Our History in Boston Since 1889
From the narrow streets of the North End to a thriving network serving Jewish life across Greater Boston, this is a story of faith, resilience and community.
A congregation on Hanover Street
The Chasidim Anshei Libawitcz congregation was founded in Boston’s North End in 1889 or 1890, when the neighborhood was a center of Jewish immigrant life. Its earliest documented home was at 188 Hanover Street.
As Boston changed, the congregation moved with the community—first along Hanover Street, then to the West End and Beacon Hill. Its journey reflects the wider history of Jewish Boston: migration, urban renewal, loss, rebuilding and continuity.
More than a century of Jewish life
The dates below bring together the principal milestones described in Chabad of Downtown Boston’s historical record.
Chabad takes root in the North End
The congregation began at 188 Hanover Street, moved to 180 Hanover Street in 1894, and then to 11 Hanover Street in 1897.
A surviving congregational stamp records Boston and the year 1889.
West End and Beacon Hill
The congregation later moved to Leverett and Barton Streets in the West End. Those streets were eventually erased during urban renewal.
It then relocated to 8 Smith Court on Beacon Hill, where it remained active until 1972. The building later became part of Boston’s African American Heritage Museum.
A historic visit by the Previous Rebbe
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson visited Boston in the spring of 1930 while traveling to strengthen Jewish communities and rally support for Russian Jewry.
He addressed gatherings in Dorchester, Roxbury and Chelsea, and met Massachusetts Governor Frank G. Allen on June 24, 1930.
Congregations across Boston
Historical documents also identify Lubavitch congregations in the South End, West End and Dorchester. Several merged with other synagogues as neighborhoods changed and buildings were taken during urban renewal.
A Dorchester congregation founded in 1923 later moved to Brighton. In 1944, the New England Hebrew Academy was founded under the leadership of the Previous Rebbe.
A new era of outreach
In 1976, Rabbi Chaim and Nechama Prus were sent to Boston by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson. They established Eastern Massachusetts’ first Chabad outreach center in Kenmore Square.
The present Kenmore Square building was purchased in 1979 and became the regional headquarters for Chabad in Greater Boston.
Chabad of Downtown Boston
In 2011, Rabbi Yosef and Shayndel Zaklos were appointed to lead Chabad of Downtown Boston and serve the growing Jewish population in the heart of the city.
Today, the community serves Back Bay, Beacon Hill, the Financial District, Mass General Hospital, the North End, South End, West End and Boston’s waterfront.
Rooted in history. Focused on the future.
What began as a small immigrant congregation has grown into a broad movement of synagogues, schools, outreach centers and community programs across Eastern Massachusetts.
Historical notes and sourc
This redesign preserves the timeline and core narrative of the original Chabad of Downtown Boston page. Some early dates are approximate because surviving historical records differ. The origina