have a permanent physical location, Bais Shmuel Chabad has successfully touched the lives of many in Crown Heights and beyond.
The seeds of Bais Shmuel began in the years after Gimmel Tammuz when the young men of Crown Heights began to face a troubling question. In the past, every Shabbos afternoon would be spent at the Rebbe’s Farbrengen; What now?
Rabbi Moshe Pinson was running the children’s program of the Kinus Hashluchim and Kinus Hashluchos. He decided to make a Minyan to help the girls attending the Kinus hear Kriyas HaTorah. The first Shabbos he asked around to get help with a Minyan, and ended up hosting a Minyan for over 100 people.
Clearly, he thought, something was here. The Crown Heights community was searching for something.
He announced that he would be starting a Minyan in the Shluchim Office, where he worked at the time and whose building on Eastern Parkway was empty during renovations. As a trial week, that first Shabbos was a struggle. Pinson ended up waiting outside, trying to pull people in for a minyan. In a few short weeks, however, the crowd began to grow. Less than a month after opening, they moved into their first home at 824 Eastern Parkway.
“People did not have a personal Shul,” Pinson says. At the time, there were only a handful of Shuls in Crown Heights, nearly all of which were decades old. The notion of starting a shul, and making programming for the Crown Heights community, was unheard of.
That first year they made a Purim party, and the Crown Heights community’s reaction was mixed. “Nobody did things like that then; we were the Chabad house for Crown Heights,” he says.
After that initial event, Bais Shmuel continued to grow, with 125 families as members and a Youth Minyan which attracts over 200 kids each week and includes incentives and trips.
They soon began to expand their influence to help the Crown Heights community. They organized a “Chanukah on Ice” event. They began a free loan society, followed by Maos Chitim funds for Pesach and the other Yomim Tovim.
Their events and projects have been, and still are, dedicated to reaching everyone in Crown Heights. The Bais Shmuel Purim Party, now held at Oholei Torah the night of Purim, has become a community institution. Their annual Menorah lighting, held at the Lefrak Skating Rink in Prospect Park, is attended by hundreds.
Shul members travel together for Gimmel Tammuz at the Ohel and for Chof Av to Kazakhstan to mark the yartzeit of Harav Levi Yitzchok Schneerson, the Rebbe’s father. For 16 years, until his passing this year, the Rebbe’s Mazkir Rabbi Leibel Groner led the Shul’s annual Simchas Torah Farbrengen. A recent initiative established in memory of the bochur Shmuel Karnowsky OBM encourages boys and girls to recite Tehillim on Shabbos Mevorchim.
The influence of Bais Shmuel is not limited to their programming.
Not a Shabbos goes by that young men, heading out on Shlichus, are seen collecting pledges for contributions to their Chabad centers. If there is an event of any kind in Crown Heights, from the Kinus and Gimmel Tammuz programming to Friendship Circle and the Chidon, the organizers reach out to members of Bais Shmuel.
The philanthropy the community is perhaps proudest of, though, is Mikvah Mei Chaya Mushka.
Pinson saw that the community had expanded to the point that a new Mikvah was needed, so Bais Shmuel gathered together to make it happen. Members of the Shul were heavily involved in purchasing the building, constructing the beautiful, state-of-the-art Mikvah, and maintaining the Mikvah by fundraising to balance the deficit.
The Mikvah, known as one the most beautiful in the world, is enjoyed by community members and toured by hundreds from around the world every year who learn about the beauty of the Mitzvah.
Among the secrets of the Shul’s success is, of course, the people involved. In their early days, the Shul hired Rabbi YY Jacobson as their Rabbi. Rabbi Jacobson’s inimitable poise and intelligence drew a large crowd to hear him speak and his direction led the Shul to unprecedented growth. When Rabbi Jacobson moved to Monsey in 2015, Rabbi Levi Garelik took the position and continues to guide the community until this day.
The Shul is led by a group of dedicated board members, Yitzy Kamman, Zalman Stock, Zalman Skoblo and Shaya Rochester with the help of Gabbai Mendy Smetana and assistants Yossi Schapiro, Binyomin Dubroff and Shimmy Shafran.
Many of the members of the community have become well-known for their boundless chessed and their contributions to the Jewish community. One former member, entrepreneur and inspirational speaker Dudi Farkash, now the founder of Chabad of Forshay in Monsey, NY, acted as Gabbai for years and helped develop the community from the very beginning.
As the first “young shul” in the neighborhood, Bais Shmuel started a revolution. Nearly 80 new shuls in Crown Heights, as well as an estimated 100 shuls around the world, are modeled after them. “Bais Shmuel was the trailblazer,” said a founder of another successful Shul in Crown Heights. “They made it possible for us.”
Until today, Pinson gets many calls from young people looking to start Shuls. He sits with them, guiding them through the process of making their own community within Crown Heights. “Our vision was to build a Chabad House,” he says.
Interestingly, while members of the shul have assisted in building and sustaining many institutions, and are known for their activism, they have not secured for themselves a permanent location for their shul.
Pinson, the shul’s founder and president, says he has plans for that.
“We are looking forward to one day building a grand, permanent shul, along with affordable rental housing for young families in the community,” he says.
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Congregation Bais Shmuel Chabad
792 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY, 11213
Schedule for Bais Shmuel:
Sunday:
Shachris – 9:45 am
Sicha Shiur – 10:45 am
Mon-Friday (in Agudah Shul):
Rambam Shiur by Rabbi Lippy Kosofsky – 5:30 am
Chassidus Shiur by Rabbi Avremel Pikarski – 6:30 am
Shachris – 7:30 am
Tuesday Night (Beis Binyomin):
Shiur by Rabbi Ari Chitrik – 8:30 pm
Moshiach Shiur at 517 Midwood St.- 9:00 pm
Friday Night:
Mincha – 15 minutes after licht
Shiur by Rabbi Levi Garelik
Maariv
Shabbos:
Chassidus Shiur by Rabbi Kuti Feldman (Yiddish) – 9:15 am
(Yagdil Torah) Chassidus Shiur by Rabbi Yossi Paltiel (English) – 9:15 am
Shachris – 10:00 am
Drasha by Rabbi Levi Garelik
Kiddush & Farbrengen
Mincha
Chazaras Dach by Rabbi Lippy Kosofsky
Maariv
Shabbos Mevorchim:
Chassidus Shiur by Rabbi Kuti Feldman – 7:45 am
Tehillim – 8:30 am
Light Kiddush following Tehillim
Shachris – 10:30 am
For more info, call 718-753-7078, email [email protected] or visit www.Baisshmuel.com
Our Shuls – profiles of the shuls of Crown Heights on COLlive.com:
Anshei Lubavitch on Albany Ave
Adas Yisroel-Beis Midrash Eliyahu Nachum (Lefferts Shul)
The Mitzvah Center on Troy Ave
shkoyach!!!
Wow very interesting – thank you for making this interesting series
As I understand, the shul is named after R’ Mule Motzkin