Muskal Family Has Spent Nearly Three Decades Growing A Unique Chabad Community In Wellington

Story by By Fiona Slusarev  |  Photos by Frank Koester

Tucked in the Courtyard Shops at Wellington sits an unassuming location nestled between shops and restaurants. Inside, scents of coffee and babka linger around a multi-use room filled with tables, chairs and a lectern. This is Chabad of Wellington, a thriving Jewish congregation affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.

The Muskal family has been ingrained in the Wellington community for more than 25 years. Rabbi Menachem “Mendy” Muskal and his wife, Miriam Muskal, moved from Kentucky to Florida with the hope of opening a Chabad congregation here.

Rabbi Mendy is originally from Brooklyn, New York. At 16, he met Chabad rabbis working in community outreach for the first time, and it “just lit a fuse.” Years later he met Miriam, who is originally from Israel. When they started dating, they already agreed that they “wanted to do outreach, help people in the community and to go to the field — not sit in a closed community,” Miriam recalled.

Chabad is a nonprofit organization that offers Jewish religious services, community events and support. Though the movement is rooted in Orthodox Judaism, Jewish people from all branches of the religion and non-Jewish folks alike are welcome. Chabad of Wellington is also known as the Wellington Jewish Center.

“The sermons I give as a rabbi are about five percent of what I do, if that. We truly are a real community center,” Rabbi Mendy explained.

You do not need to be a member to attend services and events at Chabad, and while many people support the congregation financially, there are no required fees. The organization is funded solely through donations from locals who want to give. The Chabad movement is decentralized, so while there are many Chabads across the world, and several others in Palm Beach County, each has a unique approach to its community and does not receive funding from the international organization.

Chabad of Wellington caters to the needs of the community it serves.

“Programs that the specific Chabads might be doing might look a little different depending on the demographics or how they do it — but the underlying warmth and openness is the connecting factor,” said Rabbi Eli Muskal, Mendy and Miriam’s son, who works with them at the Wellington congregation.

“The Golden Rule,” Rabbi Mendy explained, “love everybody like yourself.”

Whether a community is mostly young families, empty-nesters or seniors, Chabad creates programming that the neighborhood needs.

For Chabad of Wellington and the Muskal family, this means having a variety of offerings that draw from the Jewish faith and instill community among patrons. Minyan (a worship service) is held every day of the week, with a luncheon after the service on Saturdays, the Jewish sabbath.

Rabbi Eli and his wife, Tzipy, who hails from Argentina, largely focus on programs for children and teens, including Hebrew school classes and clubs. Rabbi Mendy and Miriam are partners in offering social gatherings, adult classes and holiday celebrations. However, it is an all-hands-on-deck operation where everyone helps with everything.

“When we say, ‘Chabad rabbi,’ it’s not just the Chabad rabbi, it’s the Chabad rebbetzin,” Rabbi Eli noted. “It’s a husband-and-wife team, and the kids are very much part of the team as well.”

Rabbi Eli is one of seven Muskal children who were raised here in Wellington while his parents laid the foundation of the Chabad. He grew up watching his father and mother engage with the community and create a place of gathering. This extends beyond the four walls of the Chabad itself. Miriam said that if they didn’t have visitors to their home on the weekends, her children would be shocked and demand to know, “Why don’t we have guests this week?”

It is this community spirit that has become the backbone of the Muskal family. It is not simply the Muskal’s goal to be involved in the community, they hope to strengthen the bonds between the community members themselves.

Rabbi Mendy noted that it was once explained to him like spokes on a wheel: Everyone knows the center spoke, the rabbi, but they aren’t close with the other spokes, each other.

“That’s something we’ve cultivated, we worked on over the years — to make sure that families know each other,” he said. “That they invite each other to family events, Friday night dinners they spend together and the holidays.”

This interconnected and open atmosphere is a defining feature of the community. The Muskals credit this as much to the people of Wellington as to the mission of the local Chabad.

“As rabbis and rebbetzins, it’s the idea of leading by example,” Rabbi Eli said. “Everyone is buying into that same idea of the love, the openness and the warmth. So, the community itself is really special because they’re all on that same page on that, and believing the same mission — it’s a beautiful thing.”

This welcoming ambience is extended to everyone, Jewish or not. When Rabbi Mendy does hospital visits, he speaks to everyone. They even have several non-Jewish patrons who sometimes frequent events. The Muskals are happy to create time and space for everyone, whether that means making home visits, supplying homemade food or even being ready to take a phone call in the middle of the night.

“Whatever it is you need, whatever it is, we are here,” Rabbi Eli said. “Putting that forth, having an open door to any, for all — that is what we came to establish.”

Both Rabbi Mendy and Miriam agree that the most rewarding aspect of their work is discovering when they truly had an impact on someone’s life. With the general inertia of life, sometimes impacts can go unrecognized, but they can rattle off a list of seemingly random letters or calls that turn out to be thank-yous from people they’ve affected over the years, whether it be lifting spirits during a chance encounter at the hospital, supporting a family during a divorce or answering the phone for a teen in crisis.

“Someone will come and say, ‘You helped me in our hardest time of life. You and your husband were there for us.’ And this will make my day,” Miriam said.

Community members are also the reason that Chabad of Wellington continues to grow. Word of mouth and everyday interaction at Publix and Trader Joe’s are among the main forms of promotion for the organization, and the reason their events keep filling up.

To accommodate this growth and breadth of activities, the Muskals recently acquired a plot of land to construct a new, larger Jewish community center in Wellington. The new location will continue to “be open to all and anyone, from all backgrounds, [and] all walks of life,” Rabbi Eli said.

The Muskals and the Wellington Jewish Center will also welcome the holidays with warmth this season at their Chanukah menorah lighting party at the Mall at Wellington Green, set for Sunday, Dec. 14 from 4 to 6 p.m.

To learn more about the Wellington Jewish Center/Chabad of Wellington, visit www.wellingtonjewishcenter.org. For naming opportunities at the future new location, contact Rabbi Mendy Muskal at rabbim@bellsouth.net or (561) 333-4663.