By Leyna Krow, Assistant Editor, JTNews
Two years after receiving a $1.8 million donation from a private benefactor for
the construction of a free-standing facility, the Eastside Torah Center is making slow but steady progress toward breaking ground on its new home.
“Any day now we should get the condition of use permits that will allow us to start the project,” said Rabbi Mordechai Farkash, director of the ETC.
The Bellevue branch of Chabad–Lubavitch, which currently operates out of 3,000 square feet of office space on 156th Ave. NE in Bellevue, already owns property on Northup Way, northeast of the Crossroads shopping center, and a design for the new facility has been drawn up. But city permits aren’t the last hurdle the ETC has to cross before construction can begin: They still need an additional $2 million to finance the project. Farkash said the ETC will be launching a capital campaign in the coming weeks to raise the rest of the necessary funds.
The new building will provide much needed extra space. Farkash said ETC’s Congregation Beis Menachem usually draws in around 80 families for Shabbat services and anywhere from 200 to 300 for holidays, far more than can fit comfortably in the current facility.
“For Yom Kippur, we had people in the synagogue from wall to wall, standing-room only, like, with no room to move,” he said.
A larger synagogue is just one of improvements to which Farkash is looking forward in the new building. He said the ETC is also in need of additional classrooms for its Saturday morning Shabbat youth programs and a real social hall for B’nai Mitzvah and other celebrations.
“Right now we have to use the library in the back of the center for kiddush,” he said. “Or we turn the synagogue into a social hall, but that takes time. With separate facilities, it will be much nicer.”
Farkash said the B’nai Mitzvah program, along with the Hebrew school, is one of the ETC’s most popular programs.
“Ninety-nine percent of the parents who send their kids are not affiliated with a synagogue, but want supplementary Jewish education for their children,” Farkash said. “We try to provide that in a very warm, welcoming atmosphere.”
He added that the adult education programs are also well attended, particularly his weekly parashah classes and his wife Rochie Farkash’s women’s programs. On April 25, the ETC hosted its annual women’s spa event, which drew more than 100 participants for a day of relaxation and learning.
Its long-running Chabad@Microsoft program meets with employees of the software giant, whose main campuses is a few blocks away. In some ways this program led to an offshoot, new this year, of a growing line-up of programs geared toward young adults.
These events, which most recently included an international cooking night, are led by Rabbi Sholom Ber Elishevitz and his wife Chaya, who make up the ETC’s only other staff aside from the Farkashes.
In addition to their full schedule of daily programs at the ETC, the Farkashes also have their hands full at home with six children, all but one of whom attend the Menachem Mendel Seattle Cheder. The eldest studies at a yeshiva in New York.
For the Farkashes, there is little separation between home life and work life. The ETC’s mikvah — the only one in Bellevue — is located in their backyard and they frequently open their home to the community for Shabbat meals and holidays.
Because the ETC, like all Chabad centers, does not require participants to become members, Farkash says he does not know exactly how many families consider themselves ETC affiliates, but he estimates around 500. Farkash sends out weekly e-mails to let those on the ETC’s mailing list what’s new. Beyond that, he says, most of the ETC’s outreach is simply done by word of mouth.
Many in Bellevue’s Israeli community in particular have embraced the ETC as their Jewish home base, and what started out a just a few Israeli families, has, through recommendation, inspired others to come as well.
“The Israeli community is very comfortable to come to our programs,” Farkash said. “They know they will be welcomed.”