Pioneering the Dream — A Time to Build will be the theme of the 2007 Gala Community Dinner of Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Mercer County.

Three Princeton couples who are supporters of Chabad Lubavitch — David and Andrea Gaynor, Jeffrey and Robin Persky, and Clive and Teresa Samuels — will be honored at the community dinner on Sunday evening, Sept. 23, at the Princeton Westin in Forrestal Village.

The event will also honor William and Gail Bogner of Highland Park. William Bogner, director of the Princeton Care Center, is president of the Raritan Valley Hebrew Free Loan Association and a board member of Congregation Ohr Torah in Edison.

During the evening, Chabad Lubavitch will present its Education Award to Charles Punia of Princeton, a student at the Chabad Hebrew High School in Princeton Township. Punia will deliver a d'var Torah on the subject of Sukkot.

The dinner will also serve to introduce the community to plans for the proposed new Princeton Chabad Center on Route 206 in Princeton Township. Plans call for a two-story center that will include classrooms, a mikva, a shul, a library, a social hall, multipurpose rooms, and guest rooms, as well as campgrounds and an outdoor swimming pool.

The proposed center will become the hub of the regional organization's seven branches — Chabad of Princeton, Chabad of the Windsors, Chabad of Lawrenceville, Chabad of South Brunswick, Chabad of Monroe Township, Chabad at Princeton University, and Chabad at the College of New Jersey/Ewing.

The community dinner will benefit Chabad and its efforts to broaden its presence in the community, according to Rabbi Dovid Dubov, codirector of Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Mercer County with his wife, Malky.

"The dinner is going to help the general program of Chabad and help us with our future center," the rabbi said. "The honorees are very close friends for many years, very dedicated to the community and to building Jewish identity."

Added Malky Dubov, "We're really celebrating a night of Chabad, with all the supporters and all the friends. But what we're also celebrating that night is our plans. It's something very exciting. Every day is one day closer."

One of the evening's honorees, Clive Samuels, a consulting engineer in Princeton, expressed strong support for the plans to build a Chabad synagogue center in the region.

"I think it's very important that Chabad is trying to develop a new temple. I think it's very important that they have one, and I'm trying to assist them," said Samuels, who attends services with Chabad of Princeton. "Chabad is very meaningful to me and my family, and I'd like to support them in any way I can."

David and Andrea Gaynor are members of both Chabad of Princeton and The Jewish Center in Princeton, where David formerly served on the board. An attorney in private practice in Princeton, he currently serves as a trustee of the Chabad Cemetery Association of Mercer County.

Andrea Gaynor, a clinical social worker with the Jewish Family and Children's Service of Greater Mercer County, said that she especially supports the Dubovs' efforts at outreach to children with special needs, the elderly, and Jews in prison.

"We've been associated with them for about 10 years," she said. "I think that Rabbi and Malky Dubov are very charismatic, caring, warm individuals who make it very comfortable for people, no matter where they are on the spectrum of observance or belief. I think they address populations that are underserved overall."

Robin Persky described herself and her husband, Jeffrey, as longtime friends and supporters of Chabad of Princeton. The couple belongs to The Jewish Center, where Robin is a former congregational president and Jeffrey is a former member of the board.

The Perskys have been closely associated with the effort to realize the dream of establishing a Jewish Community Campus of Princeton Mercer Bucks in the region — Robin as cofounder and cochair of the Jewish Community Campus Development Council from 2000 to 2005, and Jeffrey as chair of the council's Land Acquisition and Building Committee.

A real estate developer in Bridgewater, Jeffrey Persky is the immediate past president of the Greenacres Country Club in Lawrenceville. His wife serves as a member of the board of United Jewish Federation of Princeton Mercer Bucks.

"I believe that both Rabbi Dubov and Malky have had a great impact on the Jewish identity and spirituality of the Jewish community here," she said. "Certainly, they have been an inspiration to us."

The event, which is black-tie optional, will begin at 5:15 p.m.; Forrestal Village is on Route 1 in Princeton. For information about reservations for the dinner, call Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Mercer County at 609-252-0124.