A Chabad House is a Jewish community center in the truest sense of the term -- the nerve center of all the educational and outreach activities of the Chabad-Lubavitch shliach, serving the needs of the entire Jewish community, from the youngsters to the elderly, and everyone in between. The Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory, constantly called for the expansion of activities in existing Chabad Houses and the establishment of new Chabad Houses wherever Jews live: in the cities, in the suburbs, on college campuses throughout the nation, and around the world. And his representatives responded, and are still responding, to the Rebbe’s call. The shluchim are Abraham’s heirs; all their doors are openIn 1972, in a letter written on the occasion of the opening of a new Chabad House, the Rebbe extended his prayerful wish that the new institution should serve as a key to open the hearts of all who will visit it and all who will come under its sphere of influence -- open their hearts to the very core of their Jewishness. This innermost core is said to be always alive and responsive, regardless of the outer layers encrusting it. When it is aroused, the Jew naturally becomes ignited with the Torah of Life and the mitzvot whereby Jews live; then he too becomes a lamplighter, an inspiration to others. In the Chabad Houses, and in all their activities, the shluchim are Abraham’s heirs; all their doors are open. They have inherited his kindness and compassion, his selfless commitment to the cause of making G-d known in the world and revealing G-dliness in every place on earth. They will not rest until the wellsprings of Torah have spread forth everywhere, “to the West and to the East, to the North and to the South.”
