S. Pete Chabad Opens 18,000-Square-Foot Center

There is no name on the new Chabad Center for Jewish Life in S. Petersburg, Florida — at least not yet. The $11 million, 18,000-square-foot building was built by thousands of gifts from across the community, ranging from $500,000 to a young girl’s saved-up allowance of $100.

It began in 2002, when Rabbi Alter and Chaya Korf arrived as Chabad reps and opened their Dartmouth Avenue stilt home, which often creaked and trembled when crowds filled it up for Shabbat meals. As the community grew, Chabad moved to a storefront on Central Avenue, then to three attached trailers on Park Street. Longtime member Alice Ettinger recalled her first visit there: she walked in to find “a trailer with chairs,” and walked out having found a community.

In 2019, the Korfs bought a half-acre lot downtown and announced plans for a permanent home. Then COVID hit, snarling supply chains and sending costs soaring well past the original $5 million estimate. But in April 2023, about 300 people gathered for the groundbreaking.

It took another three and a half years. On October 25, 400 guests joined Chabad of S. Petersburg to cut the ribbon on its new home — and told its story through the people who lived it.

Avi Kohan and Max Baker, who grew up in S. Pete, remembered Shabbat dinners at the Korfs’ home, summers at Camp Gan Israel and bar mitzvah lessons with Rabbi Korf. Kohan, now a schoolteacher, recalled walking home from Park Street services with his father. “The experiences don’t end when you leave the building,” he said. “You carry them home, and they stay with you.”

Ettinger spoke of the years Chabad supported her and her husband, Larry, including through his stroke and recovery. “We have no family here, and Chabad became our family,” she said.

Visitors who walk into the new building are greeted by a warm, living-room-like lobby with couches and a rug. Beyond it is a study with a long conference table, where Torah classes are held almost every day. Large classrooms make up the educational wing which fills most of the first floor.

A glass staircase leads to the second floor, the community wing. Designed to create the effect of  “walking up into the sky,” it leads to a sunlit atrium that opens into the sanctuary. At the ribbon-cutting event, guests had dinner in the adjacent ballroom and then went up to the rooftop deck for dessert.

Since moving in, Chabad has added a preschool-age Hebrew school class and The Chosen Joe, a Sunday morning prayer service with breakfast.

“Today we are celebrating the completion of a building,” Rabbi Korf said at the ribbon cutting. “But in so many ways, we’re just getting started.”