Izbica (pronounced Iz-bi´-tza), Poland, was one of thousands of obscure small towns whose Jews were murdered almost completely by the German Nazis. Mequon, of course, is one of southeastern Wisconsin’s largest and most prosperous communities surrounding Milwaukee.
A spiritual link between these disparate places will begin anew when ground is broken at the site of Congregation Agudas Achim Chabad on Sunday, Oct. 26, 1 p.m. At that time, the CAAC community will begin building the Joseph and Rebecca Peltz Center for Jewish Life.
This new center is named for the parents of Arnie Peltz, co-chair with Les Weil of the capital campaign for the project. Both of Peltz’s parents were among the founders of the original Congregation Agudas Achim when it was on Milwaukee’s west side and its membership was primarily Polish Holocaust survivors.
His father, who died some 20 years ago, came from Izbica. It was partly to embody the idea that “our Jewish community moves on, even though a lot of people died” that Peltz, a vice president of Recycle America Alliance, decided to donate $1 million to the project — $300,000 in an outright gift, $700,000 as a challenge grant.
Moreover, his parents and especially his father were very active in the Milwaukee Jewish community, and “I felt that with [their] names on it, [the project] might bring in some gifts that normally might not come,” Peltz said. (His mother is “in great health” and “very excited about this,” Peltz said.)
Besides, although this project is “viewed as an Orthodox synagogue, it is more than that…. It’s not about Orthodox Judaism but about its effect on Jewish identity.” As such, it “has a lot to offer.”
As Rabbi Menachem Rapoport, CAAC’s outreach and development director, explained, this $4.5 million, 35,000 sq. ft. center will be an “umbrella organization” that will house both the synagogue proper and five other organizations linked to it but operationally separate.
These are the Women’s Mikvah, the Mequon Outreach Center, the Mequon Jewish Preschool, the Pelz Hebrew School and the Lipskier Judaic Library.
“The concept is that we don’t consider ourselves only a synagogue,” said Rapoport. “Chabad Lubavitch centers around the world serve Jewish needs of every kind…. The synagogue serves the members of the synagogue; all the other organizations serve the community at large, especially those in Mequon.”
Rapoport said that some $125,000 had been pledged toward the Peltz challenge grant. Peltz said that the whole project to date has raised some $2.4 million, enough to plan a groundbreaking; and he hopes to have about $3.5 million by the date of the groundbreaking.
Rapoport also said that there are other opportunities for givers to dedicate aspects of the project. The project is tentatively scheduled for completion in the fall of 2004.
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