For Immediate Release
Contact: Rabbi Shmuel Notik
snotik@obshina.com
(773) 456-3441

 

Jewish Educational and Cultural Center To Acquire
10-Acre Riverwoods Property



 

The Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe (FREE) is acquiring a 10.5-acre site in the city of Riverwoods. This will be the future home for a new Jewish educational and cultural center serving the Northwest suburbs.

The facility will be named the “Crain-Maling Educational and Cultural Center” in honor of the Charitable Foundation that inspired and sponsors the project. The new center will house an innovative museum of Eastern European Jewry, as well as offering Hebrew education for all ages, a synagogue, an adult learning and cultural center, a lending-and-research library and a host of outreach and social service programs. 

“It took a stroke of Divine Providence and a visionary seed commitment and gift from the Crain-Maling Foundation to enable us to acquire this ideally-suited expanse of land,” said Rabbi Shmuel Notik, Executive Director of FREE. “Now as we are about to own the property free and clear, is when the real challenges begin: raising the capital with which to build, drawing up the plans and proceeding with construction.”

Rabbi Notik stated that a special ceremony will be held at the Hyatt Deerfield Hotel on the date of the scheduled closing – September 1, 2011 – to celebrate the acquisition and to formally launch the building campaign with its targeted $5,000,000 objective. “This is the completion of Step One in a process that will mark an historic new beginning – not only for the FREE organization, but for the Jewish community as a whole. This is cause for celebration as we set our sights on building a facility that will serve as the pride of the generations.”

Founded in 1973, FREE focuses on promoting Jewish identity and continuity for the Russian speaking community and families with Eastern European roots who have made the Chicago region their home. The organization, under the direction of Rabbi Notik and his wife and co-director, Shterna Notik, a team of rabbis, teachers and support-staff touches thousands of lives on a yearly basis.

The concept of building a new educational and cultural center in the Northwest suburbs got its first real wings back in April when Beatrice Crain, a world-renowned philanthropist, utilized the occasion of her 90th birthday (and belated Bat-Mitzvah celebration) to announce her family’s gift to enable FREE to acquire this property. 

Mrs. Crain and her son Dr. Michael Maling, a successful psychologist and author from Deerfield, Illinois, serve as Chairperson and President respectively, of the Crain-Maling Foundation. This Charitable Foundation supports numerous spiritual and educational institutions, community programs, academic scholarships and institutions that strive to meet the needs of those who cannot care for themselves. The Foundation also provides major subsidies for the arts, cultural events and festivals, medical translational research, venues for spiritual development, and human service organizations. 

Dr. Maling explained that his family felt an inspiration that was generated by his grandfather, Samuel Goldberg. Following his lead, subsequent generations have, for six decades, been passionate about supporting educational and cultural institutions. Dr. Maling said, “If it helps young people realize their innermost potential – whether in academics, the arts or religion – it resonates with our family”. “I think that being the granddaughter of a revered rabbi was a big part of my mother’s attraction to the FREE organization and the wholesome culture it is trying to engender within the younger generations.”

In addition to Mrs. Beatrice Crain and Dr. Michael Maling, several other close friends of FREE will serve in leadership and supportive roles on behalf of the project. Mr. Glenn Morris, owner and executive of several local insurance and finance companies, has undertaken the chairmanship of the building campaign. Ralph Wanger, former president of the Acorn Fund, has signed on to a key support position. Shael Bellows, a prominent figure in the health care industry and long-time benefactor of FREE, will also play a central role in making this latest historic expansion effort for the Jewish community. Shael Bellows is the founder of the Samuel G. Bellows Educational and Cultural Center which currently serves as the central headquarters and hub of activity for the FREE organization.

“Although there are already some capital donors who stand in support of this endeavor, a project of this scope and magnitude will, by definition, have to be a community-wide, grass-roots effort,” said Campaign Chairman Glenn Morris. “We will need broad-based support. Every individual who gets involved will count in a big way; every dollar raised will be significant.”

The community spirit of the project is sure to be further enhanced by the fact that a section of the new center will be dedicated to the former Chevra Kadisha Synagogue, a 100 year-old congregation previously located in Chicago. For seventeen years, the old synagogue was sustained by FREE, until recently when it was no longer viable to do so. The proceeds of the recent sale of the former synagogue, which had a distinctively Eastern European flavor, will help subsidize the new center, and further efforts will be made to preserve and memorialize the name and spirit of the old congregation within the new facility. This will be incorporated within the center’s design, including a museum that will trace the ancestral roots of Eastern European Jewry and specific familial genealogy. Spanning centuries, the history will include the beginnings of the Chabad movement within Hassidic Jewry, continue through the horrors of the Holocaust and finish with evolving descriptions and interpretations of ongoing events.

“This magnificent new center will have an open door and an open heart to the entire community,” said Rabbi Notik. “It will bring Judaism to life in a way that bridges past, present and future.” The Rabbi went on to state that the structure currently situated on the property would be torn down and the brush and overgrowth cleared to make way for the construction of the new multipurpose facility, while maintaining the natural beauty of the property. “More than just a building, it will entail sprawling grounds that people will enjoy visiting – a place to study, to discover, to worship, to celebrate . . . to help and to be helped.” 

The celebration of the closing on the property and launch of the capital campaign will take place on Thursday, September, 1st, at the Hyatt Deerfield on Lake Cook Road beginning at 12:00 pm. For further information, call 773-274-5123.