The Netivot Shalom Torah Center—named after the Slonimer Rebbe—to be built in Emanuel.

(Courtesy of Netivot Shalom Center) Work began this week on the construction of a large Torah center in the city of Emanuel, located in the Shomron region. The center, called the Netivot Shalom Torah Center is to be named after the Slonimer Rebbe, zt”l. This undertaking is with the participation of leading rabbanim in Israel and local dignitaries.

The Torah Center that will be built will include a beit midrash, study halls, a school and classrooms for students, a community center to support those in need in the city, as well as luxurious halls where residents will be able to hold smachot at cost. The Torah Center overlooks the Cana Stream mentioned in the Torah as the boundary of the inheritance of the tribes of Ephraim and Menasheh.

Emanuel, a Chasidic city located in the heart of the Shomron, is in the midst of an extensive development boom. Hundreds of new housing units currently under construction have already been sold, and future plans for the expansion of the city are currently in the works in order to address the needs of thousands more families who wish to move to the city. Young families from Israel’s Charedi Chasidic communities of Boyan, Vizhnitz, Slonim, Alexander and others are moving to Emanuel, where they will find quality education and a strong and supportive community in its clear, tranquil, mountain air.

Among the many dignitaries who participated in the cornerstone-laying ceremony were Emanuel Mayor Rabbi Eliyahu Gafni; MK Bezalel Smutritz; Kedumim Meir Hananal Dorani; Beit El Mayor Shay Alon; The Shomron Regional Council Head Yossi Dagan; Yesha Council CEO Yigal Dalmoni; Rabbi Haim Kizner, rabbi of the Chabad community; Rabbi Moshe Avraham Golinsky, rabbi of the Slonim community; developer Rabbi Moshe Zinger and other dignitaries.

All the participants congratulated the city’s leadership for turning Emanuel into a magnet for young families and a developing city of Torah.

Yesha Council CEO Yigal Dilmoni told the participants: “We are in the midst of the Three Weeks, when the nation of Israel mourns the destruction of the Temple. In Emanuel, they have decided that now is the time to continue the building of the world of the Torah in Israel and particularly in the Shomron. This is of great value for the settlement of the Land of Israel, and in the eyes of heaven.”