Through Tragedy and Celebration, Chabad of Bowie Is There

What does it mean to be there for every Jew?

In Bowie, Maryland, the answer was brought into sharp focus this summer through two very different events — one a devastating tragedy in the woods of Bowie, the other a joyful Jewish celebration at the local baseball stadium.

Late Saturday night two months ago, a single-engine plane carrying three young Jewish men crashed into a wooded area of Bowie.

By early Sunday morning, the wreckage had been located. When Rabbi Eli Baron, director of Chabad of Bowie, learned that three Jewish souls had been lost less than two miles from his home, he headed directly to the scene.

There, amid the wreckage and emergency personnel, Rabbi Baron recited Tehillim and Shema for the three young men and helped ensure that they were treated with the dignity required by Jewish law. Working together with fellow Chabad shluchim, ZAKA, Misaskim, chaplains and local authorities, he remained involved as the victims were recovered and transported, accompanying their remains and reciting the traditional prayers.

“As the rabbi of a small community, a tragedy like this, thank G-d, is not something we regularly see,” Rabbi Baron later told Chabad.org. But, he explained, the mission of a shliach is to be there for every Jew, in moments of both “joy, and tragedy.”

Just two months later, that mission took Chabad of Bowie to a very different setting: the concourse of Prince George’s Stadium.

For the Chesapeake Baysox Jewish Community Day on August 23, Chabad of Bowie brought a kosher concession stand to the ballpark, answering a question Rabbi Baron told the Bowie Patch he had heard repeatedly from local Jews: “Why isn’t there a kosher deli in Bowie?”

So, for one afternoon, there was.

Fans and community members stopped by for kosher Jewish favorites, while Chabad also offered opportunities to wrap tefillin, pick up Jewish literature, connect with other Jews and simply stop by for a shmooze.

The settings could hardly have been more different: a wooded crash site in the middle of the night, and a bustling baseball stadium on a beautiful summer afternoon.

But the mission was exactly the same.

Wherever a Jew is in Bowie — in sorrow or in celebration, searching for a mitzvah or simply looking for a kosher bite to eat — Chabad is there.

For the past two years, Rabbi Eli and Mushky Baron and their family have been building that Jewish presence in Bowie, operating Chabad’s activities out of their rented home. Shabbat services and Kiddushim, Hebrew School, classes, large-scale Yom Tov celebrations, community events and countless personal encounters have all grown from those humble quarters.

Now, that growth has reached the point where a permanent home is no longer simply a dream — it is a necessity.

Chabad of Bowie is currently under contract to purchase a property that will become a permanent home for Jewish life in Bowie: a place where more Jews can participate in a mitzvah, daven, learn Torah, celebrate a holiday, bring their children to Hebrew School, or simply discover a Jewish community they may not have known was waiting for them.

But Chabad needs YOUR help to make it happen.

YOU can become a partner in establishing a PERMANENT Jewish home in Bowie — one that will be there through the celebrations, through the difficult moments, and through the ordinary days in between.

Please give generously at ChabadBowie.com/Permanence.

Help Chabad of Bowie build the space it needs to reach the thousands of Jews who don’t yet know what they’re missing.