New Paltz, FIU to Toast New Facilities

The name of the game is expansion at several campus Chabad Houses this year, as shluchim and students in New York and Florida prepare to celebrate their new facilities.

Coming on the heels of the Chabad Student Center’s closing last week on the purchase of a new location at the University of California at S. Cruz, the Chabad Houses at the State University of New York at New Paltz and Florida International University in Miami announced high-profile events related to their own capital campaigns.

“We are happy to say that our facility is just not big enough anymore to provide for the needs of the students,” said Rabbi Moshe Plotkin, who with his wife Bracha settled in New Paltz in August 2003 and since then has entertained students from their home. “The new center will provide a friendly place for students to unwind or study with others in comfort. Many students already spend much of their weekend in our house, and this will provide them with a location tailored to them.”

The ceremonial groundbreaking for the New Paltz Chabad House’s new student wing is scheduled for this coming Sunday.

Three weeks later, the Chabad Jewish Student Center at Florida International University – known to students as ChabadFIU – will officially dedicated its newly purchased center on March 11.

In explaining the need for a bigger location, Rabbi Levi Friedman, founder and executive director of ChabadFIU – which opened its doors in August 2004 – said that the institution quickly outgrew its original space, a rented townhouse west of the University Park campus. The new location, a spacious building just a short walk from the school’s dormitories, will be able to accommodate more students for events and programs and will be more accessible to the Jewish student population.

The building will be called the “Tabacinic Chabad House” in honor of Bal Harbour philanthropist Moshe Tabacinic, whose generous donation enabled the purchase of the new center.

FIU president Modesto A. Maidique is expected to be on hand for the dedication ceremony, along with New York businessman Mendel Fischer, who sponsored a new Torah scroll that will be completed at the celebration.

“The dedication of the Tabacinic Chabad House, combined with the dedication of a new Torah, speaks eloquently of the unique commitment and combined efforts of the university, community, students and Chabad,” said Friedman. “The new, permanent center will be a physical, cultural and spiritual ‘home away from home’ for the students at FIU.”