All the founders of Chabad of Temecula

Expressing gratitude publicly is risky.  

You can forget to recognize someone who deserved it.  People can read things into your words that you didn’t intend.  And some people don’t appreciate public recognition.

But it’s important nonetheless.

I want to share a little history of Chabad of Temecula in the form of gratitude, and please, if I should have mentioned you by name and didn’t, I ask for forgiveness in advance.

The founder of Chabad of Temecula is G-d.  G-d created a world full of darkness so that us people could bring light into it.

Things came to the next level when the Rebbe started sending out Shluchim to the four corners of the world in 1951, to “gather all the Jews, one by one” and bring Moshiach.

Rabbi Yitzi and his wife, Dina, founded Chabad of Temecula in 1999.  They came out here with barely any connections or financial support, and dedicated their lives to building up the Jewish community in SW Riverside county.

I don’t know all the founding members from that time, but I was privileged to help Rabbi Yitzi make a minyan on Shabbos throughout the year 2000 (just after my Bar Mitzvah).  I remember Mr. Hoffman, Larry and Susan Grondin and Mr. Lazar from that time.

Over the next few years, the founding families grew.  The Cohens, Gyori’s, Bitton’s, Joshua’s, Kaplan’s & Rudolf’s (and probably more that I’m not aware of) became the core of Chabad of Temecula.

After Rabbi Yitzi got sick in 2012, Rabbi Katz took the wheel for a year, together with the Hurwitz’s.

When Rabbi Yitzi asked Natanya and me to manage Chabad of Temecula in 2014, there was a gap of a few months until we came.  David and Cindy Cohen made Chabad of Temecula their baby, and would make the kiddush and do lots of other things to make sure things were running smoothly.  Dan Phillips would clean every week, no matter how messy it was.

During the next few years, a bunch of founders helped us expand on Rabbi Yitzi’s foundation and reach more people.  We are so grateful for them.

In 2019, a property became available and we really wanted to expand the foundation for the community to the next level.

It wasn’t easy.  After 20 years of financial struggles many people didn’t think it was possible for Chabad of Temecula to actually expand into a permanent home, let alone a campus.  As even the first silver supporter on our Chai Club told me at the time, “Nothing has happened in the past 20 years, nothing will happen in the next 20 years.”

Then came along Herb. He was the founder of the building project.  He purchased the land for Chabad, because he believed in the vision.  I will never forget what he did for us.  Being the first to believe and throw support is the hardest, especially when the odds seem against you.

There were some others that had pledged $5,000 for a previous property which ended up not working out.  Most of the money was refunded, but some asked us to keep it for the next one.  Nat & Alma, Dago & Aura, Mark & Karen, Marty & Beth, Raphy & Maggie, Brian & Jennifer, James, Bruce Baker and Bruce Reisman were among them.

After we secured the property that we’re in came the next hurdle.  Paying architects and engineers to get plans through the city costs lots of money, but you don’t have anything tangible to show for it.  That’s when Nat & Alma stood up in an outstanding way.  I will be forever grateful to them for continuously throwing money at this project, when no one else was.  They “trusted us before we were trustworthy”, if that makes sense.

As the plan became more developed, more founders started jumping on in a major way.  Nat & Alma became the first ones to make a very large, multi year commitment.  Tony & Rebecca made a very generous commitment in honor of his mother, Helene, who was the first “new member” since Natanya and I came to Temecula.  Then James Gross jumped on board with a huge, multi-year commitment.  

At that point, thank G-d, we were about to start construction.  These fine people had made very large commitments, but we were still far away from responsibly being able to get working.

It’s hard to imagine that after all this progress, we felt like we were getting no where.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars were pledged, but the reality is that wouldn’t cut it.

I had called everyone I thought might be ready, willing and able to help, and it appeared that we had reached a dead end.  I felt very stressed out, wanting to make good on my commitment to the past donors to make it happen, but not seeing how it was possible.

We finally had a vision for the ultimate campus, and decided to put it into a presentation and mail it out to every single address we had in our roster.  

G-d is our founder, and He will figure out how to make this dream happen.

The response was amazing.

A few dozen people responded to the mailer and a couple of them responded in outstanding ways.

My Uncle Mark made a tremendous commitment, which he paid out very quickly.  Raphy & Maggie also made a huge, multi-year commitment.  Scott (who wants to remain anonymous) also gave huge to make sure construction would start ASAP.

Then came along Barry Katz.  He is the founder who changed the game completely.  I had not even met Barry in person before this.  His daughter, Cindy, with her husband, David, were founding members from years before, but he lives in LA.  He is a major founder.  His commitment was almost as large as all the others combined, and his commitment is what transformed this project from a miraculous, faith driven endeavor without much basis in reality, to a miraculous, faith driven endeavor, based in reality.  Barry wanted to create something eternal in honor of his children, and I am humbled that he chose Chabad of Temecula to be the recipient of his beautiful kindness.

There have been more founders since then.  The Seitel’s have been the general contractors, in addition to their significant financial contributions.  Don Grayson, who has always stood at my side to guide me, has also made very significant gifts towards the project.  Scott Grossman made an enormous commitment in honor of his grandmother.  And then came along Brett, who recently made a commitment that will springboard the fruition of phase 2 by a decade, but that is a story for another time.

Right now we are in a foundational period.  The construction is about 60% complete and the commitments (some paid and some yet to be paid) are projected to cover approximately 75% of the phase 1 project cost.  

In the coming weeks, we will be officially launching the public building campaign, with a website & dedication opportunities.  It will hopefully culminate with a giant, crowdfunding campaign to take us to the finish line.

With G-d’s help, it’s possible to be move-in ready around high holidays time.

Now is the time that you can become a founder.  Please start thinking about how you might be able to help our community reach the finish line and give the gift of Jewish infrastructure to Temecula.

Thank you for your consideration.