Rabbi · Rabbinic Judge · Chaplain
Buffalo Rabbi Mendy Labkowski
Founder and executive director of the Chabad Center for Jewish Life of Buffalo, director of Chabad Young Professionals (CYP) Buffalo, and chaplain with the Buffalo Police Department, Kaleida Health and ECMC.
- Lifelong BuffalonianRaised in Western NY
- Ordained RabbiCentral Chabad Yeshiva, Brooklyn, NY
- Rabbinic JudgeJudicial ordination
- Hospital ChaplainKaleida Health & ECMC
- Police ChaplainBuffalo Police Department
- Director, CYP BuffaloChabad Young Professionals
About
A Buffalo native, from a family of Buffalo rabbis
Rabbi Mendy Labkowski grew up in Amherst, the eldest of twelve children of Rabbi Laizer and Chani Labkovski, who opened the Center for Jewish Life in Williamsville in 1995.
In 2021 he and his wife, Chaya Mushka, opened Chabad in downtown Buffalo, today the Chabad Center for Jewish Life of Buffalo: a welcoming home for every Jew, whatever their background. As director of Chabad Young Professionals (CYP) Buffalo, he has also built a community of Jews in their 20s and 30s through Shabbat dinners, social events and Torah study.
Chaplaincy
Chaplain to Buffalo’s police and hospitals
Rabbi Labkowski is a chaplain at Kaleida Health and Erie County Medical Center (ECMC), supporting patients, families and healthcare workers, including at the end of life. In 2026 he was appointed a chaplain with the Buffalo Police Department, offering spiritual care, crisis response and grief support to officers, their families and the public.
After the Tops supermarket shooting in May 2022, he and his family were there for their neighbors. To him, a rabbi’s job goes beyond teaching Torah: it means being present when people need it most.
Lifecycle events
Rabbi services in Buffalo
Rabbi Labkowski officiates and guides Jewish lifecycle events throughout Buffalo and Western New York, for individuals and families of every background.
In the public square
A Jewish voice for Buffalo
- Lit the first giant menorah in Niagara Square in 2021
- Organized “Buffalo Stands With Israel” at Niagara Square in October 2023
- Called on The Buffalo News to apologize for an antisemitic cartoon in 2023, and the paper did
- Works with local officials each year to proclaim Education & Sharing Day
- Speaks regularly with WGRZ, WKBW, WIVB, WBEN, WBFO and national Jewish media
For journalists, producers & editors
Need a rabbi’s perspective for your story?
When a story touches Jewish life, faith or the Jewish community — breaking news in Buffalo or an event anywhere in the world — Rabbi Mendy Labkowski is available for interviews, on-camera comment and background, on your deadline.
A lifelong Buffalonian, rabbi and rabbinic judge, and chaplain to the Buffalo Police Department, Kaleida Health and ECMC, he is a familiar voice on Western New York television and radio and in print.
Available for comment on
- Jewish holidays, customs & traditions
- Jewish life & community in Buffalo and WNY
- Antisemitism, hate incidents & community safety
- Israel and the local community’s response
- Faith, grief & crisis response from a chaplain’s view
- Jewish law, ethics & religious questions in the news
Learning
Rabbinic education
His Hebrew name, Menachem Mendel, was given in connection with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, whose love of Torah and care for every Jew still guide his work.
He is ordained both as a rabbi and as a rabbinic judge (dayan), with advanced training in Jewish law.
- Student yearsYeshivas Lubavitch Toronto, then a year of study in Brooklyn, NY
- 2015–2016Rabbinic service in Caracas, Venezuela
- 2018Rabbinical ordination from the Central Chabad Yeshiva (Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch) under its dean, Rabbi Shneur Zalman Labkowski; marries Chaya Mushka
- 2020Judicial ordination from Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg of the Supreme Rabbinical Court of Israel and Rabbi Dovid Schochet of the Toronto Rabbinical Council
- 2021Opens Chabad in downtown Buffalo
- 2026Appointed a Buffalo Police Department chaplain
“I consider it my privilege and duty to serve the Jewish community in Buffalo. We will do everything to facilitate Jewish unity and continuity.”
Rabbi Mendy Labkowski
Get in touch
“We will go the extra mile to make you feel comfortable.” For a wedding, bris, bar or bat mitzvah, funeral, or just to talk, Rabbi Labkowski is a call or text away.