During the first half of the 20th century, Chevy Chase was a sunset town that excluded individuals based on their race and religion. Today, Rabbi Shneur Zalman and Mushka Minkowitz are getting closer to buying a property that will help bring Yiddishkeit to the city.
During the first half of the 20th century, Chevy Chase was a sunset town that excluded individuals based on their race and religion.
In the 1920s, restrictive covenants were added to Chevy Chase real estate deeds. Some prohibit the sale or rental to “any person of Semitic race”, that is to say the exclusion of Jews. By World War II, such restrictive language had largely disappeared from real estate transactions, and all were overturned by the 1948 Supreme Court decision in Shelley v. Kramer.
Much has changed at Chevy Chase, which now has a vibrant Jewish community. While most of these families still live in neighborhoods that were never touched by the pacts mentioned above, some live on streets that had anti-Jewish pacts well into the 1960s!
Over the past 6 years, Chabad Chevy Chasedirected by the rabbi Cheur Zalman and Mushka Minkowitzhas made tremendous progress so that local families can be proud of their heritage.
“It brings me immense joy to walk past the Chabad house of Chevy Chase proudly displaying an oversized Menorah in a neighborhood that didn’t even allow Jews to reside when I moved to town,” says Waltera Jewish resident who has lived in Chevy Chase long enough to remember the old restrictions.
Today, Rabbi Shneur Zalman and Mushka Minkowitz are weeks away from buying a property that will help bring Yiddishkeit to the city.
Chevy Chase’s Chabad has until December 9 to raise 500,000 or else this opportunity may slip away!
Make a donation and help ensure that every Jewish Chevy Chaser can proudly celebrate who they are.
