Chabad Lubavitch of Angola celebrated its grand opening on Sunday and welcomed a Torah written specifically for their community. About 150 people gathered midday for ribbon-cutting ceremonies for both the building and the synagogue, and also watched as mezuzahs were affixed to the new spaces and plaques were unveiled, dedicated to the founders.
Government officials, residents and guests attended, in addition to a number of philanthropists, including Jacob Karako, Ouriel Mansour, Elazar Benjamin and Haim Taib. Rabbi Shlomo Bentolila, executive director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Central Africa, flew in from Kinshasa, Congo, for the festivities.
Chabad of Angola is directed by Rabbi Levi Yitzchak and Devorah Leah Chekly, who moved there with their young daughter a year-and-half-ago. The Cheklys, who speak French, Hebrew and English, have been reaching out to the estimated 300 Jewish families living full-time in Angola, in addition to visitors. Initially housed in a small apartment, the family will now move into the three-story villa and workspace.
“It’s bigger and can cater to more people,” says Bentolila. “And it makes it very clear that we’re here to stay.”
In the evening, the group reconvened at the Epic Sana Hotel in Luanda—the country’s capital and largest city—to put the finishing touches on a new Torah with the help of sofer (scribe) Rabbi Dovid Cohen of Montreal, Canada. The Hachnasat Sefer Torah celebration, or welcoming of a Torah scroll to its new home, was followed by dinner and live music.
Angola draws businesspeople from around the world—men and women who come for a week, a month or longer, sometimes with families in tow. Whether they are looking to pray, learn or simply connect, the social hall and synagogue will offer the room needed for spiritual activities, classes, holiday programs, life-cycle events, consultations with the rabbi and more.
“They’re doing a great job bringing people together,” says Bentolila of the young couple, who typically draw 50 to 60 people a week to Shabbat services and meals.
Bentolila is marking a significant milestone of his own.
Twenty-five years ago, in 1991, he moved to Africa as an emissary of the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—to open Chabad-Lubavitch of Central Africa in the Congo as the headquarters for countries with small Jewish communities throughout Africa. “Our task,” he says (referring to the collective work of emissaries there, including his wife, Miriam), “is to bring light to all the Jews in our communities in Africa—to bring light and warmth to those Jews who for some reason come for work. Angola is part of our mission.”
He hopes to see the Chabad House there continue to thrive: “I’m looking forward to the day the new space becomes too small. Then we will need to expand even more.”
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