Darchei Menachem Finds a Home

Gimmel Tammuz is an emotional day for most Lubavitchers. This Gimmel Tammuz was particularly memorable for the upper management of Yeshiva Darchai Menachem, who spent the morning closing on a 8,400 square feet, two floor school building located on Rutland Avenue. The new building is, in the words of school Principal and director Rabbi Eyal Bension, “exactly what the students deserve.”

Rabbi Eyal Bension, was accompanied to the closing by Rabbi Chaim Perl, Director of Development, Rabbi Dovid Morosow, longtime Darchai teacher, and Lev Rivkin who acted as the loan guarantor, along with his personal friend Danny Finkleman, creator of the Darchai Sparks Choir and founder of Sparks Productions. The building, which has been in talks since December, happened only because of a “chain of remarkable events,” said Rabbi Bension. “Jewish people as a whole, but people in Chinuch specifically, see a lot of Hashgocha Protis. We see that every challenge, every hiccup belongs to Hashem. We just need to make a vessel, and through the Rebbe’s Brochos, we get to where we need to go.”

Rabbi Morosow fondly reminisced about the early days of Darchai Menachem, nine years ago, when it was just a handful of students that he and Rabbi Bension taught out of their apartments. “This is a big moment, the dream from the beginning. To grow from nine children to our own building… I couldn’t miss it.”

For Yehudis Friedman, real estate broker with local firm B.H. Tal and mother of a Darchai graduate, connecting the school with the building was her way to give back to the institute that gave so much to her child. “Knowing firsthand of all the good that they do,” Friedman said, “I am especially proud to have helped them reach this milestone.”

Chaim Perl, who led the project and did much of the fundraising, was quick to credit all the supporters, from David Slager to Lev Rivkin, who came in miracle form to ensure this project got to this stage. He spoke of growing up hearing stories of Shluchim buying their first buildings, of strangers in the elevator giving the down payments just in the nick of time and of sellers who ended up giving money to the buyers.” For six months I knew that we had those same Brochos from the Rebbe and was just waiting to see who our Mallach would be. Now, I know our latest miracle worker was Lev Rivkin.”

Rivkin was quick to duck the praise. “It was something that needed to be done,” he said simply, “I know they will succeed. We’re only looking up from here.”

But for Perl, the story isn’t over yet – an additional $350,000 is necessary for the next stage of the project: renovating and furnishing the building before it’s ready to greet the students. “Now,” Perl said, “I’m just wondering where my next miracle will come from.”

Video tour of new building: