Chabad’s Capital Campaign was finally ready for its official launch when our community suffered the profound loss of Mr. Barry Ray, who passed away on Shabbat Chanukah, December 19, 2026. At the time of his passing, Barry was serving as the Honorary Chairman of Chabad’s Capital Campaign Executive Committee.

From the campaign’s inception, over the course of some eighteen to twenty-four months, Barry shepherded the project from its earliest conceptual stages. He devoted innumerable hours to thoughtful planning, meticulous review, and careful consultation, ensuring that every aspect of the expansion would be executed with precision, integrity, and foresight.

Barry guided the Executive Committee through the campaign’s complex and foundational phases. The land planning and rezoning process, master site planning, and architectural design approvals were all shaped under his direct leadership. Every issue, large and small, received his deliberate and detailed attention. He led the initial round of major funding with a very significant lead gift, joined by those of his fellow distinguished members of the Capital Campaign Executive Committee.

Barry’s leadership was extraordinary. His clarity of vision, exceptional business acumen, strategic insight, and disciplined judgment shaped and strengthened every dimension of this ambitious undertaking. His loss is immeasurable, and his absence will be felt at every stage of this campaign and far beyond.

For close to two decades, Barry and his dear wife Harriet—may she live and be well—invested their special friendship, care, and unwavering support in Chabad’s pioneering community-building efforts in truly unmatched fashion. As we now continue along the path Barry charted, striving to bring his vision and strategy to realization, we do so with full recognition that it is only upon the strong foundation he so thoughtfully planned and so solidly built that we are able to proceed.

This sacred endeavor—a transformational campus expansion—will, G-d willing, stand as a lasting testament and fitting crown to Barry’s life’s work of selfless commitment and devotion to Jewish institution-building throughout the United States and Israel. Above all else, it will help realize his life’s central mission: to sanctify the Name of G-d in a magnificent and enduring manner.