During the first half of the 20th century, Chevy Chase was a sundown town that excluded individuals based on race and religion. Today, a Chabad House run by Rabbi Shneur Zalman and Mushka Minkowitz has been making tremendous strides in bringing Yiddishkeit to the town.
During the first half of the 20th century, Chevy Chase was a sundown town that excluded individuals based on race and religion.
By the 1920s, restrictive covenants were added to Chevy Chase real estate deeds. Some prohibited sales or rentals to “any persons of the Semitic race”, i.e. the exclusion of Jews. By World War II, such restrictive language had largely disappeared from real estate transactions, and all were voided by the 1948 Supreme Court decision in Shelley v. Kraemer.
Much has changed in Chevy Chase which now has a vibrant Jewish community. While most of these families still live in neighborhoods never affected by the above-mentioned covenants, some live on streets that had anti-Jewish covenants as late as the 1960s!
Over the past 5 years, Chabad Chevy Chase, directed by Rabbi Shneur Zalman and Mushka Minkowitz, has been making tremendous strides ensuring that local families can feel proud of their heritage.
“It brings me immense joy to pass by the Chabad house in Chevy Chase proudly displaying an oversized Menorah in a neighborhood that did not even allow Jews to reside when I first moved into town,” Says Walter, a Jewish resident living in Chevy Chase for long enough to remember the old restrictions.
Today and tomorrow, Chabad of Chevy Chase needs your help to raise 45K!
Donate and help ensure that every Jew Chevy Chaser can celebrate who they are proudly.
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