770: A Constellation of Sacred Sites

This series explores how three ordinary buildings have been transformed into extraordinary spaces for religious, social, and historic Jewish purpose: a medical clinic in Brooklyn, New York, a second-hand store in Greensboro, North Carolina, and a schoolhouse in southern Germany. Although geographically, temporally, and culturally distinct from one another, all three sites engage with Jewish memory, values, and practice through creative approaches to the preservation of these buildings and their material contents. Using strategies of reconstruction, restoration, and even deconstruction of these buildings and the objects within, the people who steward these sites nurture deep and dynamic relationships between people, objects, and a sense of belonging in each environment.

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Lecture 1: 770: A Constellation of Sacred Sites

‍770 Eastern Parkway is the worldwide headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic community based in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Since Rebbe Menachem Schneerson, the seventh and last leader of the Lubavitch community, passed away in 1994, reconstructions of the gothic-style brick building where he was based have proliferated around the world. In addition, rooms within the original building, and their material contents, have been preserved in distinctive ways for use by members of the community’s growing global movement. In this first lecture, Gabrielle Berlinger examines this network of sacred spaces that enable Lubavitcher Jews around the world to remain connected to the rebbe and his teachings in his absence.