While the outdoor grills were heating up all over New England this July 4, some 300 people spent a good part of the day dedicating a new Chabad House for the Chestnut Hill Jewish community.

Situated in the center of town, the new Chabad House was recently purchased to provide a base for the educational, social and religious activities that Rabbi Mendy and Grunie Uminer have brought to Chestnut Hill and surrounding areas.

“This is a stepping stone to something much bigger,” says Rabbi Uminer.

At the celebration, the Chabad Houses’s sanctuary was dedicated as the Blanche and Lional Goldman Family Sanctuary. Mrs Blanche Goldman, a long-time supporter of Chabad-Lubavitch, dedicated the sanctuary in her name and in the memory of her late husband.

Many of Boston’s Jewish organizational heads were present, as was the Bostoner Rebbe, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Horowitz, who addressed the guests and took note of the positive change in the level of Jewish activity in the Chestnut Hill and West Roxbury areas since the arrival of the Uminers several years ago.