Rabbi Sruli Fried, MSW
Regional Director
Chai Lifeline Lakewood was established nearly two decades ago by Rabbi Simcha Scholar, a man whose dream was to assist our community’s who families stricken by serious illness, rachmana litzlan, by enveloping them in the warmth and care for which Chai Lifeline is renowned. Rabbi Mordechai Gobioff assembled a small but determined team with an unassuming presence in an equally small and modest town.
Today, the dream remains the same. However, Lakewood’s extraordinarily explosive growth has led to a corresponding increase in the kehilla’s needs. Chai Lifeline is now tasked with preserving our vision as we expand to meet the constantly changing demands of the country’s fastest-growing frum community and the nation’s largest pediatric hospital, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Like all families, ours has grown considerably over the course of many years. Like all families, we strive to keep our members closely linked as our numbers and services multiply.
A family requires housing, and that’s Chai Lifeline’s newest mission: to provide Lakewood families with a state-of-the-art center to accommodate developing needs like
therapy and counseling, after-school programming, special activities, daycare, educational centers, music, and art that mitigate the impact of illness and crisis.
While we plan for the years to come, we daven that our services will no longer be needed with the imminent arrival of Mashiach, b’meheira biyameinu.
