A new neighborhood Jewish center is gearing up for its very first High Holiday services.

The Bucktown-Wicker Park Chabad Jewish Center will hold services for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, Sept. 22 to 24, at 2024 W. Webster. Services for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, will be Oct. 1 and 2 at the same location.

Rabbi Yosef Moscowitz started the Bucktown-Wicker Park Chabad Jewish Center eight months ago, and he runs the center out of his Bucktown home.

Moscowitz, 26, said there have been no synagogues in Bucktown and Wicker Park for quite some time, and he opened a center there because the "dynamics" in the neighborhoods are changing, as more Jews in their 20s and 30s are moving in.

The center's promotional materials feature a young Jewish man in a variety of poses, looking frustrated, sleepy, confused and enlightened.

"Are you tired of nodding off into your prayer book?" the brochure asks. "Looking for a meaningful and easy-to-follow High Holiday program?"

Moscowitz said the Chabad philosophy is nonjudgmental and doesn't use labels, Moscowitz said.

"A Jew is a Jew," Moscowitz said. "That's our philosophy, not just a gimmick to get people in the door."

Chabad is an acronym created from the Hebrew words for wisdom, understanding and knowledge. There are about 3,000 Chabad Jewish centers in the world, Moscowitz said, and 28 such centers in Chicago and central Illinois.

Moscowitz said the Bucktown-Wicker Park Chabad Jewish Center, about 100 people strong, is funded locally, and there are no membership fees.

The center doesn't have services on a regular basis, but Moscowitz said it offers opportunities for the Jewish community to express Judaism.

On the ground level of his home, Moscowitz holds one-on-one counseling sessions and hosts Judaism classes. Upstairs, he and his wife, Sara, host Friday night meals.

"That is a special time," Moscowitz said.

Sara Moscowitz, 24, leads women's programming for the center, and said she aims to make the events both informative and fun.

Women will make honey dishes at the Sept. 18 program, while Sara gives a class on the upcoming High Holidays. The event will be at a center member's home.

This winter, Moscowitz will start a six-week course on Kabbalah.

Moscowitz, who studied in many countries to become a rabbi, is a third generation Chicagoan. But Moscowitz said he's just now learning about Bucktown and Wicker Park.

The neighborhoods have pleasantly surprised him, so far, he said. Most Chabad Jewish center's start out of a rabbi's home, and renting venues for special events and services can cost a "pretty penny," he said.

But Bucktown and Wicker Park businesses -- such as Property Consultants and PFG, who offered their buildings for High Holiday services -- have helped the center get started.

"I think we're lucky," Moscowitz said.

Moscowitz said the center will consider looking for a permanent home when the need develops.