- Support Bubby Fira's Foodbank Click Here
- Jewish Women's Night Out RSVP Here
- Hebrew School More info and sign up
Gift your child a weekly Jewish experience that lasts a lifetime. Prepare your child for the Bar/Bat Mitzvah. Celebrate Jewish holidays. Enroll your child today!
More Info
Refugee and Immigration Aid, social and humanitarian services: F.R.E.E. helps Eastern European immigrants and refugees with the myriad of arrangements necessary for a successful move.
More Info
About
Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe (FREE), Inc., has been in existence since 1973. Our mission is to promote Jewish pride, identity and continuity among New American families in the greater Chicagoland area, by providing educational, religious, cultural and social services in a caring non-judgmental environment.
FREE’s programming and services focuses on Jewish family life cycle events and holidays and festivals in the Jewish calendar year. The FREE Hebrew schools, Bar and Bas Mitzvah preparation classes and youth clubs are an integral part of our youth education program. Adult Judaic classes and counseling and Family Shabat Services helps New Americans become proud members of the Jewish community. Our popular Memorial Yizkor and Kaddish programs are important and meaningful avenues that link generations and bridge continents. The widely acclaimed Shalom Magazine, a Russian language publication of FREE, features quality journalism and enjoys avid global readership. All of our programs are provided in the framework of a caring family environment.
At the present time FREE’s primary location is the Bellows Educational and Cultural Center in Chicago with three additional satellites located throughout the Chicago area and in the suburbs.
Learn More
FREE’s programming and services focuses on Jewish family life cycle events and holidays and festivals in the Jewish calendar year. The FREE Hebrew schools, Bar and Bas Mitzvah preparation classes and youth clubs are an integral part of our youth education program. Adult Judaic classes and counseling and Family Shabat Services helps New Americans become proud members of the Jewish community. Our popular Memorial Yizkor and Kaddish programs are important and meaningful avenues that link generations and bridge continents. The widely acclaimed Shalom Magazine, a Russian language publication of FREE, features quality journalism and enjoys avid global readership. All of our programs are provided in the framework of a caring family environment.
At the present time FREE’s primary location is the Bellows Educational and Cultural Center in Chicago with three additional satellites located throughout the Chicago area and in the suburbs.
I would like to...
Learning & Inspiration
- Love, Respect, and TrustThe Jewish Dating and Marriage Podcast Read More
Our Facebook Page
Shabbat & Holidays

Candle Lighting Times
Chicago, IL
Light Candles at
Shabbat Ends
Daily Thought
“I was in the midst of the exile, on the river of Kevar.” (Ezekiel 1:1)
(Kevar is the Hebrew word for “already.”)
At the onset of the exile, Ezekiel sat on the bank of a river called “I heard that already.”
It is a river so cold, it can make icicles from fiery sparks of wisdom.
It is a river of exile. Because it is a lie.
Wisdom never says, “I heard that already.”
When you truly hear, when you absorb wisdom deep...