Chabad Serves UNT’s Expanding Jewish Population

Jewish students at the University of North Texas now have a home away from home with the opening of a new campus Chabad House run by Rabbi Levi and Leah Dubrawsky, who moved up the I-35 corridor to Denton from the Dallas area just two months ago. Drawn by UNT’s growing Jewish student population, the couple is part of an ever-expanding network of hundreds of Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries concentrating on campus communities.

“When I came here last year, there wasn’t anything to remind me of home or of [Sabbath] dinner like I used to have with my family,” says sophomore kinesiology student Shahaf Bareni, whose family lives in Israel. “When [the Dubrawskys] arrived, it was just like a piece of home here in a foreign country – and I felt blessed.”

Made possible by a grant from the Rohr Family Foundation and supported by programs run by the Chabad on Campus International Foundation, the new Chabad House offers kosher food, Sabbath services, Torah classes, one-on-one study sessions and other activities to Jewish students of all backgrounds. Levi Dubrawsky estimates UNT’s Jewish population, out of total student population of more than 33,000, at around 1,000 students.

“Many of the students are unaffiliated,” he said, “so we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

With a rapidly-growing student body and higher academic standards than in the past, UNT has been attracting many Jewish students of late. Its Jewish community includes Hillel, Alpha Epsilon Pi – a historically Jewish fraternity – and a university Jewish studies program that sponsors some campus events and provides a curriculum of 48 courses on Jewish history, Judaism and Israel.

“We felt there was a bit of a void because we had a few students drive down to some Chabad events in Dallas,” explained Dubrawsky. “We thought that instead of having them drive to Dallas, we would open something up for them over here.”

Professor Richard Golden, director of UNT’s Jewish studies program, sees the Dubrawskys’ move as beneficial to the wider Jewish community in terms of offering a wealth of options to Jewish students.

“I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Rabbi Dubrawsky at [some campus] events and look forward to seeing him and Hillel working hard to bring Jewish students to attend such academic events,” said Golden, pointing to recent programs such as a lecture by Israeli army veteran Nadav Weinberg.

Golden is working to set up a meeting between the rabbi and the university’s president to focus on Jewish life on campus and help make Chabad’s presence known to the school administration. Among Golden’s priorities is to make kosher dining a viable option for students.

Core Group

For the time being, the Dubrawskys are renting an apartment approximately a mile from campus.

“Right now we’re a bit further than we would like,” said the rabbi. “But the houses we are looking at are pretty close and we should be moving in the next few months.

“We came sort of at the end of the year and had what you can call a soft opening,” he continued. “So we are gearing up more for next year. We already had a public Passover Seder and had a good amount of students and professors show up.”

“A lots of girls are very interested in kosher cooking,” said his wife. “They are always asking to come early to help prepare food for Shabbat. I think next year we will be starting a once a week cooking club and bake different kinds of food.”

Among their many big plans for next year, the Dubrawskys also hope to involve the students in community service; they want to run a “Loaves of Love” project which will see participants bake and deliver challah bread to the area’s Jewish seniors and special needs residents at the Denton State School, the region’s government-supported living center.

Despite having moved recently, they are already being noticed by residents, and often in interesting ways.

One student, unable to travel home for Passover, stumbled upon the Dubrawskys’ new website only a day after it was launched. At a supermarket the next day, the student surprisingly bumped into the couple and was invited to their Seder.

In another instance, a student walked into a nearby bookstore looking to access a Wi-Fi network the day after the Dubrawskys moved into their apartment. She was surprised when “Chabad” appeared on her network list, leading her to find the Chabad House.

Bareni said that the Chabad House already has a core group of students.

“It helps unite all the Jewish students here. I enjoy that a lot,” she said. “You feel like you have family here.

“The food is amazing and there’s always plenty of it. I really appreciate what they do,” she continued. “I wish more students would start coming out and we can make Chabad bigger, into a huge family for the Jewish community.”