Your host:
Rabbi Pinny Andrusier
Rabbi Pinny and Gitty Andrusier moved from New York to open Chabad of Southwest Broward in March of 1992. In addition to their thriving Chabad house, they are renowned for their large scale community programs and events, including their exquisite High Holiday programs at 5 star hotels, the annual Jewish Heritage Night with the Miami Heat and programs with other local sports teams. Chabad offers daily, weekly and holiday services, Hebrew school for young boys and girls, Friendship Circle for children with special needs, Sunshine Circle for seniors, Women’s Circle and C-Teen. Chabad also offers many educational programs, classes and seminars as well as fun holiday and social events. Rabbi Pinny and Gitty are the parents of 10 children and have several grandchildren.
The cooper city community
Cooper City is known as “Someplace Special”. Located in Southwest Broward County, it is a small town of approximately 8 square miles and 35,000 people. We pride ourselves on our diversity and low-key sophistication.
Cooper City has a large and diverse Jewish population including Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi and Chassidic populations, all of which come together at Chabad of Southwest Broward. You can always hear Hebrew, Spanish, Yiddish (and of course English) spoken on our campus. We are also blessed with a variety of local resources nearby, including a multitude of kosher markets and restaurants, day schools and yeshivas, Judaica stores and so much more.
About Chabad-Lubavitch
The Philosophy
Chabad-Lubavitch is a philosophy, a movement, and an organization. It is considered to be the most dynamic force in Jewish life today.
In Russian, Lubavitch appropriately means the “city of brotherly love.” It is the town in White Russia where the movement was based for more than a century. The name Lubavitch conveys the essence of the responsibility and love engendered by the Chabad philosophy toward every single Jew.
The word “Chabad” is a Hebrew acronym for the three intellectual faculties: chochmah—wisdom, binah—comprehension and da’at—knowledge. The movement’s system of Jewish religious philosophy, the deepest dimension of G‑d’s Torah, teaches understanding and recognition of the Creator, the role and purpose of creation, and the importance and unique mission of each creature. This philosophy guides a person to refine and govern his or her every act and feeling through wisdom, comprehension and knowledge.
The Movement
Following its inception 250 years ago, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement—a branch of Hasidism—swept through Russia and spread in surrounding countries as well. It provided scholars with answers that eluded them, and simple farmers with a love that had been denied them. Eventually the philosophy of Chabad-Lubavitch and its adherents reached almost every corner of the world and affected almost every facet of Jewish life.
The Leadership
The movement is guided by the teachings of its seven leaders (“Rebbes”), beginning with Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi of righteous memory (1745–1812). These leaders expounded upon the most refined and delicate aspects of Jewish mysticism, creating a corpus of study thousands of books strong. They personified the age-old Biblical qualities of piety and leadership. And they concerned themselves not only with Chabad-Lubavitch, but with the totality of Jewish life, spiritual and physical. No person or detail was too small or insignificant for their love and dedication.
In our generation, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of righteous memory (1902–1994), known simply as “the Rebbe,” guided post-holocaust Jewry to safety from the ravages of that devastation.
The Organization
The origins of today’s Chabad-Lubavitch organization can be traced to the early 1940s, when the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn of righteous memory (1880–1950), appointed his son-in-law and later successor, Rabbi Menachem Mendel, to head the newly founded educational and social service arms of the movement.
Motivated by his profound love for every Jew and spurred by his boundless optimism and self-sacrifice, the Rebbe set into motion a dazzling array of programs, services and institutions.
Today over 5,000 full-time emissary families (2,000 in the United States) apply 250-year-old principles and philosophy to direct more than 3,500 institutions (and a workforce that numbers in the tens of thousands) dedicated to the welfare of the Jewish people worldwide.