The Perfect House

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MASSACHUSETTS JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | JUNE 25, 2021 | 15 TAMUZ 5781

Chabad House near UMass Medical School will provide Jewish programming and bikur cholim

BY STACEY DRESNER

WORCESTER -- When Rabbi Shmulik and Sarah Fogelman started Chabad of Shrewsbury and UMass Medical School more than three years ago, they thought they would be opening their doors to students and community members, teaching Torah, and organizing a Jewish community. However, two months after opening Chabad, Rabbi Fogelman received the first of many phone calls.

“Since that day we’ve gotten calls from people, not just from here, but also from New York, Brazil, London -- from all over the place -- because UMass is a leader in gene therapy.

“We got a call two months after we moved here from a family that comes here from Brazil every six months for a few days for treatments because UMass is a leader in the gene therapies field, totally on the cutting edge.”

Since realizing the needs of some Jewish patients and their families at the medical center the Fogelmans have been providing them with bikur cholim – kosher meals, pastoral care, and even at times a place to stay in their own home.

But in August, the Fogelmans will be able to offer even more to both students and patients when they open a brand new Chabad House just one block from UMass.

Chabad will close on the house on Locust Avenue sometime in August and by Rosh Hashana should be open for services, classes and Jewish programming.

As a Chabad House, it will provide a Jewish home away from home for UMass medical students and residents to relax, hang out or enjoy a Shabbat meal.

But the new Chabad House will also include “bikur cholim” suites for families getting medical care from UMass, the home of the Horae Gene Therapy Center.

As Rabbi Fogelman stated, the gene therapy center is currently developing breakthrough gene therapies for rare inherited diseases, several of which occur more often in Ashkenazic Jews than in other genetic groups, like Tay-Sachs, Cystic Fibrosis and Canavan Disease. Ground has already been broken on a new education and research building on the UMass campus that will provide research space for clinical trial therapeutics. It is set for completion in 2023.

Chabad of Shrewsbury and UMass Medical School has launched a capital campaign to raise $500,000 for the new Chabad House.

THE FUTURE CHABAD HOUSE OF SHREWSBURY AND UMASS MEDICAL SCHOOL

(PHOTO CREDIT: REALTOR.COM)

RABBI SHMULIK AND SARAH FOGELMAN IN FRONT OF THE UMASS MEDICAL SCHOOL

But finding that perfect house has taken more than two years. A plan to build a Chabad House did not work out, and as has happened to many buyers in this seller’s market, the Fogelmans put in offers on at

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Boston-area high school football team had long history of antisemitic behavior, report finds

BY STEVEN ROSENBERG

(Jewish Journal-Massachusetts via JTA) – A suburban Boston high school football team that had come under fire earlier this year for using Holocaust and Jewish phrases to call plays – “Auschwitz,” “rabbi” and “yarmulke” among them – had been employing similar antisemitic language for at least the last decade.

That was the conclusion of an investigation into the incident involving Duxbury High outlined in a summary of the report by the superintendent of the district schools and posted June 10 to the school’s website.

According to the summary by John Antonucci, the team has called the plays with antisemitic language since at least 2010, used homophobic slurs and profanity on the sidelines, and regularly held a Catholic Mass before games for years in violation of the U.S. Constitution, the Massachusetts Constitution and court rulings that preclude sectarian instruction in public schools.

The full report could not be released, Antonucci’s summary said, because of privacy concerns under state law. The main report focused on the actions of players and coaches, as well as the general culture of the football program, and included interviews

DUXBURY PLAYERS ON THE SIDELINES.

(CREDIT: KAREN WONG/JEWISH JOURNAL-MASSACHUSETTS)

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