Forbes #316 Visits Chabad

By COLlive reporter
Photos by Berele Sheiner

Australian Jewish billionaire Harry Triguboff visited the Kfar Chabad village in central Israel Tuesday and met children from troubled homes.

The property developer, who is close to Chabad of Sydney, was welcomed by the staff at the Ohr Simcha dormitory, which caters to boys from broken or poor families.

He got a report about the unique institution from the directors Rabbis Zev Slavin and Yosef Yitzchak Klein and visited the dorm rooms and spoke to some of the children.

Slavin’s brother Rabbi Dovid Slavin of Australia is friendly with Triguboff, 77, who was ranked #316 in the Forbes World’s Billionaires list of 2010.

During the visit, “High-Rise Harry” was honored with inaugurating the new “Triguboff Recreational Area” in the courtyard of the facility.

He was later joined for a meal with the Kfar’s Rabbi Mordechai Shmuel Ashkenazi, whose grandfather knew the Triguboff family back in Shanghai, China, during the Second World War.

Harry Triguboff himself was born in Dalian, China, and spent his early childhood in the white Russian Jewish community in Tianjin (nearby Beijing) before coming to Australia in 1947.