Rabbi in Pleasanton is Working to Reach out to the Jewish Residents
By Bonita Brewer
When Rabbi Raleigh Resnick is seen around the Tri-Valley wearing Orthodox Jewish clothing more traditionally seen on the streets of New York, he sometimes gets stopped by a Jewish person saying, "Shalom!" but who knows little else about Judaism.
Resnick wants to change that. Having moved to Pleasanton three months ago from Brooklyn, N.Y., Resnick and his wife, Fruma, have been involved with starting a new Pleasanton-based Jewish center aimed at uniting an estimated 10,000 Tri-Valley residents of Jewish heritage.
There are synagogues in the area, but Resnick hopes, with Chabad of the Tri-Valley, to provide more in the way of Jewish education, social activities and youth programs in appealing to all Jews, according to Resnick.
"All around the world right now, there are many Jews who are not necessarily in touch with their local communities, their roots, their backgrounds," said Resnick, 24. "We want to fill a void in the Tri-Valley area. We believe the message of Judaism, from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is timeless in how it applies to our daily lives."
During the week prior to the start of Hanukkah, which this year happens to fall on Dec. 25, Resnick will drive around the Tri-Valley area with an electrically lit menorah on the roof of his minivan.
Meanwhile, on Dec. 27, there will be a menorah-lighting celebration with music and some local dignitaries at Stoneridge Mall in Pleasanton, he said. The menorah will stay up throughout the remainder of Hanukkah.
"For the Jewish person who walks around the streets of the Tri-Valley this holiday season, we want them to be able to show their children ‘(Hanukkah) is our holiday; this is something we have as well, and is something we feel is important,'" Resnick said.
Although the Tri-Valley Chabad has been initially set up in the Resnick's Pleasanton residence, there are plans to open a larger site for weekly Torah studies, Jewish holiday services, and other events.
There are 150 Chabad centers in California, and this is the 25th in the north part of the state.
"It' an organization, a philosophy, whose mantra is to reach out to every single Jew regardless of background and affiliation" Resnick said of Chabad, which began 250 years ago in Russia and started growing internationally over the past 50 years.
"Orthodox, Reconstructionist or secular, if you're Jewish, you're Jewish. We're there to be a home to every Jew."
There is an existing Chabad in Contra Costa County, providing programs to some 400 families. But its director, Rabbi Yakov Kagan, said he has heard many requests to start a Chabad specifically serving the Tri-Valley area.
Fruma Resnick is starting to teach a class on how to bake challah, a braided Jewish bread, and plans to do storytelling programs in area’s libraries. She is the author of a 500-page Jewish Youth & Teen Guide and the former program director for the Chabad Girls High School in Brooklyn.
Meanwhile, Rabbi Resnick said he's in the process of becoming a chaplain to serve any Jewish inmates in Dublin. He said the Tri-Valley Chabad could do everything from organize luncheons for Jewish professionals to opening a Jewish preschool.
"So many Jews in this area are hungry (spiritually)," he said. "So many tend to feel lost morally. And because of all the terrorism and evil in the world, people are searching for something. Chabad is trying to bring something to Jewish people about their heritage."
Resnick, who was ordained by the chief rabbi of Israel, has spent time serving Jewish communities from Tokyo to Alaska.
