ROCHESTER — The Jewish organization Chabad-Lubavitch of Southern Minnesota recently announced its expansion with the arrival of two team members, Rabbi Shloime and Chana Greene along with their children Binyamin Ze’ev Velvel and Chaya.

The Greenes will serve as directors of the Chabad Center for Jewish Life  with the mission to expand and create new Jewish community initiatives and programming for the Rochester area, for all ages.

The Greenes join Chabad-Lubavitch of Southern Minnesota – Rochester founded in 1988 by Rabbi David and Chanie Greene, the Chabad representatives to southern Minnesota.

Shloime was born in Rochester. Following high school he attended Tomchei Tmimim Rabbinical College in New York. After graduating Rabbinical College he was selected to serve the Jewish community of Brussels, Belgium.

Shloime spent the following years in Israel where he was a student and teacher’s assistant at the Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, and as a Rabbinical intern for Chabad of Hebron, Israel. He then returned home as assistant chaplain of Chabad-Lubavitch of Rochester.

After marriage, Shloime served three years as the youth and teen director at Chabad of Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

Shloime has a special connection to Rochester as the place of his birth and home to his parents. He is passionate, as a fifth generation Minnesotan, to bring authentic and contemporary Jewish outreach home.

“Being able to return to this amazing city is quite an honor,” says Rabbi Shloime. “I look forward to serving our great, accepting and diverse community.”

Chana was born in Seattle, Washington. Following high school, she spent a year in the Judaic teaching seminary, Machon Alte, in Israel. She then returned to Seattle to work as program coordinator at Friendship Circle of Washington State, a non-profit organization that helps children with special needs. A year later, she moved to Brooklyn, working as a preschool teacher and Hebrew School teacher in Greenwich, Connecticut.

After marriage, she served three years as the Hebrew School assistant director and program director at Chabad of Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Chana is experienced in the areas of children’s programming and education having worked as a counselor, head counselor, assistant director, and director in camps all over the country and is pursuing her degree in Health Sciences.

Chana views educating as a mission, a valued and time-honored Jewish tradition.

Chabad-Lubavitch of Rochester provides a variety of social, humanitarian, material, spiritual, educational counseling services and programs to the greater Rochester area.