- Fundraiser RaffleGet the chance to win some great prizes and help support our Shul Read More
- Great Debates in Jewish History Join!
- Support Bubby Fira's Foodbank Click Here
- Hebrew School More info and sign up
- MikvahThe secret of Jewish femininity and happy marriage. Our Riverwoods Mikvah is open by appointment.
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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Learning & Inspiration
- Counting the Miracles in Be’er Sheva After Iran Targets Soroka Hospital‘If missile hit ten hours earlier, we could have had massive casualty event’ Read More
- What You Need to Know About Washing for BreadDid you know that your hands must be completely clean before netilat yadayim? Read More
- Rabbi By Day, Aviation Expert By NightThe aviation enthusiast who grew up in a secular Russian-Jewish home and is now a Chabad emissary an... Read More
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Humans vs. Fallen AngelsUnlike angels, we have a human neshamah, a G‑dly
soul that is actually a part of Him. Read More - As Thousands Arrive By Sea, Chabad of Cyprus a Lifeline for the DisplacedJewish centers mobilize to welcome ferry evacuees from Israel Read More
- Iranian Cluster Bomb Strikes Chabad Daycare in Be’er ShevaRabbi Sholom Duchman vows center will ‘again be filled with laughter and learning’ Read More
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Daily Thought
The great men who spied out the Land of Canaan returned and reported:
“We cannot go. They are stronger than us.”
They were brave, wise men, hand-picked by Moses. How could they have erred so disastrously?
Because, subconsciously, they never really wanted to leave the spiritual high of the desert for a life of tilling soil and building homes.
If they had only realized their true issue and asked Moses, he would have explained to them:
“This experience now is only the chrysalis. In the land, you will spread your wings.”
“From within these clouds of glory that...