Welcoming France’s Very First Chabad on Campus

Reynald Parienti calls the local Chabad House his second home, a place where he breaks bread, finds camaraderie and discovers a spiritual space.

“It’s a comfortable place to be,” he says. “You can go there anytime.”

The new center, which Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Levi and Bracha Mimoun opened just four months ago in the southern Paris suburb of Sceaux, is enticing Jewish families to move into the area’s university community.

“They will come to live closer,” explains Parienti. “It’s an attractive point for Jewish people.”

Levi Mimoun, whose father is a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary nearby, has been involved with Sceaux’s residents – a mix of locals, tourists, and visiting students – for several years. He first came with a friend for Chanukah four years ago and reached out to area Jews.

“Today, we’re in touch with all these people,” says the rabbi. “They were very happy that we came back.”

The Mimouns hosted the Chabad House’s first Sukkot party last month, drawing a crowd of 120 and sending a specially-outfitted mobile sukkah into popular tourist areas nearby.

“The tourists were very surprised and very happy to see a sukkah where they could eat lunch and make a blessing on the Four Species,” relates Mimoun.

Next up, the couple is preparing a public Chanukah menorah lighting and a related event at City Hall.

The municipality “is giving us a place where we can have a party,” says the rabbi.

The center’s growing programming includes a weekly women’s circle and associated classes just for women. Each week also features a kids program and Hebrew classes.

Parienti speaks fondly of the kind of educational opportunities the Chabad House provides. He says he appreciates its high standards and positive treatment of students, and that he likes the Jewish environment it immerses them in, from the kosher food to the positive Jewish role models. He especially likes the example that holiday celebrations can set for children, especially for his four daughters aged between 5 and 12.

“You can see that this is a living place, with all these people,” he explains. “And for the kids, they can learn a lot from [the Mimouns].”

Colleges and a Castle

For college students, the Mimouns focus on four area universities that serve more than 1,000 residential Jewish students.

“We have weekend programs, we have lunch and learn activities, and we provide Sabbath meals,” reports the rabbi, adding that between 40 and 50 students come to eat in their house daily.

The Chabad House also offers one-on-one study sessions.

Others who rely on the center’s resources include some of the approximately 200 Jewish families living in the area, as well as a slice of the 3 million tourists visiting the nearby castle that belonged to King Louis XIV.

“We have a lot of Jewish tourists that contact us by email or by phone,” says Mimoun, noting that people getting out of Paris for the weekend add to the crowd. “We see a lot of people.”

Sceaux resident Bernard Dahan remembers the rabbi coming to his house about three years ago to discuss Chanukah when he was just learning about the area’s Jewish community.

“I didn’t know him, but he came and wanted to talk,” says Dahan. “He helped me look for the time to do good things.”

The rabbi has since helped Dahan expand his understanding of Judaism, walking him through the traditional Jewish mourning period after his mother passed away.

“It’s like a candle, a little flame,” says Dahan. “[Rabbi Mimoum] just wants to make this candle completely illuminated.”