Marking a milestone in Jewish education for their nation late last month, Argentinaâs 250,000-strong Jewish community opened the Chabad-Lubavitch Oholei Chinuch primary school for boys. The school is the first stage of a $25 million educational campus, blending modern technology and design with timeless Jewish tradition.
âThis building is more than a school. It is a dream, a vision,â architect Flavio Janches told the gathering of local and national dignitaries, including ambassadors from Israel and the United States, and the donors, parents and students who attended the opening in Buenos Aires. Janches noted that the school, crafted with attention to space, light and color, was designed to foster the holistic growth of students immersed in teachings of Chassidic principlesâparticularly joy, faith in Gâd, a positive, proactive outlook and compassion for all.
Rabbi Tzvi Grunblatt, regional director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Argentina, said that âto be here is a miracle, and above all, we are here because we have a guiding light, the Rebbe [Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory], who shows us that the possibilities are always there, we just have to look and find them.â
Grunblatt said that the school will educate more than 800 boys from Jewish communities around Argentina each year. âThe boys are going to live here, and the Torah they receive here, the behaviors they learn and model for others, the mitzvahs they do will all be a shining light for our nation.â
The school, spanning 80,000 square feet, features state-of-the-art classrooms; a comprehensive open library; playgrounds; eco-friendly lighting; a gym; flexible event room cafeteria; playgrounds and courtyardsâall capped by a rooftop garden.
An adjacent 170,000-square-foot building that is in the works will house the institutionâs preschool and girlâs Bnot Israel elementary and high schools, with the recreational spaces shared between the divisions. Another 23,700-square-foot wing will serve as the campus administrative center.
Longstanding Growth of Judaism in Argentina
The Buenos Aires educational hub was founded in 1974 by Rabbi Berel Baumgarten, the pioneering Chabad-Lubavitch emissary sent by the Rebbe to Argentina, who worked tirelessly to reinvigorate the community from 1955 until his untimely passing in 1978. When the community requested that Grunblattâan Argentine native who had gone to study at Chabad headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y.âreturn to Argentina, the Rebbe agreed. Not long after, Grunblatt celebrated his marriage to Shterna Kazarnovsky, and barely a week afterward, the couple landed in Buenos Aires.
As Chabad in Argentina grew, so did the school. It began with three students; ânobody dreamed it would reach these heights,â Grunblatt told Chabad.org last year.
âThe school has, thank Gâd, a very good name,â Grunblatt said, noting that the reputation, coupled with other factors, led to its remarkable growth. That came even as the community began to shrink in the wake of political instability and exacerbated by the two mass terrorist attacks targeting Jews that have never been solvedâone at the Israeli embassy in 1992, which killed 29 people; and the other at the AMIA (Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Society) building in 1994, which killed 85 people and injured more than 300.
âThe Chabad community has natural growth; families are having children,â he pointed out, adding that as a result of Chabadâs activities, parents from outside the immediate Chabad community are increasingly seeing Oholei Chinuch as the school of choice.
The impact of the Chabad school system on the nationâs Jewish children was highlighted just a few weeks after the opening of the new campus when thousands of young people turned out to watch President Javier Milei don a kippah two days after his inauguration and help light a giant menorah in the center of Buenos Aires.
As the event was televised live by TelevisiĂłn PĂşblica Argentina in a 90-minute program viewed by millions of people throughout Argentina, no doubt many more Jewish children looked on with Jewish pride and dedication to their fellow Jews. Itâs something that their parents and teachers are dedicated to nurturing.
To that end, the new school, honoring the memory of the parents of benefactors Jaime and Ruth Lapidus, will be âthe place that creates leadersâthose who will lead and revolutionize the growth of Judaism in Argentina,â said Gabriel Pines, executive director of the Oholei Chinuch school system.
âIt is a school where the children will not only study Torah,â he added, âbut will learn to always be there for each other.â
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