Oregon College Town Gets Infusion of Jewish Life

In a city where tie-dye and Birkenstocks are the garb of choice, environmentalism is a like a religion, Rabbi Berel and Rivkah (Rivky) Gurevitch — and their year-old twin daughters — have planted themselves to run a campus Chabad House at the University of Oregon, Eugene.

by Reuvena Leah Grodnitzky – Chabad.edu

Welcome to Eugene, where tie-dye and Birkenstocks are the garb of choice, environmentalism is a like a religion, residents grow their own vegetables, and bicycles are the preferred means of transportation. It is into this atmosphere that Rabbi Berel and Rivkah (Rivky) Gurevitch—and their year-old twin daughters—have planted themselves to run a campus Chabad House at the University of Oregon, Eugene.

Located just 10 minutes from campus in the heart of student housing, the Chabad center is already outgrowing the small townhouse that so far has served as a haven for the university’s roughly 1,600 Jewish students and the town’s 2,000 Jewish residents.

“I love how they’re very welcoming and warm. They’re just so available. I live only a few blocks away from them,” says senior political-science major Margaret Butler, who hails from nearby Portland and plans to help the Gurevitches reach out to more students this semester. “They’re the nicest people. They’re always interested about my life, and it has been so interesting for me to learn about Judaism from them.”

The mainstay of Chabad’s programming, which began in October, has been Shabbat dinner. In addition, the Gurevitches have been meeting students one-on-one, offering mezuzahs and hosting parties, including a “Midnight Breakfast” Chanukah celebration during finals this past semester. (Other Chabad on Campus centers also run this popular late-night, early-morning program as a boost to those busy studying.)

“The Friday-night dinners at Chabad feel like a piece of home for me,” says freshman psychology major Sarah Bonner, from Irvine, Calif. “I love the family-based meal. It’s something different from all of the other things we have had so far on campus; it really feels like Shabbat should.”

Rivky Gurevitch notes that they will also start inviting students to their home for dinner during the week, a few at a time to make it more personal.

‘Not Just a Cliché’

Since moving to Eugene, the Gurevitches have received a warm welcome from the local community even if the weather has been less cooperative: It rains practically every day in the winter.

“Even in the seven short weeks since we’ve been here, we’ve gotten a very positive response from students; they’re very into it,” said Rabbi Gurevitch, 26, who has assisted at various Chabad centers worldwide (England, Norway, Michigan, Texas) and is the fifth of his siblings to open a Chabad House of his own. “They like the feeling of having Chabad as a place to call home. It’s a real thing, not just a cliché.”

Beginning this month, Chabad will be an official, university-recognized organization, which will enable them to staff information tables on campus, as well as use the school’s classrooms for meetings and programs, such as the new “Pizza & Parsha” class they plan to offer.

Moving to Eugene from the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., where they both were raised, wasn’t easy, yet the Gurevitches insist that they’ve been waiting for an opportunity like this their entire lives. In their new location, the family lives an hour away from the closest Chabad House, two hours away from the closest mikvah, and their girls will eventually attend school online. They receive kosher food—meats and special dairy products—through shipments from Portland every few months.

“We were thrilled to come here, and I absolutely love doing this. Our life’s dream was to become Chabad emissaries,” says Rivky Gurevitch, 22, who descends from multiple generations of Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries. “Even though we’re far away from friends and family, it makes us feel that we have a true purpose, and that we’re making a difference by giving people Jewish experiences. People have been much more open to us that we could have ever imagined.”