American Chabad on Campus Breaks 100 Center Milestone

Stamford, CT — Speaking at the banquet of the annual conference of Chabad on Campus emissaries Thursday night, philanthropist and international businessman George Rohr announced an historic slate of nine new campus projects, effectively bringing the number of universities served by the Chabad-Lubavitch movement to 130 worldwide.

More than 100 are now in the United States alone.

“I’ve said before how incredibly uncomfortable it is when my friends in Lubavitch say thank you,” offered Rohr before a packed crowd in the ballroom of the Holiday Inn Hotel and Conference Center in Stamford, Conn. “In reality, it is I who should be thanking you.

“I’m happy to announce that earlier today, we approved the budgets of nine new college Chabad Houses,” he added to thunderous applause.

For his part, Rabbi Yossy Gordon, executive director of the Chabad on Campus International Foundation, said that while Chabad’s expansion is tremendous, the focus has always been on the individual.

“Numbers are immaterial,” he explained. “That’s why I tell people that we helped one person this year. We helped one person and did it tens of thousands of times.”

Rohr, whose Rohr Family Foundation has underwritten much of Chabad on Campus’ growth in the last decade, then turned his attention to Wayne Firestone, international president of Hillel. Firestone, who some might regard as a competitor to Chabad in the field of Jewish campus activities, had earlier invoked the wisdom of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory, at the dinner, pledging Hillel’s cooperation in fulfilling “the words of the Rebbe” to reach every Jewish student on campus.

“Together we should be able to complete the work,” stated Rohr. Switching to the Chabad on Campus emissaries – husband and wife teams establish homes on or near the campuses they serve with the intention to remain indefinitely, or as Chabad followers boast, “until Moshiach comes” – in attendance, the developer and financier calmly said that “we have some business to transact tonight.”

His announcement translates to a more than $1 million endowment over three years to the new locations, which include the University of Illinois at Chicago; the University of California at S. Monica; Reed College in Portland, Ore.; Texas A&M University; the University of West Virginia; Temple University in Philadelphia; the College of New Jersey; Union College in Schenectady, N.Y.; and the University of Leeds in England.

In addition, new emissary couples joined established Chabad on Campus operations at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of California at Berkeley.

Stated Rohr simply: “Every Jew needs to be cared for.”

The comments dovetailed with a charge delivered by Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of the educational arm of the Brooklyn-based Chabad-Lubavitch movement. In his remarks, Kotlarsky praised the dedication of Chabad followers who take up positions not just on campus, but in small towns and rural locales around the world in an effort to teach Jews about their heritage. But he refused to thank them.

“Until that last student on campus, who in the four years he is there remains untouched, is reached,” he said, “you have done tremendous work. But you have not finished your job.”