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The Chabad Jewish Center of Monroe looks quite different than just a few years ago, when its directors, Rabbi Eliezer and Chanie Zaklikovsky, began their work to rekindle Jewish life in town.

"When we bought it, it was a modern regular one-family house and the operation was running out of the living room," Rabbi Zaklikovsky said.

Zaklikovsky said they would hold services, Kiddush and Shabbat meals in the family room.

"Basically, we filled up the living room and slowly started filling up the dining room," he said. "So, we started to think what would be the logical thing to do to make the place bigger."

At first, he said he wanted to renovate the garage to create extra space, but a friend of his, Seymour Gelzer, suggested they build an addition instead.

"He said I'll be the architect and you'll be the contractor," Zaklikovsky said.

Zaklikovsky said he then went to a construction site in Monroe where he knew a man, who suggested a name of an architect who does work for him. He then went with Gelzer to the architect in north Jersey, Steve Praner. Praner told Zaklikovsky to work on getting building permits from the township.

But because Zaklikovsky was not a licensed contractor, he needed people to guide him and advise him along the way, he said.

"What I did was I went to a number of the jobs here in Monroe where they were building and I asked the managers if they would give me their time, and when I had a question they would guide me to what comes first and what comes second and what to do and what not to do," he said.

He obtained the permit, and as he was hanging the permit, he saw a familiar truck pass by. It was a neighbor from down the street, who happened to see him hanging up the permit and asked what he was building and who was building it. Zaklikovsky told him he didn't have a builder yet. The neighbor then said he would lay the foundation down.

"The next week at 8 in the morning, he came there with the truck and started to dig the place out," he said. "I didn't even have time to consult some of our committee members."

The renovation was a process of people donating their time, labor, money, and material, Zaklikovsky said.

"We basically went through the whole job by people giving us guidance," Zaklikovsky said, adding that most people were happy to help.

He said after he laid down the foundation, the neighbor directed him where to get cement, and then that person directed him where to get something else, and so on.

"What evolved was a fascinating story of people helping people," Zaklikovsky said. "We had to make it work and we did. It was very heartwarming to find the involvement of the people. That's how it went, piece by piece."

Later on in the process, Zaklikovsky heard about an old Torah that was available at a temple that was closing in Shenandoah, Penn. so he went there to see it and hopefully purchase it. However, when he went to get the Torah, someone else had already bought it. He decided to stay there and look around, and ended up buying the shul's ark instead.

"We took a group of volunteers on a Sunday morning from the shul, rented a truck, drove down there, we took it apart piece by piece by piece, wrapped it, stored it, put it into the truck, and a few weeks later on a Sunday morning we put it all back together again," he said.

He said the ark was built before the shul was even finished.

Before the renovations, Shabbat services were generally small groups of 10 to 20 people, he said.

"After a year, we started having it about twice a month," Zaklikovsky said. "We didn't think we would ever be able to have Shabbos services every Shabbos. It snowballed; it wasn't even a question whether we had a minyan."

Zaklikovsky said after Passover, every week the shul would have as many as 60 people attending services.

"People very much feel a part of it," he said. "They were extremely supportive and very helpful."

He said along the way there were many obstacles he faced in getting the permit and getting all of the renovations done.

"It was a big struggle, there were certain times I was fed up and there were times I said 'this is enough and I can't do it'," he said.

However, he said there were many people besides the various construction crews that that were there for him during the renovation process. Two

people that were vital to him throughout the process were shul members: his building chairman, Leonard Posnock, and Solomon Beck, his vice chairman.

Posnock, along with his wife Frieda, helped bring the shul their first Torah, he said, when they went to visit family in New Orleans.

"Lenny Posnock's wife's sister is the president of the Beth Israel shul in downtown New Orleans," he said. "Long story short: they came back with a Torah."

Zaklikovsky said just after the shul had koshered the torah and had it prepared, fixed, and ready to use, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the entire shul was destroyed. Therefore, the Monroe Chabad has the only surviving Torah from the oldest shul in New Orleans, he said.

Zaklikovsky said the renovations brought the congregation closer.

"It took our operation to a whole new level," he said. "All those people who lived through the construction feel a very intense bond with this place. Most of all, it turned into something unique, and that is really a warm and homey place to celebrate your Judaism in Monroe."

Zaklikovsky said overall the renovations helped Chanie's work at the Chabad House, though it took some patience to see it through.

"Chanie was on one hand very happy to get her house back, but on the other hand it needed extreme amount of patience, because when you're living in a house that's under construction everyday you're mopping up sheet rock stains and dust and the heat is not working and the air conditioning is nor working," he said.

Chanie said she loves the new additions, especially because it has helped her expand the Hebrew school and establish a women's class.

"I never thought it was going to happen, but now I can't imagine living without it," she said. "There was definitely a need."

The rabbi said after the renovations people feel acceptance and a sense of comfort when they come to Chabad.

"People realize that behind the labels Chabad, Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, is acceptance and ease that allows them to participate on their own level, and that is probably the single biggest challenge that we had in coming to Monroe," he said.