New Village Will be a ‘Kfar Chabad’ for Americans

A new village for Lubavitcher Chassidim will be built in the South of Eretz Yisroel, in the style of the two Kfar Chabad villages built decades earlier. The new village is intended mainly for Americans, Anash.org has learned. 

By Anash.org reporter

Over fifty years after the Rebbe wrote that “the time has come to look into [creating] a third Kfar Chabad,” a new village for Lubavitcher Chassidim is being built in the South of Eretz Yisroel, fulfilling exactly that request.

The new village will be built in the Yatir Forest, a beautiful area near the city of Beer Sheva. For the past nine years, Agudas Chassidei Chabad in Eretz Yisroel have been working to obtain the permits and funding for the village from the various government agencies, and the project is set to launch in the near future.

The village will be built in the spirit of the village of Kfar Chabad and its satellite ‘Kfar Chabad Beis’, which were built in 5709 and 5735 respectively, and serve as the headquarters of Chabad in Eretz Yisroel. The new village will likewise serve as a center for Lubavitcher Chassidim and a base for many activities in the realm of hafatzas hatorah and hafatzas hamayanos.

However, unlike Kfar Chabad, which was originally built to house immigrants from the Soviet Union and survivors of the Holocaust, the new village will have another focus: Americans.

Among the families already signed up for the village are a strong group of English speakers, and the organizers are working to recruit more, with the focus on recent or future immigrants from the USA.

Plans for the village, obtained by Anash.org, show that the village is planned to have detached houses, each with its own yard. A large 200-room hotel and resort will also be built, to allow groups from all over the world to visit and spend some time in an authentic chassidishe environment. Rabbi Zalman Gorelik, the head shliach of Be’er Sheva, has been appointed as the spiritual advisor and head of the Vaad Ruchni established by Aguch for the yishuv.

The village was planned and coordinated by Rabbi Menachem and Bruria Efune, together with a wonderful group of Chabad families, and many other partners. Rabbi Ariel Lemberg of Aguch accompanied the coordinators from office to office and from minister to minister until all approvals and permits were received.

“We are specifically looking for more English speakers who want to be among the village’s founders, to bring the American style shlichus energy,” the organizers told Anash.org. “An integral part of the village will be the year-round luxury learning resort for Jews of all kinds from all over the world, and the Chabadnikim who live there will all be part of creating a welcoming and inspiring atmosphere. So everyone who lives there, no matter their day job, will be doing important shlichus.”

Individuals who are interested in joining the core group are invited to fill out this form.