In a landmark development for the Upper East Side’s Orthodox Jewish community, Manhattan’s historic Park East Synagogue and Chabad-Lubavitch of the Upper East Side have announced a major partnership that will officially begin this Rosh Hashanah, bringing together two of the neighborhood’s most influential Torah institutions.

As part of the new arrangement, Rav Arthur Schneier, the internationally known diplomat and longtime Rav of Park East—whose tenure is the longest of any congregational Rav in New York City’s history—will be joined by Rav Ben Tzion Krasnianski, who has led Chabad of the Upper East Side for decades and will now also serve as Associate Rav of Park East Synagogue. Rav Yosef Wilhelm, who heads Chabad Young Professionals Upper East Side, has been appointed Assistant Rav.

“This collaboration brings together two vibrant Jewish communities with a shared commitment to Torah, prayer, education, and acts of kindness,” Rav Schneier and Park East President Les Lieberman wrote in a letter to members of the kehillah. “By working together, we will be able to expand the opportunities available to our members and create an even more dynamic and welcoming synagogue experience.”

The agreement, which received unanimous approval from Park East’s Board of Trustees, will relocate the majority of Chabad of the Upper East Side’s programming into Park East’s historic building on East 67th Street. Among the initiatives moving to the new location are Chabad Young Professionals, Friendship Circle, Chabad Young Families, and the Upper East Side Kollel and Adult Education Center.

Chabad’s mikvah and preschool will continue operating from the Schneerson Center for Jewish Life on East 77th Street.

Founded in 1890 as Congregation Zichron Ephraim, Park East Synagogue has served as one of Manhattan’s oldest Orthodox kehillos for 136 years. Its distinctive Moorish- and Byzantine-style building on East 67th Street was designated a New York City Landmark in 1980 and added to the National Register of Historic Places three years later.

Rav Schneier assumed the rabbonus of Park East in 1962. Born in Vienna in 1930, he witnessed Kristallnacht as a child and survived the Holocaust while hiding in Nazi-occupied Budapest before eventually immigrating to the United States. Over the decades, he became a leading advocate for Soviet Jewry and numerous other Jewish causes. President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Citizens Medal, praising him for “devoting a lifetime to overcoming forces of hatred and intolerance.”

Under Rav Schneier’s leadership, Park East Synagogue became known not only as a prominent Orthodox synagogue, but also as a meeting place where world leaders, diplomats, ambassadors, and religious figures from across the globe regularly visited and addressed the kehillah.

In recent years, the synagogue also found itself at the center of anti-Israel and antisemitic demonstrations. While protesters targeted several New York City shuls, incidents outside Park East Synagogue ultimately prompted the city to adopt buffer-zone protections outside houses of worship.

“A Match Made in Heaven”

Rav Ben Tzion Krasnianski and his wife, Chanie, arrived on the Upper East Side in the summer of 1991 with the brachah of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and with a mission they say has guided every aspect of their work ever since: ensuring that no Jew is ever left behind.

What began as a single Chabad House has, over the course of 35 years, grown into an extensive network of approximately ten branches serving virtually every segment of the Upper East Side Jewish community.

The Chabad Israel Center serves Israeli expatriates, while Chabad Young Professionals has become a home for thousands of young Jewish professionals building their lives in New York. Friendship Circle supports children and adults with special needs along with the volunteers who assist them. Chabad at Hunter College strengthens Jewish life on campus, while Chabad Care provides spiritual support and comfort to Jewish patients throughout the area’s hospitals.

The organization also operates extensive programming for senior citizens, Chabad Young Families, and a thriving Hebrew School for children. At the same time, the Upper East Side Kollel and Adult Education Center has become a major address for serious Torah learning among adults from every level of observance.

Under the new partnership, nearly all of these educational and communal programs—including Chabad Young Professionals, Friendship Circle, Chabad Young Families, and the Upper East Side Kollel and Adult Education Center—will now be based inside Park East Synagogue’s landmark building.

Chabad’s Jacques and Hanna Schwalbe mikvah, widely regarded as one of the country’s finest, together with its flourishing preschool, will continue operating from the Schneerson Center.

“As things were needed, we responded,” Rav Krasnianski said. He explained that the organization’s growth has always been driven by a desire to serve “every aspect of the community by caring, embracing, and ultimately, engaging” Jews wherever a need exists.

Rav Krasnianski said that same philosophy makes the new partnership “a match made in heaven.” He noted that the relationship between the two institutions stretches back many years.

“Park East approached us to see if we could collaborate and work together so we could accomplish much more than we could accomplish individually,” Rav Krasnianski said, explaining that the strengths of the two institutions naturally complement one another.

“At this critical juncture in Jewish New York history, this collaborative effort sends a powerful message that Jewish New York is here to stay,” Rav Krasnianski said. “We will not rest until all 70,000 Jews on the Upper East Side hold their heads up high and actively express their Jewish pride on a daily basis, one mitzvah at a time.”

{Matzav.com}