Hunterdon Chabad Center Receives Prestigious Architecture Awards

The newest building in picturesque of Hunterdon County, NJ is racking up international recognition and awards, even as thousands of people drive by every day and probably don’t even notice it.

It’s the Telyas Chabad Jewish Center, located off Payne Road along Route 31 in Clinton Township and it’s now the permanent home of Chabad of Hunterdon. The center replaces the rented spaces the Chabad had been using since its founding in 2003 by Chabad representatives to Hunterdon County Rabbi Eli and Rachel Kornfeld.

The $7.5 million project designed by Princeton-based architectural firm Zinder Landau Architecture has only been open about a year, yet has already been recognized and longlisted by the 2023 Archello Awards for the world’s best designed religious building and featured in Real Estate Weekly. One publication noted how a good design can actually help strengthen communities. The center was awarded the best Outstanding Design Award for Community Center Joint-use facilities 2023 in the prestigious  American School and University magazine. The magazine observed that that the building is best described as a “community center” – architect Joshua Zinder envisioned the project as more than just a synagogue from the very genesis of the design. Click Here for building photo album.

The roots of the 23,000 square-foot building, built of natural materials and stone and nestled on a picturesque ten-acre site in the heart of the rolling hills of Hunterdon County stretch back to Seattle where Kornfeld grew up, and Port Washington, NY, where Zinder recalls his parents presenting him with some pieces of wood, nails, hammer, and a saw. He was four years old.

“They got me the works and said, ‘Go ahead. Build something.” He’d certainly never trust his kids at that age with such dangerous tools “because they’d destroy something” but Zinder recognizes, “My parents certainly saw something in me.” 

“The rabbi is very connected to Hunterdon County. We understood that from the beginning,” Zinder said. He wanted the building designed so that “when you come into the main space, you feel connected back to Hunterdon. So the views out the front, and the teen lounge and around, that connectivity was really important.”

The lobby is designed to have an inviting, “town square” feel, and is set up “like a little village,” Zinder said. In addition to the sanctuary and social hall there are offices, general use classrooms, and a library. The building’s natural views extend to events that are held outdoors.

The assembled team of professionals worked in tandem to implement the vision of Chabad. The General Contractor for the project was Peter Ypsilantis who noted “It was a huge team effort. The architect had a vision and a well laid out plan. The rabbi had a vision, and we all brought it to fruition.

The project also found the right mix of specialty craftsmen that shared their unique expertise to provide many nuanced and subtle details. Shmuel Rafailov, a stone worker who learned his craft in Uzbekistan and Israel was honored to be a part of the project and it provided an opportunity to give back to Chabad “I never forgot the help Chabad gave me 20 years ago in Israel in educating my son I built the ark from Jerusalem stone, cutting it with high-pressure water. Working on something like this is like art. It’s like my contribution to Chabad.”

Although architect Matt Jarmel credited Zinder and Kornfeld for the building’s outward design, his firm Jarmel Kizel Architects & Engineers designed all the building’s mechanical systems such as electric and heating and cooling. 

“Functionally, the building is a synagogue,” he said, but it was equally important that it support all of Chabad’s diverse activities. That included accommodating sometimes conflicting purposes, such as allowing for prayer simultaneously with a community gathering. 

For those who drive past Telyas Chabad Jewish Center without noticing, Zinder suggests they might consider its real importance. Kornfeld has always “put the community of Hunterdon first. When someone’s in need, he’s the first person in line. This is now a place to form a basis for outreach, and a place to invite the community to. “That’s what this is about. It happens to be a synagogue, a nursery school, pre-K facility. But at its core it’s a community center, and not just for the Jewish community, but the larger community in Hunterdon that the rabbi has been supporting all these years.”

By Curtis Leeds – Veteran New Jersey Journalist