Looking beyond the East Bay hills, Chabad sees fertile territory in suburban Contra Costa County, home to well over 20,000 Jews, many of them unaffiliated.
Hoping to reach those Jews, the Lubavitcher Chassid organization has just opened a new center in Walnut Creek, in an area with few options for Orthodox Jews.
“There’s a very large Jewish population here and already a vibrant community,” says Rabbi Yaakov Kagan, who moved from Los Angeles to the Bay Area to lead the new Chabad center. But “I would say that 80 percent are not involved in any form of Jewish activism. That’s who we’re looking for.”
Chabad centers already exist throughout Northern California, with Bay Area centers in Berkeley, San Francisco, San Rafael and Palo Alto.
Currently, Kagan is searching for a building to rent in Walnut Creek for Chabad of Contra Costa County. In the meantime, the center is holding Shabbat services in private homes; High Holy Day services are being held at Kagan’s Walnut Creek home.
Kagan, 25 and married just last month, was born and raised in Los Angeles and educated in Chabad schools in L.A., as well as seminaries in New York and South Africa.
Several years ago, following the fall of communism in the former Soviet Union, he spent six months in Moscow helping to resurrect a synagogue that had been turned into a theater during Soviet rule.
Here in Contra Costa County, the rabbi envisions a full-service Chabad, which offers everything from religious services and programs to adult education classes and activities for children. His new wife, Shternie, the daughter of a rabbi in Ottawa, is a teacher.
“She’s really experienced with kids so we’ll be doing a lot of kids’ programs,” Kagan says. He hopes these will include an after-school program for children ages 6 and up.
Rabbi Boruch Shlomo Cunin, West Coast director of Chabad, says the organization is careful when matching rabbis with new centers.
In Contra Costa, “you have a highly intellectual group of people, a lot of people who want to study,” Cunin says. “[Kagan] is a very great scholar and his wife has great experience in teaching. It’s a great combination.” For his part, Kagan is busy getting word out about the new Chabad center. He says he’s not sure to what extent he will employ the bold, in-your-face tactics some Chabad leaders have used to bring their mission and activities to the public’s attention. Chabad leaders here and around the country have been known to ride around in “mitzvah mobiles,” blaring Chassidic music and stopping to discuss Judaism and help men lay tefillin. They have blown shofars in the street to herald the New Year and lit giant, public menorot at Chanukah.
Kagan is planning a “sukkah on wheels,” which will bring the upcoming holiday of Sukkot to shopping centers, hospitals and senior residential facilities in Contra Costa County.
“We like to get out there in the street,” Kagan acknowledges of Chabad. But “every area has to be done according to its atmosphere.”
One thing he does know: “We definitely plan to carry on with the tradition of [bringing] spirit to the community.”