EXCLUSIVE: Owner of Pomegranate supermarket Abraham Banda is donating a hotel in Crown Heights for Shluchim, COLlive has learned. He'll be at Beis Shmuel this Shabbos.

By COLlive reporter

Chabad Shluchim and Shluchos who visit Crown Heights, the Brooklyn neighborhood home to Lubavitch Headquarters, will soon have a hotel at their service.

And that is thanks to a Satmar chossid.

Approximately 20 Shluchim a week visit Crown Heights throughout the year to daven at the Rebbe's Ohel and 770, attend an event or fundraise.

While local residents are known for their hospitality, many Shluchim who don't have relatives or friends here, struggle to find proper accommodations.

Enter 695 East New York Avenue, between Albany and Troy Avenues.

The two-story brick apartment building owned by the Shluchim Office - Chabad Lubavitch Resource Center, will become a state-of-the-art hotel available for visiting Shluchim.

Donating the renovations is R' Abraham Banda of Williamsburg, owner of Pomegranate, the ultramodern kosher supermarket in Flatbush.

"In my visits to California and Florida, the Shluchim have always honored us and give me and my family whatever we needed - without even knowing who I was," Banda told COLlive.com.

He said he's been impressed by activities of the Shluchim Ofiice, where he recently visited with his friend Dudi Farkash, a financial advisor for Guardian Life Insurance Group.

"I saw their sophistication and use of technology for Yiddishkeit - like with the Online School with the children from many time zones. I was very inspired and impressed."

Banda, who attended the lavish banquet of the International Kinus Hashluchim, plays down the fact that a Satmar chossid is donating to Lubavitch, given past disagreements.

"We have much more in common than we don't," he says. "Today, Satmar chassidim very much respect Lubavitch and what the Rebbe has done."

This coming Shabbos, Banda will be a guest of Farkash in Crown Heights and will be donating a massive kiddush at Congregation Beis Shmuel Chabad, located on Eastern Parkway and Albany.

"He is coming to a shul that always welcomes Shluchim and the whole community is invited to join," says Farkash, a gabbai of Beis Shmuel.