Fraternity Brothers Take Judaism on the Road

A group of half-a-dozen Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity brothers from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oneonta in upstate New York went on the road for eight days to promote Jewish identity and pride.

They traveled east, in New York state stopping in such cities as New Paltz, Ithaca, Binghamton, Albany and Kingston, moved on to Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and then went to places like Middletown, New Haven and Stanford, Conn., before ending up in New York City. There, they visited the Chabad on Campus International office in Brooklyn.

Throughout their travels, they met with other AEPi chapters and students, as well as participated in Chabad programs and community-service events, including an outdoor model matzah bakery stop. They even made time to play a few hands of cards with senior citizens.

Along the way, they put on tefillin and encouraged other Jews to do the same.

The joint initiative between Chabad on Campus International and AEPi was what Dustin Tropp, a 21-year-old junior at SUNY Oneonta, hopes will be the first of many for his chapter and others.

The group—Corey Sider, David Snyder, Jordan Contract, Aaron Kanofsky, Aaron Goldenberg and Tropp—rented a SUV for a trip that started out rainy, and then saw clear skies the rest of the way. They slept over and ate many of their meals at Chabad centers and AEPi houses along the Northeast Coast, and even got to do some laundry there. They also took part in programs at educational institutions.

“I felt like there was a personal impact,” Tropp said of the journey, giving by way of example a student they met in Rhode Island who had never felt comfortable visibly wearing his Jewish star necklace. Upon seeing some AEPi members with Star of David necklaces against their shirts, he took out his own. “He really felt like now he could do it.”

Tropp, who brought the idea for the road trip to his newly minted AEPi chapter last year, said he imagines chapters taking their Chabad rabbis on the road as well, and exploring the U.S. South or West, where there are Jewish populations big and small.

“Everyone was really supportive,” he said. “We’d like to see it happen again and happen elsewhere.”

‘So Very Inspirational’

In New Paltz, they met with 100 students for Shabbat dinner and Shabbat-morning services. “It was wonderful; it showed Jewish unity,” said Chabad of New Paltz Rabbi Moshe Plotkin. “It made the students feel part of something bigger.”

When they went to Albany, the fraternity brothers spoke to students at Chabad’s Maimonides Hebrew Day School. They were also honored with putting mezuzahs on the entrances to the school’s new science library media center, which opened in September but was just recently finished.

Rabbi Yisroel Rubin, the school’s dean and co-director of Chabad of the Capital District, said he was contacted by the AEPi fraternity brothers ahead of time and was glad to welcome them to the school.

“It was so very inspirational to see a group of college students going around different places,” he said. “People usually have a pit stop. They had a tefillin stop.”

At Yale University in New Haven, Conn., Rabbi Shua Rosenstein of Chabad at Yale facilitated a discussion on Jewish identity as the fraternity brothers came through. It drew about 40 students. The group took 15 ideas concerning Jewish identity, and each person had to pick the three that were most relevant to them and explain why.

“I think it was extremely important because it gave the students the opportunity to discuss on an intellectual and on a personal level what their priorities are on being Jewish,” noted Rosenstein, noting that they also offered the young men “a lot of good food.”

Rosenstein said he hopes that the travelers—now immersed in Passover—have processed the experience and followed up with conversations about Jewish identity on a deeper level.

In fact, the eight-day holiday provides a convenient chunk of time to ponder the issue. After all, he said: “How often do we stop and think about what this means?”