They’re far away from their rebbes, their friends and families, their shtieblach, and the 24/6 shopping and take-out they were used to in Boro Park or Williamsburg, but they’re setting down roots in a slower-paced, less congested, Torah-friendly town.

They’re far away from their rebbes, their friends and families, their shtieblach, and the 24/6 shopping and take-out they were used to in Boro Park or Williamsburg, but they’re setting down roots in a slower-paced, less congested, Torah-friendly town. Today’s chassidim have decided to venture beyond New York, where the grass really is greener

When the Babads made the move to Baltimore from Boro Park in time for the start of Elul zeman, among the items on their moving truck was a freezer full of meat.

Skulener-Vizhnitz chassidim, the couple figured there was no way the Baltimore stores would carry a hechsher to their liking, so they prudently stocked up.

How wrong they were.

Not only was Skverer and KJ meat available in the predominantly litvish community, there were many other reliable heimishe hechsheirim.

Welcome to Baltimore, a community known for its superb yeshivah, its warm, accepting community — and now a chassidish kollel.

The Babads are but one of 19 families that moved into town shortly before Elul, creating a group of yungeleit that will form the core of the K’hal Chassidim Kollel L’Horo’ah. The five-year learning program will train its members for the rabbinate, and includes kolleleit from Belz, Bobov, Bobov-45, Sanz, Satmar, Skulener, Skverer, and Vizhnitz.

This is not the first time that a group of chassidim has moved out of New York to establish themselves in a new community. Chicago opened up a chassidish kollel last year, and Los Angeles and Toronto each have had one for years. Faced with overcrowding, high housing prices, and the high stress of living in New York, chassidim, traditionally reluctant to move away from their rabbinic leaders, are planting themselves in new fields.

For now, this group has taken up residence in rehabbed apartments along Park Heights Avenue, the vein of the Baltimore Jewish community. Once the kollel completes construction of its new townhouse-style homes, the families will move, making room for future kollel families. The kollel building itself is currently on an empty lot near the kollel apartments and its childcare facility. This will be the kollel’s all-purpose “home” — housing its shul, beis medrash, and community learning programs and activities — for the next two years. A permanent beis medrash building, just down the street, will include all of the amenities needed for the new kehillah, including a mikveh and social hall.

Together as One

According to Rabbi Zvi Weiss, the executive director of Kollel L’Horo’ah, there were a number of reasons to start the kollel, but chief among them were: to benefit a group of Baltimore chassidish families, called the “Chevreh,” which established an organization, K’hal Chassidim, that has been living in Baltimore for about 15 to 20 years; and to entice other chassidish families to move to Baltimore.

“The K’hal Chassidim families are part of the fabric of Baltimore,” explains Rabbi Weiss. “Until now, they’ve been called a ‘chevreh.’ They’ve gotten together for a monthly Melaveh Malkah every Shabbos Mevarechim for the last decade. It’s a chevra that learns together, and we have a shabbaton every summer.

“The question became, ‘How do we grow this chassidish community?’ These families want that to happen, because they want to continue raising their children here in Baltimore; they would love their children to get married and settle here.” In order to facilitate that, he says, they had to create an infrastructure that would attract more chassidim. “The solution chosen was to form the new kehillah around the nucleus of a solid Torah environment — a kollel.”

Even before this new group arrived, Rabbi Weiss says the interest was intense. He had received phone calls from fathers asking if there would be kolleleit to learn with local bochurim and whether shiurim would be offered for adults. “It’s all pretty new now, it’s all in formation, but we are in the process of developing what we have into a complete, active shul,” says Rabbi Weiss. “Not only as part of the kollel, but for the community — shiurim, opportunities to learn b’chavrusa, Lunch and Learn, yarchei kallah, yemei iyun — everything that any other out-of-town community kollel would do.”

The kollel will train its members in rabbanus, and those who stay on past five years have the option of becoming dayanim. These yungeleit — 22 are expected by Cheshvan — have been learning halachah for years; now, they are starting to learn hilchos Shabbos and will learn Yoreh Dei’ah in preparation.

One longtime local chassidishe community member, who wished to remain anonymous, said he can already feel the difference the kollel will make.