by Tzali Reicher – chabad.org

When Rabbi Kushi Schusterman stepped up on Thursday night to accept the Town of Bel Air’s award for architectural excellence, he opened by confessing that he had contributed almost no material labor to the building being honored.

“I’m the only person on this project who never lifted a hammer, drew a line or poured any concrete,” said Schusterman, who directs Chabad-Lubavitch of Harford County, Md., with his wife, Fraida. “My main job was saying, ‘It’s beautiful!’ and ‘How much?,’ sometimes in the same breath.”

The building in question, the new Chabad center at 38 E. Broadway in the seat of Harford County in northeastern Maryland, opened in June 2025. In October it received the 28th annual Archer-Bull Award from the town’s Economic and Community Development Commission.

Named for the 19th-century Bel Air architect George Archer and master builder Jacob Bull, the prize recognizes a local project that has undergone exterior work in the past five years. Schusterman said he believes it is the first time in the award’s history that it has gone to a house of worship or any religious institution.

For Jewish community member Leslie Willoughby, the Oct. 22 ceremony was exceptionally meaningful.

“This award was the encapsulation of the journey since we set out to build the synagogue,” she said. “What struck me most on Thursday, from the speeches and the conversations, was the impact the Schustermans have had on the entire community.”

Calls From Brooklyn

In 2010, Schusterman was working at the Jewish Children’s Museum in Brooklyn, N.Y., and his wife as a bookkeeper. With a young daughter at home, the couple began weighing their next step.

“We always said we’d like to go out on shlichut and serve as Chabad emissaries”, he recalled. “To find a community in need of a rabbi and build something together.”

He began calling Chabad emissaries around the country asking them where Jewish life might need strengthening. Rabbi Shalom Raichik, director of Chabad of Gaithersburg, Md., told him about Bel Air, about an hour and a half from his own community, where he knew of one Jewish resident.

At that point Schusterman bought a list of some 3,500 Jewish names in the area from a direct mail company.

“I assumed at least half of the names weren’t accurate, which left some 1,500 Jews,” he said. “If even 200 of those families are being served elsewhere, that means there are at least a thousand families that nobody is reaching.”

With the blessing and support of Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan, regional director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Maryland, he went to work.

“Every night I would sit in our small apartment in Brooklyn and make phone calls,” said Schusterman. “I would say, ‘Hi, we’re considering opening a Jewish center in Bel Air, and we were wondering if that is something that would interest you.’ ”

Then he started driving down to Bel Air on short visits. Sometimes it was just to meet a local Jew over coffee, sometimes it was to organize a program. An early class at the public library titled “The Kabbalah of Flowers” attracted about two dozen people. For a Purim gathering, he stayed in town for Shabbat and held the event on Saturday night. Each new program drew more interest than he expected.

With that a decision was made. In September 2010, shortly before Rosh Hashanah, the Schustermans moved to Bel Air.

Coffee With Every Jew

Bel Air is a commuter town roughly an hour from both Baltimore and Philadelphia, and many residents work at a nearby U.S. Army base. Chabad also serves neighboring Cecil County, and Willoughby noted that people now come from as far as Pennsylvania.

When the family’s rented townhouse soon proved too small to host their guests, they rented a 1,000 square foot basement space for Chabad’s activities. The space served its purpose for two years, though it was far from ideal.

“The steps were steep, there wasn’t an elevator, and it wasn’t easy for people who were a little older to get down,” said Schusterman. “And it didn’t have much visibility for people to find us.”

In the summer of 2012, the family moved to a larger house a few miles outside the center of town. Hebrew school classes met in the dining room, courses from the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute (JLI) followed, and High Holiday services were held in a hotel off Interstate 95.

Throughout those years, Schusterman said, his aim stayed the same.

“My dream was to have coffee with every Jew who lives or works in Harford County, regardless of whether they were going to get involved,” he said. “Our work isn’t about growing programs, but about growing relationships.”

Gradually, more and more people became involved. In 2016, recognizing the need to be closer to where their community was and with the strong encouragement and support of Andy Klein and the Klein family, the Schustermans moved back into town. For their services and activities, they rented the former Department of Public Works storefront at 15 N. Bond St., a nondescript building to which they added a large sign, while the family bought a house nearby.

The storefront filled up within a few years.

“People were coming, and there wasn’t enough room for what was going on,” Schusterman said.

‘I See Our Home’

Chabad of Harford County scheduled a dinner to mark its first decade for March 12, 2020. “It was really an event that brought together the whole community,” said Schusterman.

While driving through town shortly afterward and on the phone to a friend, he passed a “For Sale by Owner” sign on a property.

“I told him, ‘I see the home of our future Chabad house,’ ” Schusterman recalled. He called the owner the next morning and arranged a meeting.

Chabad bought the property in November 2020. The original plan was to renovate the existing structure, until Rabbi Gershon Grossbaum, a Chabad emissary in Minnesota with decades of experience in building Chabad Houses, offered some frank advice.

“He said to me, ‘If you want a Chabad House that can really serve your community, you need to take down the old building,’ ” Schusterman recalled. “So what we thought was going to be a $600,000 renovation ended up being a $3 million building project.”

The building was designed by Frederick Ward Associates and built by iMark Builders. The brief Schusterman gave them was specific.

“We wanted it to feel like a living room and like the Ritz-Carlton lobby,” he said. “When you walk in, you feel very comfortable and very welcome. It doesn’t feel like a commercial building, but it has the quality of a luxurious home, a home G‑d could be proud of.”

At Thursday’s ceremony, he recalled those early conversations.

“When we started this project, I told the architect, ‘Build us something worthy of heaven,’ ” he said. “He showed me the estimate, and I said, ‘I meant eventually.’ ”

Ground was broken before the High Holidays in 2024, and the center opened on June 29, 2025 (3 Tammuz, 5785), the anniversary of the passing of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory. More than 300 people attended the opening, taking the opportunity to tour the building’s sanctuary and social hall, kosher kitchen, classrooms, mikvah and Jewish library. Schusterman believes it is the first Jewish house of worship built in the area in some 70 years.

‘The Building Is the Means’

“As we opened the building, we realized the purpose of a building is not for the building itself, but for the impact it has on the community,” said Schusterman.

At the grand opening, Chabad of Harford County announced that Rabbi Heschel and Doba Yarmush were joining its staff. She now leads youth programming, including the Hebrew school, while he directs adult education. Fraida Schusterman leads the center’s programs for women.

In his remarks on Thursday, Schusterman spoke about the biblical Betzalel, the young craftsman who built the Tabernacle in the desert, and about the Jewish law that a house of prayer should be more beautiful than one’s own home.

“The Bible says, ‘Make Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among them,’ ” he told the audience, citing Exodus 25:8. “Not ‘in it,’ but ‘among them.’ The building is the means. The people and the community are the purpose.”

Turning to the architects, builders and donors, he added, “You gave us beautiful walls. I accept this honor as a responsibility: to fill this space with the sound of prayer, learning and joy.”

In the Rear-View Mirror

Before Chabad came to Bel Air, Willoughby said, she had no place of her own in the local Jewish community.

“I was driving on Main Street one day, seeing the houses of worship for everyone else, and I thought, there’s not one place for me,” she recalled. “I heard this small voice say, ‘That’s why you’re here.’ Chabad was never a stranger to me through all my travels, and I was looking for something close to home, which is how I found Rabbi Kushi.”

When the storefront grew too small, she urged him to build.

“Whenever someone says the walls are stacked against you, I say we’re going to tear those walls down,” she said. “I told Rabbi Kushi, ‘We’re going to build something new, and the money will come.’ ”

Today, she said, the center is packed with people looking to connect and learn more about Judaism.

“Rabbi Kushi is so warm and inviting,” she said. “If there is anything that will get rid of the hate in this world, it’s this kind of love and acceptance.”

That’s what Chabad of Harford County’s new home symbolizes to her.

“On Thursday I parked at the synagogue and walked to the event, and I saw the new building lit up in the night like a beacon,” she said. “It literally brings tears to my eyes. No wonder we won this award, because this center has changed the whole street, the city and affected people in places much further away.”