Princeton, NY — Princeton, Hofstra, Cambridge. At two of these universities, the 2007 Fall semester begins with the Chabad center in a new, larger space. At one, the rabbi will be dressed up like a chicken. Can you guess which one?
Makes Its Relevance Known To A New Crop of Students
Princeton, NY — Princeton, Hofstra, Cambridge. At two of these universities, the 2007 Fall semester begins with the Chabad center in a new, larger space. At one, the rabbi will be dressed up like a chicken. Can you guess which one?
Beginning with a bang is a feat campus Chabad centers strive to pull off every year. Unlike synagogues or Jewish centers serving stable city or suburban communities, campus Chabad Shluchim must make their relevance known to a new crew of people every September.
There’s no momentum from past semesters, really. Even students who once spent every Shabbat at Chabad may be juggling new class schedules, new housing situations, new significant others that force them to realign their relationship with Jewish life on campus.
And yet, Chabad centers across the country and round the world make into the in-crowd, so much so that they have to expand. Rabbi Eitan Webb, co-director of Chabad on Campus at Princeton University, spent the waning days before the fall semester brought flocks of students (and their proud, worried parents) to campus surrounded by boxes. He and Gitty Webb, the center’s co-director, moved from their two-bedroom apartment to a new home.
“It’s four times the size of the old space,” said Rabbi Webb.
Placing students in the center of the action keeps the Webbs’ programming fresh. Late one breezy August night, Rabbi Webb pulled a lengthy planning session with the student board to ensure the semester’s activities would meet student needs. This is the same approach used by the Chabad center that serves Hofstra University students in Hempstead, NY.
Last semester, David Edelman, a graduate student and microbrew enthusiast, helped Rabbi Shmuel and Chavie Lieberman become the toast of the campus. Brewing and then bottling “Chabad’s Finest,” a hoppy dark stout with a frothy head, to go together with a lecture on the Jewish view of adult beverages, gave Chabad cachet on campus even among those students who missed the event.
