The goal was to raise $160,000 in 24 hours. Chabad of the East Bay flew past that figure in eight hours and ended up pulling in $202,000 in a 24-hour period that ended at noon Oct. 16.
Anonymous benefactors quadruple- matched and then double-matched all donations, said Rabbi Yehuda Ferris, leader of the 43-year-old chapter, Chabad’s oldest in the Bay Area.
Operating in a shared space for the past 18 months, and in a leased space for three years before that, the Berkeley-based Chabad wants to buy its own building. “This gets us maybe half of the down payment we’re looking for,” said Ferris, who has been eyeballing a property that costs $1.5 million.
“We want to try to find a building where we can help pay the mortgage by renting the rooms,” said Miriam Ferris, the rabbi’s wife. “Maybe we can have a center for Jewish living and learning that students or graduate students, maybe even working professionals, can live in.” — david a.m. wilensky