Around Town
Chabad New Canaan Serves Town’s Growing, Diverse Jewish Community
|
Smiling wide, Rabbi Levi Mendelow on Sunday morning stepped to the front of this small room overlooking Morse Court and turned to the 16 seated New Canaan boys and girls who’d just finished their first year of Hebrew school here. “We’re very proud of you boys and girls in how much progress you have made in your studies, especially in your Hebrew reading,” Mendelow said during a short, laughter-filled ceremony attended by a handful of parents—the end of a successful pilot program that organizers are calling the first of its kind in New Canaan for a diverse, growing Jewish community that at some point will need a permanent physical location. “It’s about community and about being here in New Canaan, a growing Jewish community being able to celebrate their Judaism and participate in the full richness of Jewish life, here in town, as a community,” Mendelow said during an interview. Chabad New Canaan Jewish Center was formed four years ago under Mendelow and his wife, Michal, and it serves about 100 area families, most of them New Canaan residents, he said. Gathering at the New Canaan Nature Center for larger, high holiday services (“They’ve been amazing, the Nature Center,” Mendelow said), the center until about two months ago used space above 106 Main St.