A home for every Jew in San Antonio
Started around a kitchen table in 2011. Still a kitchen table — just a much longer one.
Our story
In the summer of 2011 Rabbi Mendy and Chaya Levin moved to San Antonio with a baby, two suitcases of books and a folding table. That first Friday night they set it for twelve. Eleven people came — a student from UTSA, a retired couple from Alamo Heights, an Air Force family, and a few others who had heard there would be soup.
Fifteen years later Chabad House Demo is a Chabad house with a sanctuary, a Hebrew school, a women's circle, a teen program and a kitchen that never quite closes. What hasn't changed is the idea: no membership, no dues, no labels. Every Jew is family, whatever they know or don't, and whoever walks in gets a seat.
Meet the Rabbi and Rebbetzin
Rabbi Mendy and Chaya Levin
Rabbi Mendy teaches the Tuesday class, answers the phone at two in the morning, and makes a serious brisket. Chaya runs the Hebrew school and the women's circle, and knows the name of every child who has ever walked in. They have six children, who you'll meet at the door on Friday night.
15 years in San Antonio
52 Shabbat dinners a year
400+ families
$0 membership, ever
Fifteen years, one table
- 1
2011 — The first Shabbat
Twelve chairs in a rented apartment off Broadway. Eleven guests and a pot of chicken soup.
- 2
2013 — Hebrew school opens
Nine children on Sunday mornings, in a living room with a whiteboard. The women's circle starts the same year.
- 3
2017 — A building of our own
Our current home on Main Plaza, with a sanctuary, a kosher kitchen and four classrooms.
- 4
2020 — Nobody eats alone
During the pandemic, volunteers delivered 6,000 Shabbat meals to doorsteps across the city.
- 5
2026 — A Torah of our own
The community begins writing its own Torah scroll, letter by letter. You can dedicate one.
The values behind the door
Every Jew is family
Not a member, not a customer — family. Whatever you know, whatever you keep.
Nobody turned away
Not for money, not for background. If cost is ever a problem, say so quietly and it isn't.
One more mitzvah
We never ask anyone to do everything. One candle, one blessing, one Shabbat — it all counts.
Show up
For the wedding and the hospital, the bris and the shiva. That's what a community is for.
We moved here not knowing a soul. The Levins had us for dinner the first Friday, and by Chanukah our kids were lighting the big menorah downtown. This is our family now.
Be a partner
Everything here is free. Someone makes sure of it.
Shabbat dinners, classes and holidays stay open to everyone because people like you give. Become a monthly partner from $18 a month.