Central Mass Chabad stands on the legacy of its founders, Rabbi Herschel and Rochele Fogelman, of blessed memory. Sent to Worcester by the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe in the 1940s, they spent more than seven decades building Jewish life in central Massachusetts - founding schools, a synagogue, and a warm and welcoming community that continues to grow.
A Tribute to the Rebbe and the Frierdiker Rebbe
The Rebbe - Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory (1902-1994)
Assuming the leadership of Chabad-Lubavitch in 1951, the Rebbe transformed it into a worldwide movement that touched millions of lives. He taught unconditional love for every Jew, the infinite worth of a single mitzvah, and the power of every act of goodness and kindness to bring the world closer to its ultimate perfection. He sent thousands of emissary families to every corner of the globe, launched campaigns of Jewish education and observance - tefillin, Shabbos candles, Torah study - and guided world Jewry with a vision that united profound scholarship with an open heart. Today, decades after his passing, his teachings continue to inspire, and the global movement he built keeps growing.
The Frierdiker Rebbe - Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, of righteous memory (1880-1950)
The sixth Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch devoted his life to his people with boundless self-sacrifice. In Soviet Russia he built yeshivos, schools and mikvehs in defiance of a regime determined to stamp out Judaism. Arrested and imprisoned, he refused to bend - famously telling the secret police officer who brandished a gun at him: "Your little toy can intimidate only a man who has many gods and but one world. Because I have only one G‑d and two worlds, I am not impressed by your little toy." Freed by worldwide protests in 1927, he escaped Nazi-occupied Poland and arrived in New York in 1940, declaring that "America is no different" - Torah Judaism could flourish on these shores. From his headquarters in Brooklyn he founded schools and yeshivos across America and began dispatching emissaries to Jewish communities that had never known them. He is remembered as the leader who proved that authentic Jewish life could take root and thrive in the New World.
It was the Frierdiker Rebbe who called Rabbi Herschel Fogelman back to lead Worcester's yeshivah in 1946 and, after the couple's wedding in 1947, dispatched them together as his emissaries - and the Rebbe who guided and encouraged their work for the decades that followed. Their story - and everything Chabad of Central Massachusetts is today - is one branch of the tree these two leaders planted.
Rabbi Herschel Fogelman
1921 - 2013 · Founding Director
Rabbi Herschel (Yehudah Tzvi) Fogelman was born in 1921 in Medenychi, Galicia, and raised in New York, where he was among the first students of the Central Lubavitcher Yeshivah established by the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn. In 1942 he came to Worcester to help open the fledgling Yeshiva Achei Tmimim Academy, and in 1946 the sixth Rebbe asked him to return and direct the school - a charge he carried as its dean until his passing.
Under his leadership, the yeshivah grew from an afternoon school into a full day school, and in the late 1950s he bought land and built the building known to generations simply as "The Yeshiva" - the first building constructed from the ground up for Lubavitch. He never turned away a student whose family could not pay, taught Torah daily, and kept an open home where no meal was ever just their own.
Rabbi Fogelman passed away on Rosh Chodesh Tammuz 5773 (June 2013), at the age of 91. That month, before an overflowing crowd, the building he built was dedicated in his honor and renamed the Rabbi Herschel Fogelman Chabad Center.
Education · Outreach · Community building
Rebbetzin Rochele Fogelman
1927 - 2025 · Founding Rebbetzin & Educator
Rebbetzin Rochele Fogelman was born in New York in 1927 to Rabbi Moshe Mordechai and Basya Magnes, pioneering Jewish educators who helped establish the first Bais Yaakov girls' school in America. Following their path, she taught at the Achei Tmimim day school in New Haven, where she met a young Rabbi Herschel Fogelman. They married in 1947 - the Rebbe attended the wedding and officiated at the chuppah - and were immediately dispatched to Worcester by the sixth Rebbe as his permanent emissaries in the city.
A beloved teacher and sought-after speaker, she was a leader of the N'shei Chabad movement and a formative influence in Jewish women's education. In 1953, at the Rebbe's request, she prepared the English transcript of his landmark talk on the woman's role in teaching Judaism. Together with her husband, she founded Worcester's girls' high school, which the Rebbe asked to be named Bais Chana, and her teaching inspired the building of Worcester's new mikvah.
After 78 years of devoted service, Rebbetzin Fogelman passed away on 7 Cheshvan 5786 (October 28, 2025), at the age of 98.
Women's education · N'shei Chabad · Teaching & guidance
Their Legacy
The community Rabbi Herschel and Rochele built became the seed for Jewish life across the region. Chabad Houses in Framingham, Milford, Natick, Sudbury, Wellesley and Westborough grew out of their work, and their children and grandchildren continue to serve as Chabad emissaries and educators, including here in Worcester.
Central Mass Chabad is proud to carry their legacy forward.