Jewish students at S. Diego State University enjoy a game of volleyball at a welcome back event coordinated by Jewish Student Life, a Chabad-Lubavitch organization serving colleges in the area.
Returning university students and incoming freshmen alike have jumped into a semester of Jewish promise at schools across North America.
Pointing to activities ranging from the current crop of High Holiday programs to weekly Shabbat dinners, and 2009 calendars that kicked off with back-to-school barbeques and other massive offerings of food, Jewish collegians say their local Chabad Houses have provided an interesting counterpoint to the decidedly secular atmosphere of university life.
Fall Semester Full of Spiritually Uplifting Jewish Programs
Returning university students and incoming freshmen alike have jumped into a semester of Jewish promise at schools across North America.
Pointing to activities ranging from the current crop of High Holiday programs to weekly Shabbat dinners, and 2009 calendars that kicked off with back-to-school barbeques and other massive offerings of food, Jewish collegians say their local Chabad Houses have provided an interesting counterpoint to the decidedly secular atmosphere of university life.
Nachum Raymond, a New York native planning to study nursing at S. Diego State University thousands of miles from home, had “a great time playing volleyball with other students at the welcome back barbeque on the beach” sponsored by Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Chalom and Mairav Boudjnah and their Jewish Student Life of S. Diego. Just weeks later, he found the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services to be just the inspiring combination of prayer and meditative song that he was looking for.
Roye Ergas, a senior majoring in construction engineering at S. Diego State, agrees, pointing out that Jewish students from all types of backgrounds have made the Chabad House their spiritual home.
“I am drawn back to Chabad every year,” he says. The Boudjnahs “are open, friendly, accepting and welcoming of every single person.”
On campuses large and small, and with Jewish populations ranging from the hundreds to the thousands, Chabad Houses are running a smorgasbord of activities catering to every segment of Jewish student life. Torah classes, challah-baking demonstrations, women’s discussion groups and special gatherings for fraternities and sororities make up a fraction of what any campus has to offer. Through it all, attests Texas A&M University freshman Andrey Malakhovsky, such campus centers nurture students’ pride in their Jewish identities.
“Here, I see people who practice what they believe in, and nobody pressures you to be religious,” explains Malakhovsky, a Russian-Israeli studying electrical engineering who befriended Rabbi Yossi and Manya Lazaroff, co-directors of Chabad-Lubavitch of Brazos Valley in College Station. “It makes me want to learn more about Judaism, which is what I am looking forward to this year.”
OMG!!
OMG!! That’s Benny Keller in the photo!!
SDSU student
s.diego chabad rocks!!
the rabbi and his wife do so much for us students and its awesome!!!
shneur
its not benny, but that picture looks exactly like him
meyer
i thought that was benny for a secend too
Nitzy
Chabad at SDSU ROCKS!!!