Jewish Student Community Matures at Texas A&M University

For Texas A&M University graduate student Kate Putnam, the Rohr Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Student Center has truly been a home away from home.

“I could not imagine my college career without Chabad,” gushes the 2013 master’s degree candidate in International Affairs. “From Sabbath dinner to holiday events to spontaneous late night chats, Chabad has become an integral part of my time at A&M.”

It was Putnam’s positive experience participating in events during her undergraduate years at A&M that ultimately convinced her to stick around for graduate school.

“[I] would be lying if I said that Chabad didn’t help me in my decision to stay at A&M,” she reveals. “I can’t imagine not having [Chabad] in my life. I feel more confident going into the next two years of my life with Chabad at A&M.”

It’s this level of enthusiasm that inspires Rabbi Yossi and Manya Lazaroff, who established the Chabad House in July 2007, to continue their work of strengthening Jewish life at one of Texas’ most famous and largest universities.

“Texas A&M enrolls more than 46,000 students, making it the sixth largest in the United States,” notes Lazaroff of the institution, founded in 1876 as the state’s first public university. “Conversely, the school’s student body has a low percentage of Jews in comparison with other colleges in the country.”

The rabbi estimates there are between 500 and 1,000 Jewish students currently enrolled at Texas A&M, but even this he admits is a generous approximation.

“Over the years, students and faculty members at A&M had expressed a need for a Chabad House,” says Lazaroff. “Texas is so spread out and there are small pockets of Jews with a lot of land in-between. When we decided to start this, we had three small children at the time – now we have six – and it was a bold move for us. We are very happy we did it.”

By their first Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, the Lazaroffs were hosting upwards of 40 “Aggies” for weekly Friday night Sabbath dinners in their modest-sized home. In October, four months after they arrived, they settled into a 4,000 square-foot building featuring 53 parking spaces and nestled on an acre of land. The purchase was made possible through a generous grant from the Rohr Family Foundation.

“We’re giving Jewish students at A&M the Jewish experience that they’ve never had before,” explains Lazaroff. “Before, it was difficult for students to find programming that catered to different backgrounds. We’ve encountered second, third and fourth year students that had lost interest in living a Jewish life on campus. Now that they have the contact with one another, they can network and make Jewish friends.”

To that end, the Lazaroffs have organized an assortment of daily and weekly programs, from a Thursday night kosher cooking club to community dinners to relaxing social and study gatherings.

Since February 2009, the Chabad House has hosted a regional weekend-long inter-collegiate retreat for Jewish college students under the aegis of the Chabad on Campus International Foundation. Last year the event drew 200 students from every corner of the Lone Star State.

“Students come from 23 different universities from across Texas and beyond,” says Lazaroff. “There isn’t any formal Jewish life at some of these schools, so getting them all together is a very beautiful thing.”

“Students at A&M have a lot of school spirit,” adds Manya Lazaroff, “and we’re hoping to take that sense of pride and color it with Jewish identity.”

Recent 2011 graduate William Weiner, who earned his degree in environmental design, calls the institution “an oasis of sanity in the ever busy life of a college student.”

“I knew going on Friday nights there was a couch to crash on, a family to be part of and, most importantly, a kosher home-cooked meal,” says Weiner. “I always left rejuvenated and ready to take on a new week.”

The stronger the local Jewish infrastructure, the better the chances of increasing Jewish enrollment and attracting prospective students that might otherwise look elsewhere, proffers Manya Lazaroff.

“We’re not just here for a bowl of matzah ball soup,” she declares. “We’re here to present more opportunities for students to identify Jewishly. When the network is strong, it feeds itself.

“We’re seeing it happen,” she continues. “The incoming class of Jewish students is now bringing in other Jewish students, which is something I could have only dreamed of happening. If students here wind up marrying other Jews and creating Jewish families – that is why we’re here.”