Chabad to Open Satellite Location in Downtown Roswell

Trendy restaurants, cafes and a new boutique hotel are just some of the amenities of the rapidly gentrifying area on and around Canton Street in downtown Roswell.

Joining them will be a new Jewish learning center launched by Chabad of North Fulton to serve the Jewish population in the rapidly growing area.

“Over the last few years, we have been hearing more and more from people who have moved to downtown Roswell, asking us to provide more local opportunities for study and Jewish enrichment,” said Rabbi Hirshy Minkowicz, who has been a leading figure in the North Fulton Jewish community.

“Our goal is to compliment the Jewish infrastructure that already exists in Roswell, and to provide additional options for learning and growth,” he added.

Rabbi Chaim and his wife, Menucha Schwartz, will lead the new Chabad center in Downtown Roswell.

As the requests from the community continued, Rabbi Minkowicz teamed up with Rabbi Ephraim Silverman of Chabad of Cobb — which neighbors Downtown Roswell — and together they set out on a mission to find the appropriate candidate to lead the new Roswell center.

In an extraordinary turn of events, their search led them back to Roswell and Rabbi Chaim Schwartz, who grew up as Hank Schwartz just a few streets away from where he will return to lead the new Chabad center along with his wife, Menucha, and their four young children.

Schwartz grew up in a traditional yet non-observant home. He began to gravitate toward observance in his college years while attending UGA, where he connected with the campus Chabad and set out on a journey of spiritual growth.

Before long, Schwartz was studying at the Mayaanot Yeshiva in Jerusalem, followed by several more years of study that eventually led to his being ordained as a rabbi.

In the process, he met and married his wife, Menucha, and they settled down in New Haven, Conn. And that’s when the rabbis came calling.

The Schwartzes intend to offer adult education classes, women’s events, holiday programs, senior outreach and other programs and events as needed.

Rabbi Chaim can be reached at chaim@jewishroswell.com.