Robert Kraft's family gave $5 million for a new Chabad center in his Chestnut Hill hometown

Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, and the Kraft family have given $5 million toward a new Chabad center in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, Chabad.org reported. The building will be called the Kraft Family Chabad Center of Chestnut Hill. The name was announced on October 14, 2026, after Kraft visited the construction site on Columbus Day.

The three-story building stands at the corner of Bellingham Road and Grove Street. It was designed by architect Adolfo Perez. The plans include a sanctuary, a social hall that seats 300, classrooms, a teen center and a preschool. It is scheduled to open in time for the 2027 High Holidays. Kraft also came to the groundbreaking in 2025.

With the Kraft gift, the building campaign has raised $20 million, and about $5 million is still to go. Chabad.org reported that several families gave seven-figure gifts and that many more people gave smaller amounts.

Rabbi Mendy and Grunie Uminer came to the Boston area in 2001 with their newborn daughter, Mushkie. They started the Chabad house in their own home with a handful of families. As more people came, davening and events moved from one home to another. For the High Holidays the Uminers rented space in a nearby public school, and this year about 500 people came to services.

Programs grew along with the crowd. Gan Israel day camp had 350 children this past summer, the most in its history.

Finding a permanent home took about a decade. Eitan and Debra Milgram made the first building pledge at the Chabad's 13th anniversary dinner. David and Tracey Frankel gave the seed gift that made it possible to buy the property, and they have led the building committee ever since. The Frankels grew up in South Africa and first came to know Chabad there. David Frankel remembered the early Chabad house as a small, comfortable shtiebel. The couple received Chabad's Visionary Award at the 25th anniversary gala.

Getting to construction was not simple. Chabad.org reported that neighbors and a town board opposed the plans for nearly a year before the courts cleared the way.

Kraft was born on June 5, 1941, and grew up in neighboring Brookline. Chabad.org reported that his family lived in a rented apartment and did not own a car, and that his father learned Pirkei Avos with him. Jewish Unpacked has reported that his parents were leaders in their shul and hoped he would become a rabbi, and that as a teenager he mostly stayed out of school sports because the games fell on Shabbos.

He has made the Chestnut Hill Chabad part of his family's life. In 2025, on his 83rd birthday, he celebrated a second bar mitzvah there and chanted the haftorah of Behaaloscha. He has put on tefillin at the Chabad and comes for Simchas Torah and other Yomim Tovim. Rabbi Uminer officiated at the wedding of a Kraft granddaughter, did the bris for two great-grandsons and held a baby naming for a great-granddaughter. At the Chabad's 25th anniversary gala, Kraft received its L'Dor V'Dor award.

"Chestnut Hill is my home. It is where I raised my family," Kraft said.

The Chestnut Hill gift is one of many. In 2019, Kraft received the Genesis Prize, which is sometimes called the Jewish Nobel. At the ceremony in Yerushalayim on June 20, 2019, NBC Sports Boston reported, he put the $1 million prize toward fighting antisemitism and pledged $20 million of his own money to a new foundation for the same work. That became the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, known for its blue square campaign and for ads that aired during NFL games and the Super Bowl.

Jewish Unpacked reported that Kraft has been to Israel more than 100 times, starting with his honeymoon in 1963. He has sponsored more than 100 mission trips there, often bringing Patriots players along, and he gave $6 million to build Israel's first American football stadium, the Kraft Family Stadium in Yerushalayim. His family foundation also created the Kraft Center at Columbia and Barnard, which houses Jewish student life for both schools.

Rabbi Uminer tells a story from when he was nine or ten. At a farbrengen at 770 Eastern Parkway, he was sitting near the Rebbe, who asked him to say l'chaim again and then poured him wine from his own kos. The rabbi sees that blessing as one meant for the whole Chestnut Hill community.

How we reported this: details of the gift, the building and the Chabad's history come from a Chabad.org report published Oct. 15, 2026. Kraft's upbringing and philanthropy come from Jewish Unpacked and NBC Sports Boston. We did not independently confirm the campaign totals or the opening date, and we did not reach the Uminers or the Kraft family. Communities building a shul, school or mikvah can reach us at [email protected].