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Gearing up for the first day
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VOL. 100 NO. 37
SEPTEMBER 7 - 13, 2023
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Hewlett Chabad’s future is now being constructed New facility is, to this point, 50 percent completed By HERNESTO GALDAMEZ hgaldamez@liherald.com
Jeffrey Bessen/Herald
Nice to see you! Lawrence Primary School Assistant Principal Melissa Sacco welcoming Nelson Perez Oxlaj and the rest of the first-graders on the first day school Tuesday. Story, additional photo, Page 10.
Turning on the lights
Community, corporate partnership illuminate playing field By HERNESTO GALDAMEZ hgaldamez@liherald.com
A lack of outdoor lighting has meant less playing time on the Five Towns Community Center fields, especially during the summer months, when children can stay later. But that is changing. Sasha Young, founder of Gammy’s Pantry, which is housed in the Lawrence facility, has said that the installation of field lights would extend participation in sports activities at night and support the center’s young members, who take part in the programs offered by Nassau
County’s Police Activity League. The PAL is an independent nonprofit that operates in 40 communities including at the center, where boys and girls can be part of youth clubs, sports, crafts and educational programs. “We do football training, baseball out there when we have it, but with no lights and evening times, field times were limited,” said Young, who serves on the board of the center’s PAL. “Sometimes we’ve had to turn the headlights on the cars to keep the field lit.” The pandemic scuttled any hope of addressContinued on page 14
“It’s been said, ‘If you build it, they will come,’ and I think that, in our case, here, at Hewlett’s Chabad, ‘they already came’ — we just needed to build it,” Rabbi Nochem Tenenboim wrote in an email. Tenenboim, who leads the now 10-year-old Chabad House of Hewlett, on Everit Avenue, was referring to the Chabad’s new building, the Chabad Center for Jewish Life, which is now halfway complete. “We are excited and proud to say that we are nearing the 50 percent completion milestone of ‘The Chabad Center for Jewish Life of Hewlett!’” Tenenboim wrote. “We began last year with demolition to remove the old structure.” Chabad House of Hewlett was founded in the Tenenboims’ home, and then moved to a small store on Broadway before relocating to Everit Avenue. The Chabad Center, which is replacing it, is where Tenenboim and his family will continue their mission to bring what the rabbi describes as the beauty
and the treasures of Judaism to everyone. The announcement of the construction milestone on the Chabad’s Facebook page was accompanied by photos and a caption: “The Future!” The images capture the excavation for drainage, foundation piles and walls erected, rebar for the pouring of concrete on the main floor, and steel going up. Tenenboim and his wife, Rivkie, lead the nonprofit that serves the Jewish community of Hewlett and surrounding towns. The Chabad is home to a va r i e t y o f a c t iv i t i e s a n d resources for adults and children, including bat and bar mitzvah clubs; an after-school program for younger children, t h e Jew i s h K i d s C l u b o f Hewlett; a program for Hewlett High School students, and Shabbat dinners. “We will have so much more space for all our exciting activities with this new building,” Tenenboim wrote. “We will have more offices, a floor of classrooms, a gymnasium with a full basketball court, kitchen, reception hall and the most Continued on page 20