The room was already crackling with excitement when the scribe dipped his quill in the ink for the final time. Fathers and sons toasted shots of whiskey, women embraced, and children ran up to touch the ornate engraved case. But only when the last letter was written did the celebration truly begin.
This past Sunday, the Chabad Lubavitch Jewish Center of Hoboken marked two equally important milestones. The first was the opening of its permanent home at 80 Park Ave., the first new Jewish temple in Hoboken in over 100 years. The second was the completion of a Sefer Torah, a fully handwritten scroll containing the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.
Torah transcription is not taken lightly, especially among orthodox Jews like the Chabad Lubavitchers. To compose their new Torah, the center hired Shaul Baruch, a scribe and rabbi in Jerusalem, and flew him to Hoboken to write the final 25 letters on Sunday. The torah contains 304,805 Hebrew letters, but only with the last one does it become a sacred object.
“The work has just begun until every single Jew has a place to feel at home, to study, to pray.”—Moshe Schapiro
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Calling all Jews
For Rabbi Moshe Schapiro, the founder and leader of Hoboken’s Chabad Center, the new scroll is a symbol of the mission he hopes to accomplish. “Every Jew is a letter of the Torah,” said Schapiro, “so if we have one Jew that is not yet involved in Judaism, the whole of Judaism is not yet complete.”
Schapiro’s new synagogue is an outpost of Chabad-Lubavitch, a unique Jewish charismatic movement that emerged from the Russian borderlands in the late 1700s.
Chabad’s leadership is orthodox and Hasidic, but their philosophy is outward-facing, aiming to bring in every Jew regardless of their sect or level of observance. (You may have seen Chabad missionaries at the PATH station around Hanukkah, looking for Jewish passers by to give candles for the holiday.)
Schapiro’s new temple is the only Chabad House in Hudson County, but there are already 46 in New Jersey and over 4,000 worldwide.
From Brooklyn to Hoboken
Moshe Schapiro grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the nerve center of the worldwide Chabad movement since the 1940s. He is one of seven sons of Rabbi Nachmon Schapiro, all of whom are or will become rabbis.
In 2001, Moshe and his wife Shaindel moved to Hoboken to establish a center, holding their first temple service a week after the attacks of Sept. 11.
In addition to celebrating the Sabbath and Jewish holidays, the Chabad Center of Hoboken offers Hebrew school classes for children, events for young Jewish professionals, and weekly Torah study for adults.
Opening a permanent synagogue is a important step for Schapiro, a holiday in its own right even without the completion of a new Sefer Torah, but it is clear that he saw the event as a midpoint on his larger mission.
“We may have a beautiful new shul,” said Schapiro, “but the work has just begun until every single Jew has a place to feel at home, to study, to pray.”
Several local public officials were on hand to honor Chabad’s achievement, including Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner, Hoboken Police Chief Edelmiro Garcia, and Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer.
“Today our tapestry in Hoboken got even more colorful,” said Zimmer after the Torah procession. “We have amazing diversity in Hoboken, we have so many homes of worship, and I’m thrilled to be here today to welcome a new home of worship.”
The new Sefer Torah was dedicated to the 64 Israeli soldiers killed in the most recent war in Gaza, whose names were inscribed on the torah’s ornamental case in Hebrew. Speaking for U.S. Representative Albio Sires, who could not attend the ceremony, Turner said it was important that Israel have all that it needs in terms of American support.
Growing the community
The opening of a new Chabad center stands out in a time of retrenchment for the Hudson County Jewish community. After Temple Beth El halted services this past May, there is no longer an active synagogue in North Bergen, according to a recent story in the Hudson Reporter. Other Hudson County temples have closed in the past 10 years, though Hoboken’s United Synagogue maintains a healthy community of 315 households.
The U.S. Census Bureau does not keep statistics on religious identity, so it’s hard to know exactly how many Jews live in Hudson County. A 2001 survey by the UJA Federation estimated that 71,500 Jews live in North Hudson.
A new online population survey by the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey was conducted earlier this year in four counties including Hudson, but results have not been released. According to NorthJersey.com, some at the foundation expect it will show a growing community of Orthodox believers in Hudson County.
Union City has long been home to a branch of the Sanz-Klausenburg Hasidic dynasty, which moved from Romania to the United States after the Holocaust. A representative from the community was on hand to congratulate Schapiro on Sunday.
Rabbi Schapiro said he has seen significant growth at the Chabad Center, though the ecumenical nature of his mission makes the size of his congregation hard to quantify. In just two and a half years, Hoboken’s Chabad Hebrew School has grown from two students to 35 students.
Schapiro has high hopes for the future of his congregation. “There is anywhere between three and five thousand Jews in Hoboken,” he said “and we have about three to five thousand members. They just don’t know that yet.”
Over the next month, the Chabad Center of Hoboken will host services for the Jewish High Holidays. Rosh Hashanah is this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Sept. 24-26, followed by Yom Kippur on Oct. 3-4. No memberships or tickets are required to attend. For more information, go to chabadhoboken.com or call 201-386-5222.
Carlo Davis may be reached at cdavis@hudsonreporter.com.