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Brett Mounta in
Neumann Smith Architecture
from 17 states and 10 countries.
"The school has about 400 gradu-
ates, with 90 percent choosing to become
shluchim," said Rabbi Mendel Stein, the
school's development director.
Alumni who join the
4,500 shluchim in 70
countries are working
throughout the United
States and Canada
and as far as Australia,
Israel, South Africa and
China and at the more
than 20 synagogues,
Rabbi Mendel
university Chabad
Stein
Houses, community
centers, schools, camps
and organizations in Michigan.
Many, now settled in new cities, also send
their sons back to Detroit for their educa-
tions.
"Perhaps what I learned most during my
years there is the value of every Jewish soul
and how much each person and mitzvah
matter in the battle for Jewish continu-
ity," said Rabbi Mendel Druk, a school
alumnus, who grew up in Oak Park. Now
director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Cancun
in Mexico, along with his wife Rachel, his
Jewish outreach work took him throughout
the Detroit area and to Eastern Europe
and the Far East. He also led the Chabad
search-and-rescue team in New Orleans
after Hurricane Katrina and the Chabad
relief effort in Thailand following a recent
tsunami.
"This value has been infused in every
aspect of our Chasidut curriculum and
Friday and holiday activity," said Druk, who
has been visited by many Detroiters travel-
ing to Cancun."Going at times to great
lengths to meet with one Jew to perform
one mitzvah, in return connects the finite
to the infinite."
Everything's New
The new Harry and Wanda Zekelman
Campus will house a 25,000-square-foot
building and a 20,000-square-foot dormi-
tory with space for 120 boarders. Currently,
60 students live in a 14-unit apartment
Growing on page 10
Chabad-Lubavitch is a branch of
ha ,,idim, an Orthodox sect of
Judaism. - Lubavitch," defined as
"brotherly love;" was the name of
the town in White Russia where the
movement was first based 250 vears
ago. "Chabad" is a Hebrew acronym
for chocl n nah (wisdom), binah (com-
prehension) and &fat (knowledge).
Headquartered in Crown Heights,
N.Y,,Chabad-Lubavitch is guide.d
by the teachings of its seven lead-
ers, Rebbes, beginning with Rabbi
Schneur Zalman of Liadi through
the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who
died in 1994,
in addition to synagogues and uni-
versity Chabad Houses, in Michigan
there are Chabad organizations,
including Friendship Circle in West
Bloomfield, providing programs and
support to the families of individu-
als with special needs; the Daniel
B. Sobel Friendship House in West
Bloomfield, providing friendship and
support for individuals and families
dealing with addiction and other
isolating crises; ER.E,E. of Michigan,
a Russian immigrant program in
Southfield; and Lubavitch Outreach
in Oak Park, with services including
hospital and senior visitations.
The Lubavitch Foundation of
Michigan in Oak Park, directed by
Rabbi Berel Shemtov, is the regional
Lubavitch headquarters and includes
day and overnight camps, a mikvah
and the Michigan Jewish Institute in
Oak Park, a college degree program
with a focus on technology, business
and Judaic studies.
Construction on
the new Lubavitch
Yeshiva Educational
Center in Oak Park