RELIGION : Chabad to Welcome All for Yom Kippur

Jews throughout Ventura County are at Rosh Hashana services today to mark the beginning of the annual High Holy Days, a period of reflection and penitence that began at sundown Friday and runs through Yom Kippur on Sept. 20.

Possibly the largest gathering of the 10-day period will be at the Hyatt Westlake Plaza Hotel’s grand ballroom, where Chabad of the Conejo and its six rabbis will hold services for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

Chabad (pronounced haBOD) is similar to an outreach or open-door ministry, a sort of walk-in education center.

“While a temple focuses more on its membership, a Chabad reaches out to every Jew,” said Rabbi Moshe Bryski, executive director of three Chabad of the Conejo centers. “Membership is never necessary to attend a Chabad event.

“Observant or nonobservant, we want to make them feel at home,” he said.

Three of the five Chabads in Ventura County jointly form the Chabad of the Conejo. The other two are in Ventura and Simi Valley.

The word Chabad is derived from the beginning letters of three Hebrew words, Chochma (for wisdom), Binah (for understanding) and Daat (for knowledge).

The Chabad movement’s founder was Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, whose philosophy was that “not a single Jew should ever feel left out of the holidays because he or she was not a member,” Bryski said. Currently, there are Chabad centers in every state and around the world.

Most of Chabad’s classes are held at the Chabad Center at 741 Lakefield Road, Suite D, in Westlake Village and at the Conejo Jewish Academy on Canwood Street in Agoura Hills. The academy’s fall term starts Oct. 12.

“Last semester, our adult education center attracted 3,000 people,” Bryski said, adding that “everything from Torah study groups to [the meaning of] kosher is taught here.”

Plans are in the works for a new day school for kindergarten through second-graders. A preschool is already under construction.

“And our agenda for next year is to build a mikvah, which is a ritual body of water in which we immerse ourselves for spiritual purification,” Bryski said.

The six rabbis affiliated with Chabad of the Conejo expect up to 10,000 people to attend the open-door Yom Kippur services Sept. 19 and 20, held simultaneously in three locations in the Thousand Oaks area.

Yom Kippur will be observed at the Hyatt Westlake Plaza Hotel at 880 S. Westlake Blvd. in Westlake Village, Willow Elementary School at 29026 Laro Drive in Agoura Hills and at the Chabad Center. Prayer books will be Hebrew-English, and there will be a junior congregation for children, where they can learn songs, prayers and the significance of Yom Kippur.

“Every Jew of the community, observant or nonobservant, member or nonmember, affiliated or not, [is invited] to spend the holy day of Yom Kippur attending services,” Bryski said.

The Sept. 19 services will begin at 6:45 p.m.

Services will continue Sept. 20 at 9:30 a.m.; the Yizkor memorial services are set for noon and the Neilah services will begin at 5 p.m. that day. The Yom Kippur fast will end at 7:45 p.m.

Refreshments will be served at all three locations after the fast.

For more information aboutChabad services, call (818) 991-0991.

* LIST OF SERVICES: B6-7