Chabad at Hamilton College Gets $2 Million Upgrade

by Ellen Braunstein – chabad.org

No more tents and mud—that’s two of the positive changes brought about by the new $1.85 million center built for Chabad-Lubavitch of Clinton in upstate New York, which opened in time for the new 2024-25 semester and the Jewish new year.

When Rabbi Didy and Devorah Waks moved to the region a decade ago to serve the Jewish community at Hamilton College and Clinton they immediately began to host services and events at their home. The community reacted positively, and by 2017, the emissary couple upsized their burgeoning center to a larger, 2,500-square-foot home to accommodate the growing number of constituents. When crowds grew too large, they’d erect a tent in their yard—a less than ideal solution.

It was only a matter of time before Chabad would need a home of its own.

“It’s a different world, and it feels very good,” said Rabbi Waks, co-director of the Chabad center, which serves the local community as well as an estimated 350 Jews among Hamilton College’s 2,000 students.

The new 4,500-square-foot center at 108 College Street “is more comfortable, but also much nicer and therefore, attractive to students,” he said of the village’s new Jewish landmark. “You feel as if you are in a Jewish space.”

Gabby Nakkab, a senior at Hamilton and co-president of the Chabad Student Group, is overjoyed by the new Chabad center. “I came in as a freshman knowing that I wanted to be involved with Chabad. It was great, but we would all cram into the Waks’ tiny house that served as their own home and Chabad House. Now that we have this center, I see why we need it. It’s three times the size,” she said.

A world politics major, Nakkab attends regular classes taught by the rabbi and rebbetzin. She says that while it’s not easy to be religious on the Hamilton campus, “I knew I could come here because we have Chabad. Without Chabad, I don’t think [Hamilton] could have supported my Jewish lifestyle.”

‘Big Enough to Facilitate Programming’

When the Wakses first began seriously thinking about expansion, they turned to their neighbors, the Palmieris, asking if they would be interested in selling their house so they could move in next door to the new Chabad building.

“Nick and his wife, Amy, were very supportive and excited,” Waks said. “They heard we were looking to expand and build something big enough to facilitate all the programming.”

“Didy and Devorah are really special people, dedicated to the college and the community,” Palmieri said.

The Wakses and their six children, ages 7 months to 13, moved out of their home after Passover of last year. Soon after, construction workers knocked down the house to make way for the new building.

Since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel, their dedication has taken on new significance as Jewish students face mounting challenges. According to students, Hamilton College’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) has organized virulently anti-Israel rallies, distributed hateful pamphlets and posted antisemitic statements online that have driven an increase in antisemitic incidents targeting individual Jewish students.

According to Devorah Waks, some of the Jewish students she is in contact with have said they had lost friends simply because they support Israel, or were even suspected—by virtue of being Jewish—of having pro-Israel sentiments.

Waks said that the last year has made it especially important for Jewish students to have a place to come that they can call home. “Between their studies and whatever the political situation is, everything can get very stressful,” she said. “Sometimes, Jewish students just need a warm home. We’re family here, and everyone who comes here feels that.”

‘Expanding Our Offerings’

Several dozen people attended the High Holiday services earlier this month, where there was “a constant flow of different students,” the rabbi said. Synagogue services were followed by brisket dinners in the evening and bagel lunches in the afternoons. Thanks to the new building, these meals could be served outside of the main sanctuary, as they had been until now in the Wakses home. More than 100 unique students came to meals prepared by the Wakses over Rosh Hashanah.

“We are really excited to have a new space and continue what we’ve been doing until now and expand our offerings,” Devorah Waks said.

The center had an official inauguration and dedication ceremony in late September. The new college president Steven Tepper, as well as the dean of students, mayor of Clinton and state lawmakers were among those who attended the ceremonial event.

The center is named in honor of Richard Sands—a New York City businessman who graduated from Hamilton College in 1987—and his wife, Phylise. “He has been someone who has helped build the center from the beginning,” Didy Waks said.

“He encouraged us to come to Hamilton 10 years ago, saying it was a great place and would be even greater if it had a Chabad there,” said Devorah Waks. “He was so passionate about it. It was contagious. We were like, ‘OK, let’s do this.’ ”

In a video testimonial shown at the dedication, Sands said he wanted to make sure that the next generation of Jewish leaders has a Jewish experience on the Hamilton campus. “That they see the beauty in it, and have the comfort and security of knowing that there are other people like me.

“The biggest, most expensive and most prominent building in Clinton, it may not be,” Sands continued. “But the Chabad center is the single most important facility and the most important group of people that will make up your child’s next four years.”

‘A Huge Resource to Students’

The new center has a living and dining area and a large commercial kitchen, better equipped to cook the large meals required for the 50 to 80 people who attend Shabbat dinner each week. There is a large room in the back where activities take place. Upstairs is a lounge, library, an office and two guest rooms.

“We just have so much more we can do because we have this space,” the rabbi said of a day when multiple events might take place concurrently. “Until now, we never really had a separate area from where our house was.”

Students can do their homework there and feel like they are in the living room of their home, surrounded by other Jewish students.

Catie Schwartz, class of 2015, stays in touch with the Wakses. Now a real estate executive, Schwartz calls the new center “a wonderful resource for the larger Clinton community.”

“They found a lot of people who were looking to engage with Jewish life that weren’t able to,” she said of the Wakses “The Chabad House is just a huge resource to students and allows a wider array of students to attend the college. It’s something that I could have never imagined.”