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Like A Beacon
Synagogue moves onto the site of a former
radio station in Oak Park.
SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN
StaffWriter
C
ongregants of Bais Chabad of North Oak
Park have an easier way than following
street signs to find their new synagogue.
They just have to look up and, when they
see the building next to a radio tower, they know
they are there.
-
The building was purchased for the synagogue last
December, but the WKQI (95.5 FM) radio tower
remains and continues as the station's transmission
site from its new location.
More than a new synagogue, Bais Chabad is actu-
ally an expansion of prayer services once held
through Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe
(F.R.E.E.), an outreach service provided to new
Americans from the former Soviet Union.
While the F.R.E.E. organization, directed by
Rabbi Yosef Mishulovin, still holds classes and pro-
gramming for Russian-speakers in an Oak Park facil-
ity, there is no longer a worship service component.
Through the years, the addition of English-speak-
ing participants turned the small Russian F.R.E.E.
minyan into a large community Shabbat minyan.
When the group outgrew their meeting place in a
rented room at the Jewish Community Center in
Oak Park, Rabbi Shea Werner, involved with
F.R.E.E. for several years, knew it was time for a
move.
"We were busting out at the seams,"
said Rabbi Werner, who leads the new
synagogue. "We desperately needed a new
building and found the 9,000-square-foot
radio station was available."
Rabbi Werner calls the next step "a real mira-
cle." Last December, the building was purchased
and dedicated by Edward and Gloria Meer of
Bloomfield Hills.
"They bought the building and gave it to the
shul," Rabbi Werner said of his dream come true.
"They just took me over, showed me the
building and introduced me to the rabbi," Edward
Meer said of his granddaughter Miriam and her hus-
band, Rabbi Aaron Amzalak, the synagogue's out-
reach and program director. "I trust their judgment.
They're not afraid of hard work and they know the
right things to do. Working along with Rabbi
Werner, this will be very, very successful."
A Real Synagogue
In addition to merely having more space for the
necessities like Shabbat services, the new building
will allow for bonuses like weekday services and
classrooms.
"Our Shabbat children's programming has been
taking place in the hallway outside the main service
area," Rabbi Amzalak said. "In the new building,
there is a room just for the kids.
"We really weren't a shul before. Now we will
have a place to hold holiday programs and events,
and youth activities and community events."
The new building also allows Rabbi Werner to get
BEACON on page 50
Rabbi Shea Werner in
front of the new
synagogue.
u•
S
8/29
2003
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