mobanmarketGLENCOE, IL — At a time when acts of antisemitism have spiked against Jews, not only around the United States but in Chicago-area communities, a Glencoe Rabbi and his wife are working to bring Jewish residents together not only to unify the community but to strengthen and empower them in their faith.
Rabbi Sholom Wolberg and his wife, Deena, started the Glencoe chapter of Chabad in 2019, an international Jewish outreach organization that has 50 centers around the greater Chicago area. The organization is based on Chabad-Lubavitch philosophies that stress not only aspects of better understanding one’s Jewish heritage but also works to bring community members together to learn and grow together.
Chabad Glencoe offers residents a variety of Jewish engagement opportunities ranging from classes to celebration of Jewish high holidays as well as prayer times and other activities. While many Glencoe Jewish residents are affiliated with local temples, many are not, Wolberg said, creating a need for a no-pressure way of getting together to celebrate the Jewish faith and explore their heritage.
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All of the events and programming are free with costs of running the local chapter left up to local organizers, Wolberg said. While many temples require members to contribute financially to belong, the fact that Chabad Glencoe’s offerings come at no cost to those who choose to participate adds another incentive to join in, Wolberg told Patch this week.
“It’s very non-committal,” Wolberg said. “You’re at your own pace, your own comfort level. You come for a little bite, a little taste and you come back if you like it.”
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Since founding the Glencoe chapter in 2019, Wolberg and his wife have been able to sustain and grow the group’s membership and engagement levels throughout and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, many temples closed to the public out of health concerns, which limited the opportunities residents had to come together in meaningful ways.
Chabad Glencoe instead planned outdoor activities and had events such as drive-up Menorah lightings and other celebrations, which, Wolberg said, allowed the organization to remain sustainable throughout the pandemic. Now, he said, with a spike in antisemitic attacks on Jewish residents around the United States and Illinois and with the war going on in the Middle East, the local organization has seen members show more of an interest in coming together.
Organizers have intentionally kept gatherings low-key, which allows residents to comfortably explore and grow in their faith while also finding common ground with fellow community members. Glencoe’s tight-knit sense of community and the feeling of the village being a place where “everybody knows everybody” has only added to the appeal of the local group.
Eventually, the group grows to eventually offer services, Hebrew school, and other learning opportunities at local synagogues. Yet, the goal of the Chabad groups remains to offer Jewish engagement opportunities to as many Jews as possible in a joyful and welcoming atmosphere. That happens, the Rabbi says, by running events out of his and his wife’s Glencoe home as a way of nurturing a non-judgmental and welcoming environment where people can come and learn together.
Bigger events, celebrating holidays such as Hannukah and Rosh Hashana, are held at the Writers Theater, where as many as 200 residents come together. But many of the events and classes are held in more intimate settings where between 25-30 people gather, Wolberg said. The ages of those who participate vary from young to old, with classes being offered to children and engagement opportunities made available to generations of local families.
Later this month, Chabad Glencoe will host a four-part series of classes that will focus on the Jewish response to antisemitism. Wolberg said that while those who are guilty of targeting Jews for their faith expect those in the faith to pull back in their expressions of their faith, the opposite ends up happening.
In 2022, Illinois had the seventh-highest number of antisemitic incidents in the United States, according to a report from the Anti-Defamation League. In 2022, the number of incidents increased by 121 percent from 2021, rising from 53 to 121.
The spike in incidents mirrored a national trend that showed an increase in hate crimes against Jews, which was also evident in cases reported around Illinois.
“It tells us that Illinois isn’t immune to these increases in hate and extremism,” David Goldenberg, midwest regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement issued last year.
While Chabad organizations along the North Shore and around the Chicago area vary in size, each local chapter builds on the uniqueness of that city or town, Wolberg said. In Glencoe, Wolberg estimates that Jews made up about 30 percent of the village’s population, creating a true sense of community to embrace, he said.
“With most Jews, (heritage) is important in different ways and they express it differently,” Wolberg told Patch. “In Judaism, our heritage, our history is important to many Jews and we’re here to offer different ways to explore and discover more about it.”
He added: “The importance (of heritage) is only getting stronger. …The more we are oppressed, and the more people try to get us in bunkers and really hide our Judaism, it really brings out an opposite effect. It brings out the strong desire that Jews have to connect with their heritage.”
That’s where the local gathering of Jews really comes into play, Wolberg said. In events like the upcoming sessions about the response to antisemitism, Wolberg said that Jews should not be afraid to display their pride in their faith while not being ashamed to be who they are and what they believe.
He said that especially now, local Jewish residents should be doing more to connect with Israel and embrace their faith rather than shy away from it as those who target Jews are trying to get them to do.
“We need to be more united than ever,” he said. “This is a time that we really need each other.”
He added: “There are gatherings where we study together, pray together, talk to each other, share ideas, and collaborate. So there is a strong sense of family. There’s really no other way to put it.”
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