Chabad Lubavitch of Taiwan
Chabad-Lubavitch in Taiwan: the Taipei Chabad house opened in 2011 by Shlomi and Racheli Tabib, and the Jeffrey D. Schwartz Jewish Community Center
| Chabad Lubavitch of Taiwan
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Chabad house |
| Headquarters | No. 6, Alley 1, Lane 24, Section 3, Ren'ai Road, Da'an District, Taipei |
| Website | https://www.jewish.tw |
Chabad Lubavitch of Taiwan (also the Taipei Jewish Center and the Chabad Jewish Center of Taiwan) is the Chabad-Lubavitch house in Taipei. Shlomi Tabib and Racheli Tabib opened it in the summer of 2011. It is not the Taiwan Jewish Community, the non-denominational congregation whose roots go back to Jewish services held in Taipei from the mid-1950s and which was registered as a foundation in 1977. The Chabad house’s own estimate of Jews on the island is 1,500 to 2,000.[1][2]
Arrival
The Tabibs arrived with contact details for about 70 Jews in a country of 23 million. They have said the real number was higher, and that an early Shabbat meal drew nearly 200. The community they describe is expats: Israelis, North American and European tech and business staff, academics, students, and Israeli and American diplomats. Some stay for a posting. Some have settled. The directory address is No. 6, Alley 1, Lane 24, Section 3, Ren'ai Road, Da'an District, Taipei. Site: jewish.tw.[3][4]
Organised Jewish life on the island is older than the house. From the mid-1950s, after the US–Taiwan Mutual Defense Treaty, Jewish servicemen in the American military held Shabbat and holiday services in the US military chapel in the Headquarters Support Activities compound on Zhongshan North Road. The services were later opened to Jewish civilians. In the 1970s, after President Nixon's trip to China, US withdrawal began to look likely. Resident Jewish families then decided to establish the Taiwan Jewish Community, and on 28 February 1977 the Taipei City Government allowed it to register as a non-profit foundation. Michael D. Friedman provided the initial funds and became the first chairman.[1] Chabad is the second synagogue.
- Editor's note: the statement that Chabad is the second synagogue was previously cited to a placeholder reference and is not covered by the TJC history. It is kept pending a source.
The Schwartz centre
Jeffrey D. Schwartz, a businessman resident in Taiwan for more than 50 years, funded the Jeffrey D. Schwartz Jewish Community Center. Chabad.org puts the cost at $16 million and the floor area at 22,500 square feet. It holds a synagogue, kindergarten and classrooms, a kosher restaurant, a Judaica museum, a 300-seat ballroom and a mikveh with a gold-leaf ceiling. The building opened quietly in 2021. COVID rules delayed the dedication until 2023. Guests included Israeli and Taiwanese officials, East Asian shluchim, and Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi David Lau. Schwartz has said his relationship with Tabib restarted a Jewish connection that had lapsed after his bar mitzvah, and that the partnership produced the centre.[3][5]
In late August 2026 the house hosted the regional Chabad conference: 75 emissaries from 15 countries, marked as 40 years after Mordechai Avtzon was sent to Hong Kong. Schwartz and Moshe Kotlarsky announced the Jeffrey D. Schwartz Asia Fund through Keren Hashluchim, the International Shluchim Foundation. Kotlarsky said the Taiwan shliach had needed the Hong Kong rabbi, and the Hong Kong burial society, to finish the cemetery.[5][2]
Cemetery
Until 2026 a Jew who died in Taiwan was usually flown abroad for burial. A plot in a forest about 40 minutes from the house was fenced and structured, on rabbinic advice, as a distinct Jewish ground. The first burial was on 23 June 2026. Tabib acted for a family who lived outside Taiwan, with Chabad Lubavitch of Hong Kong and the international arm of ZAKA. The August conference opened with a visit to the ground. Chabad.org presents the cemetery as the last missing piece of infrastructure.[6]
People and services
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Shlomi Tabib | Co-director, from 2011 |
| Racheli Tabib | Co-director, from 2011 |
| Leivy Srugo | Young professionals |
| Chaia Srugo | Young professionals |
The directory lists a synagogue, mikveh, preschool, adult education, kosher meals and a kosher food business, kitchen kashering, hospital and prison visits, women’s groups and Shabbat hospitality. A department is filed as YJT / CYP.[4]
See also
- Chabad Lubavitch of China
- Chabad Lubavitch of Hong Kong
- Mordechai Avtzon
- Taiwan Jewish Community
- Jeffrey D. Schwartz
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Taiwan
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Don Shapiro, History, Taiwan Jewish Community (accessed October 2026). Community-side (non-Chabad).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 No longer passing through: Jewish life takes root across Asia, JNS.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Bruria Efune, Taiwan’s $16 Million Jewish Community Center, Chabad.org, 20 June 2023.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chabad Taipei, Chabad.org directory.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Four Decades Into Asia’s Jewish Renaissance, Yeshiva World, 1 October 2026.
- ↑ Shloimy Galperin, Taiwan’s Jews Get a Cemetery of Their Own, Chabad.org, 7 July 2026.