Rabbi here to urge Jews to 'come home'

By Jeb Bing

If you're Jewish but seldom or never participate in religious services - even with the approach of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur - Rabbi Raleigh Resnick and his wife Fruma are looking for you. Resnick, attired in the traditional Orthodox garb most often seen on the streets of Manhattan, was somewhat of a show-stopper as he and Fruma joined me at the Pleasanton Weekly booth at the First Wednesday street party earlier this month. Since then, I've had a chance to talk to Resnick and gain a better understanding of his absolute passion for persuading those who have neglected their faith to come back. That's why the couple moved here from New York City early this month after research with Rabbi Yakov Kagan of Walnut Creek showed that at least 10,000 Jews live in the Tri-Valley but have largely abandoned their faith. Resnick found that a large number of this group has never set foot in a synagogue and many younger Jews have never experienced the Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah celebrations

Rabbi Resnick, 24, and his wife hope to change that by coaxing those without a synagogue to join them at their newly established Chabad of the Tri-Valley. Part of the worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch organization, the Chabad Center that they have opened in their new home on Via De Los Cerros in Pleasanton is one of five now in the Bay Area, with the others, in addition to Rabbi Kagan's Chabad of Contra Costa, located in Walnut Creek, Berkeley, Sunnyvale and at Stanford University. Congregation Beth Emek, the only Jewish synagogue in Pleasanton, is not part of the Chabad movement, although Resnick said Chabad welcomes and accepts all Jews, regardless of background and affiliation, whether they're Reform, Conservative, Orthodox or unaffiliated Jews.

As one of 4,000 full-time emissary families around the world, Rabbi Resnick and his wife will now work to unite local Jewish people through religious services and educational and social activities at their home. Their inaugural service is scheduled for 6 p.m. next Monday, Oct. 3, at the Courtyard Marriott on Hopyard Road to mark the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, with services again on Tuesday and Wednesday before the two-day observance ends at sundown Oct. 5. More services will be held the following week when Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, starts at sundown Oct. 12.

Watching the Resnicks work the crowds at First Wednesday and make calls through Internet connections to those with Jewish-sounding names since then, Christians might call them "evangelists." But Resnick points out that as part of Chabad, their aim is to unite Jews worldwide, not proselytize. Chabad does not seek to convert anyone to Judaism, but rather to find those who were born Jews and are Jews regain their connection to Judaism's rituals and faith. The sad fact is, Resnick explains, that many young Jews, especially in an affluent community like Pleasanton, move here after college and forget their religious upbringing and obligations. It's always in the back of their minds and, as Resnick explains, they are also looking today, more than ever, for moral guidance, direction and religious education. He says those coming into his new Chabad Center are hungry for something real, someone to trust and a learning environment that is moral and ethical. Fruma Resnick has started women's group

For both, finding these "lost people of Judaism" takes on a skilled marketing approach not unlike product branding. Few Jews have ever been contacted in an outreach movement by a rabbi or synagogue. The Resnicks say those they are recruiting are impressed by the modern-day, 21st Century approach their religion is taking to renew their interest in their Jewish heritage.

For more information, call 846-0700 or visit the Web site: www.JewishTriValley.com