Chabad of Kendall and Pinecrest.
Handout
When my wife and I moved to the Kendall-Pinecrest area in the heart of South Miami-Dade in the mid-1990s, just a few years after Hurricane Andrew, the question we heard most often was:
“Why are you moving here? Everyone else is leaving.”
Andrew had devastated South Miami-Dade. Families relocated. Businesses closed. The assumption was that the future was somewhere else — further north, in more established neighborhoods that felt safer and more secure.
We were advised to follow that path. There were areas with larger, established Jewish communities where institutions were already thriving. Had we chosen one of those neighborhoods, perhaps our services would have been fuller from day one. Perhaps programs would have grown faster.
But that is not how you decide where to serve.
It is easy to move where the crowd is already gathering. It is easy to build where success feels guaranteed. The harder choice is to stay in a place others overlook — to build infrastructure before it is obvious, to create opportunity for the people who are already there, even if they are few.
In the Chabad tradition, a rabbi serves as a shaliach — an emissary — sent wherever Jews live, not only where numbers are strong. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, described this role as being a “lamplighter.” When you see a light unlit, you do not ask how many others are shining nearby. You light the lamp in front of you.
Leadership is not about numbers. It is about lives.
That belief shaped everything that followed in Kendall and Pinecrest. Through Chabad, countless individuals and families deepened their connection to their Jewish heritage — discovering meaning, tradition and community in ways that changed their lives. Nearly 30 years ago, we began in a small storefront with just a handful of families and today that vision has grown into a 2 1/2 acre Friendship Campus in the heart of Miami, where Chabad, Friendship Circle and Mitzvah Kitchen serve hundreds of families and welcome hundreds of people each week.
Belief led to creating programs like Friendship Circle, an inclusive initiative supporting children and teens with special needs and welcoming families from across greater Miami. A community is not whole if even one child feels invisible.
We were also called to address food insecurity — because belonging means little if someone goes home to an empty refrigerator. When a neighbor does not have a meal, that is not their problem alone — it is ours.
The principle that guides us is simple: Every soul matters. Every life counts.
Every family matters. Every child matters. Every senior matters.
Over the past 30 years, I have watched South Dade transform. Institutions that chose to stay have grown strong. Families who once debated leaving are now watching grandchildren grow up here. What was once considered “too far south” is now a vibrant and dynamic part of Miami-Dade.
Then came COVID.
If Hurricane Andrew tested our infrastructure, COVID tested our connection. Isolation replaced gatherings. Fear replaced routine. Yet once again, this community responded. Neighbors helped neighbors. Volunteers delivered food. Families rediscovered the importance of time together.
Rather than weaken South Dade, the pandemic revealed its character.
Today, we are witnessing renewal. New families are moving to the Kendall-Pinecrest area. Schools and houses of worship are growing. There is a renewed hunger for belonging — for community rooted in responsibility and care.
Thirty years ago, people questioned whether there was a future here. Today, the answer is visible all around us in the heart of South Dade.
This community is strong not because it was inevitable, but because people chose to invest in it. They chose to plant roots when others left. They chose to build when the outcome was uncertain. They chose to light lamps, one by one.
And in doing so, they proved something enduring: when we remember that every soul matters and every life counts, a community does more than survive — it shines.
Rabbi Yossi Harlig is the founding director of Chabad of Kendall and Pinecrest and the Friendship Campus in South Miami-Dade.