Rabbi Srolik and Nechama Sputz are establishing Chabad of North Port — a second front door for South Sarasota County, and one shared mission reaching further than it ever has.
In 2005, a young couple pulled into North Port with a baby girl in the back seat and no building and no members. Rabbi Sholom and Chaya Rivka Schmerling began with three people in a living room.
Hebrew School started with four children on a lanai.
The baby in the back seat was named Nechama.
Twenty-one years later, Nechama — now Nechama Sputz — is opening Chabad of North Port with her husband, Rabbi Srolik Sputz, and their son, Levi Yitzchok.
The daughter is coming back to the town where her parents started, with a Chabad House of her own.
Chabad of Venice grows; it does not divide. Everything here continues exactly as it is, with the same people. What changes is reach — a second front door, for families who have been driving past their own neighborhood to get to ours.
The youth programs remain one regional program. Hebrew School of the Arts, Camp Gan Israel and CTeen draw children from Venice, Englewood and North Port together, the way they always have.
It spans more than a hundred square miles and is among the fastest-growing cities in Florida, and the Jewish population has grown with it. For years those families drove to Venice. Many still will. But a community that large deserves Jewish life on its own streets:
It begins the way Venice began — not with a building, but with a door.
Rabbi Srolik and Nechama will welcome people into their own home first, and build from there toward a permanent center in the years ahead.
Four children on a lanai became a Hebrew School. A Hebrew School became a camp, a teen club, a synagogue, a cemetery, and a five-acre campus serving more than 2,000 Jewish families. And one of the children who grew up inside all of it is now opening the next door.
At a time when many are answering rising antisemitism by pulling back, this community is answering by building. Every new Jewish home, every new class, every family welcomed, every child raised proud of who they are —
This expansion is a statement of confidence in the Jewish future.
If you live in North Port, or know someone who does, let them know we're coming.
Tell us where you are and we'll keep you posted as Chabad of North Port takes shape — the first programs, the first celebrations, the first open door. Rabbi Srolik and Nechama look forward to meeting you.
