Rabbi Raleigh Resnick is known to thousands of students around the world for his popular online courses like Right on the Money, The Jewish Pathway to Forgiveness and his monumental project to teach three chapters a day of Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah. But closer to home, in the picturesque northern California community of Pleasanton, he and his wife, Fruma, lead a thriving Jewish community as directors of Chabad of the Tri-Valley.

The next and perhaps most important chapter in their work as emissaries of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, is now being written, as they have launched a major drive to complete a new Chabad center and school.

The Resnicks’ dreams of a Chabad center in Pleasanton began in the couple’s living room back in 2005, when they began planting the seeds for a vibrant, growing Jewish community some 40 miles to the east of San Francisco.

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When they purchased a two-acre property with a large commercial building in 2017, the couple thought they were on the fast track to bringing their dreams to fruition. However, not everyone wanted the site to be a center for Jewish learning and prayer, and the project was on hold. Those issues were eventually resolved amicably, but the building that the couple envisioned still wasn’t to be.

A fire in the summer of 2019 destroyed part of the back wall and the roof. The Torah scrolls were not damaged, but costly repairs were needed. Then came the pandemic and the global shut down, and once again the project was put on the back burner.

All the while, the Resnicks continued to educate and encourage their community. Rabbi Resnick gave lectures to adults locally and virtually, while Fruma, a well-loved educator and curriculum creator, continued teaching the community’s youngest residents.

“As our family is on the journey of coming back to the Jewish roots post-Soviet times, Chabad of the Tri-Valley played a critical role supporting us on that path,” said Dr. Alexander Rakul, who along with his wife, Irina, is an active member of the community. “Chabad is a welcoming hub for the community—warm and engaging. We are grateful to have Rabbi Resnick as a wise and knowledgeable mentor to our sons, Max and Sam, on their bar mitzvah journey. They were the first in our family in over 100 years to go through the ceremony, Rakul told Chabad.org.

A Growing Jewish Community

The center is being built with security considerations top of mind, says Resnick. Once it is renovated, the building will house a beautiful sanctuary; a kosher kitchen and catering center; a mikvah; and, most important, the rabbi says, a Jewish preschool. A Holocaust education center will also be built on the site with input from the Shoah Foundation at the University of Southern California.

The newly rebuilt center will also have better accessibility for people with disabilities, an outdoor patio, garden and playground.

To bring the community’s vision to fruition, a $2 million fundraising campaign has launched with people from both inside the community and those who live in other places but have taken and enjoyed Rabbi Resnick’s online classes contributing.

“My thanks are really to Chabad.org,” says Resnick. “Through their medium these classes are studied by thousands the world over; enabling countless Jews to follow the Rebbe’s acclaimed Rambam study program. A week does not go by without hearing from an avid follower of these classes.”

In California, “Chabad of the Tri-Valley and the Resnick family have shown us how joyous and impactful traditional and Chassidic Judaism could be in our lives,” said community member Mark Hoffman. “Observing the Jewish calendar cycle, properly educating our children, and internalizing the Torah, customs and holiday significance has enriched our lives and made us better, more educated and observant Jews. Growing up, I never thought I’d even know my rabbi and his family, let alone be friends, but we count the Resnicks as among our closest friends and really family.”

To learn more about the Resnicks’ work and to help fund the future home of Chabad of the Tri-Valley, visit their campaign site here.