People

The Buffalo region has been home to a wide range of individuals associated with local Jewish communities and Jewish networks from the 1820s through to the contemporary period as immigrants, citizens, residents and locals.

Institutions

Buffalo Jews have a rich history of forming both formal and informal institutions for religious, educational, political and social needs. From synagogues to organizations, and from coordinating agencies to groups and clubs, Jewish Buffalonians have seen a changing range of institutions supported by group endeavors and community philanthropy.

Neighborhoods

In living memory, the East Side and North Buffalo stand out as physically connected and interwoven religious and commercial centers of Jewish living. In contrast to these specific areas are the mini hubs identified with Jewish living and connected to a more dispersed idea of neighborhood. Separately, suburbia with its significant geographic spread, has redefined how a series of Jewish spaces come together with a mix of hubs, focal points and networks.

Themes

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Exhibitions

Special exhibitions, through a focus on particular individuals and subjects, delves into the personal stories that have animated Jewish lives. Each digital exploration reflects on the interplay between place, identities and changing times and the way in which American, Jewish and Buffalo historical experiences are deeply interwoven.

Resources

Materials that document Jewish Buffalo in all its diversity are found in books, articles, archives and museums, many of which are available locally or online. This section highlights some of these sources and will be updated regularly.

Chabad House at 3292 Main Street

Chabad House located at 3292 Main Street, July 12, 1978, Collection of The Buffalo History Museum. General photograph collection, Buildings – Religious – Synagogues

Organizations  /  Chabad House of Buffalo

Chabad House of Buffalo began as an outreach program to college age students at the University at Buffalo campuses and Buffalo State College in the early 1970s. It continues that mission today.

Overview

In 1971 Rabbi Noson Gurary and his wife Miriam established the Chabad House at 3292 Main Street, after running small amounts of programming from their apartment on Amherst Manor Drive. Chabad is a Chasidic movement in Orthodox Judaism. Chabad is an acronym of three words: Chochmah (Wisdom), Binah (Understanding), and Da’at (knowledge). Lubavitch is the name of the small town in the county of Mohilev (originally in Imperial Russia) that served as the center of the Chabad Chassidism for four generations. The origins of modern Chabad-Lubavitch organization in the United States are traced to the early 1940’s when the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (1880-1950), appointed his son-in-law and later successor, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (1902-1994), to head the newly-founded educational and social service arms of the movement.

Through the sons of Rabbi Noson Gurary and Miriam Gurary, Rabbi Avrohom and Rabbi Moshe Gurary, and their spouses Chani Gurary and Rivka Gurary and the center on North Forest Road in Getzville and the Knesset Center in North Buffalo, they offer an array of services to college campus students as well as the general community. The Chabad House of Buffalo in Getzville is located near the Ellicot Creek footbridge, opposite the Wilkeson and Spaulding dorms at 2450 North Forest. It opened in 1976, and is also a short walk from the suburban Jewish Community Center. During the summer, Chabad House of Buffalo also operates a children’s day camp called Gan Israel Day Camp at the site.

Rabbi Nosom Gurary and his wife were founders of Torah Temimah Day School of Buffalo that initially ran from within their home, and then at various locations around Buffalo. This organization has since expanded into Ohr Temimim, a merger of the former Torah Temimah and Jewish Heritage Day School at Buffalo and is located at its own site on Audubon Parkway.

Locations

Website

Facebook

Gallery

Chabad House on North Forest Road

Chabad House on North Forest Road, photograph created by Izon Productions-Don Dannecker, 2013. Courtesy of the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies.

Chabad House on North Forest Road

Chabad House at 3292 Main Street

Chabad House located at 3292 Main Street, July 12, 1978, Collection of The Buffalo History Museum. General photograph collection, Buildings - Religious – Synagogues

Chabad House at 3292 Main Street

Discover More

These resources are located at the University at Buffalo, University Archives.

  • Chabad, Chabad House of Buffalo, State University of New York at Buffalo; Buffalo, N.Y. : Chabad House at Buffalo; Vol. 2, no. 1 (Sept. 1973)-v. 2, no. 3 (Dec. 1973).; 1973
  • Jewish life. Chabad House of Buffalo, Buffalo, N.Y. : Chabad House at Buffalo; Jan. 27, 1994-; Periodical Collection, 9/7/00-43
  • Chabad Chronicles. Buffalo, N.Y. : Bais Lubavitch.; 1980s, Periodical Collection, 9/7/00-36

Contribute to this Page

If you have materials you’d like to make available for expanding the history of Chabad of Buffalo, please contact Chabad of Buffalo.

Contact Chabad of Buffalo

Thank You

Our thanks to Rabbi Moshe Gurary and to the Buffalo History Museum as well as the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies for making images available for our use.