New Chabad Houses Cater to Art Students and Suburbanites

A flurry of Chabad House openings stretching from the Ohio River valley to the East Coast is bringing a burst of Jewish life and learning to campuses and communities.

Over the past six months, Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries have moved to Oberlin College in Ohio, Altoona, Pa., Lafayette Hill, Pa., and downtown Philadelphia. And earlier in the year, Rabbi Yisroel and Esther Simon opened the Chabad Student Centre of Kingston serving Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. Uniting each location is a dedication to Jewish residents of all stripes and backgrounds.

For Rabbi Shlomo and Devorah Elkan, who have spent only a few weeks in their new Oberlin home, the move has been invigorating. On any given Friday night, they host between six and 10 students from the university, a private liberal arts school known for its oldest-in-the-country music conservatory.

“I’ve met many students through Facebook, and many identify themselves to me when they see me,” says Shlomo Elkan, who moved in September. “They’ll come over and ask questions.”

Located 35 miles southwest of Cleveland, Oberlin has about 3,000 students. The Elkans, who want to hold a public menorah lighting each night of Chanukah in two weeks, estimates that nearly a third of the student body is Jewish.

Eastward in Altoona, Rabbi Yossi and Chanale Stein serve the city’s 200 Jewish families with monthly Friday night gatherings and holiday activities. They arrived in July.

Chanale Stein, whose husband discovered the once-booming industrial town during his commute as a Pittsburgh-based chaplain serving more than a dozen prisons in the area, says that the public embraces their no-holds-barred approach to strengthening Jewish life.

“The general feeling among people is that they’re looking forward to the added activities and Jewish education to enhance what is already here,” says Stein, who teaches at the Hebrew school run by the Jewish Federation of Greater Altoona.

Federation director Bill Wallen is thrilled with the new programming. He points to such activities as an upcoming Chanukah-themed olive press as ways to get younger Jews involved.

“Some of these are things we’ve never done before,” explains Wallen. “These activities really go beyond anything we’ve been able to do before. Anything like this really has value.”

Continued at Chabad.org – The Long Run