Hershey Novack didn't always know that he wanted to become a rabbi.
“If you had asked me at my bar mitzvah if I was going to become a rabbi, I would have laughed at you-very hard,” says Novack.
Rabbi and Wife Team Up, Offer Vibrant Jewish life on Campuses
Hershey Novack didn’t always know that he wanted to become a rabbi.
“If you had asked me at my bar mitzvah if I was going to become a rabbi, I would have laughed at you-very hard,” says Novack.
For the bearded, energetic Novack, 32, who is now the rabbi at the Rohr Center for Jewish Life, a branch of Chabad on Campus that serves Washington University and surrounding communities throughout the region, spiritual leadership was a calling that came over time. Novack says that the idea grew on him as he grew older, and as he came to see the impact that becoming a rabbi would allow him to make.
As part of his rabbinic training, the Chicago-born, Los Angeles-raised Novack studied in a number of yeshivahs, including institutions in Australia and in England, and visited 18 countries before age 22.
After completing his training, Novack and his wife, Chana R. Novack, 29, were recruited by the national Chabad headquarters to serve college students in St. Louis with a new, permanent Chabad presence-the first of its kind in the area.
As a campus-focused rabbi, Novack’s duties differ significantly than those of a community rabbi. Novack performs very few funerals and no bar or bat mitzvahs.
He considers himself a teacher as well as a religious leader, and part of his purpose is to help college students adjust to the new community around them.
“For many young people, college is the first extended period of time that they’ve been away from home. It may be a catalyst for immense personal growth, and as relationships with their parents change, it provides an opportunity for a campus rabbi to bring people together,” Novack says.
Novack faces his fair share of challenges-studies show that college is often the least religious time in a person’s life, and getting students to continue to be interested in their heritage without the protective umbrella of their families is difficult. Novack tries to sway these students’ natural intellectual curiosities toward Chabad and Jewish teachings.
“Oftentimes I find that college students’ thirst for knowledge fits neatly into their academic ambitions,” Novack says. “Part of my job is to articulate how ancient Jewish ideas are relevant to college students, both while they’re in college and for the rest of their lives.”
Through Chabad, Novack seeks to provide students with religious experiences that are both meaningful and accessible-a heady task, he admits.
“It’s a tough nut to crack, but the ethos that pervades our programming [at Chabad] is broad but also deep. We have to engage students without being shallow or superficial,” says Novack.
Since coming to the Rohr Center, Novack has hosted weekly family-style Chabad dinners, has taken over 500 young people to Israel through Birthright, and has started a graduate fellowship program for Jewish students from the ground up.
But Novack maintains that the most meaningful part of his career thus far has been the difference he has made through teaching the lessons of the Chabad to young people of all backgrounds.
“I have been given an incredible opportunity to make a difference, both in the Jewish world and in the broader world,” Novack says.
Henny
Wow!
What true Jewish Pride-kol hakavod!
Lots of continued Hatzlacha and ksiva vachasima tova!
Henny Hoffinger-Chanina :)
old friend
rabbi you are awesome
Moishe C.
Not comfotable with the pose…
C’Mon Y’all are Shluchim ..
Nice article though
jose bard wigdor
a rabbi is a the exemple of torah and halacha, the picture do not give the right mesagge
that-s better
This article makes up for the one posted yesterday about the rabbi’s brother.
To # 3 & 4
You’re right !
I was a little taken aback with the picture .
Those pictures should be saved for the home .
However , hatzlacha in all your good work !
:)
Even better than the Cards!
Exasperated
What on earth could anyone find wrong with the picture? Are you people insane?
sammy
shkoyach for changing the picture.
may we merit to have a new year full of responsible journalism.
to exasperated
lol. there was a different pic posted of him & his wife back to back but it was taken of & this pic was replaced. I think ppl are referring to that picture.
BeReal
I’m sure from the angle you couldnt really see the mechitza between them.
Goodness, here are shluchim totally dedicated to bringing emes to the masses!
Its a chutzpah for anyone to sit on their smug crown heights perches and find fault in shluchim. To actually take a moment from poking at other peoples mode of dress and other peoples strollers and other peoples cars and other peoples beard lengths and other peoples shidduchim and put down shluchim of the rebbe, right before rosh hashana is just shameful.
Please go back to commenting on sheitels that are too long or wonder what that neighbor kid was thinking to go to THAT school and what kind of magazines are being sold or how that girl has such perfect makeup on shabbos… (isn;t she CHASSIDISH?!?!)
Currently Unemployed
PEOPLE ARE INSANE! Get jobs!!!