Overview
- The two institutions announced the board-approved partnership on Friday that will take effect this Rosh Hashanah and move most Chabad programming into Park East’s landmark building on East 67th Street.
- Rabbi Ben‑Tzion Krasnianski will serve as associate rabbi of Park East and Rabbi Yosef “Yaya” Wilhelm will join as assistant rabbi while Rabbi Arthur Schneier remains senior rabbi.
- The agreement will relocate core Chabad operations — including Chabad Young Professionals, Friendship Circle, Young Families, the Upper East Side Kollel, and campus outreach — into Park East to broaden daily, Shabbat and educational offerings.
- Chabad’s Jacques and Hanna Schwalbe mikvah and its preschool will remain at the Schneerson Center for Jewish Life on East 77th Street, reflecting a blended operational model rather than a full merger.
- Leaders framed the move as a way to expand services, strengthen community ties and present a unified institutional response to recent threats to Jewish life on the Upper East Side, which could affect future security planning and neighborhood engagement.