College Students Reach Out to California Fire Evacuees

S DIEGO, CA — Students associated with local Chabad on Campus chapters mounted relief efforts at key locations throughout S. Diego as four separate fires consumed hundreds of thousands of acres across Southern California, displacing more than 500,000 people. Dozens of college students, along with Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Chalom Mendel Boudjnah, co-director of the city’s Jewish Student Life Center distributed bottled water to the 12,000 evacuees that made Qualcomm Stadium their temporary home.

From her home near the campuses of S. Diego State University and the University of California at S. Diego, Mairav Boudjnah said that several students had joined community members and other Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries in taking up residence with her and her husband, or at the campus Chabad House.

“We’re her for everybody, no matter what,” she said, noting that the fires have gotten to within 20 miles of the home, forcing her three children to play indoors because of the ash and smoke. “We’ve asked local supermarkets to donate food, and we’re preparing meals for people.”

Her husband spent most of Tuesday catering to evacuees at Qualcomm Stadium. In an eerie echo of another disaster two years ago, when Hurricane Katrina sent New Orleans residents fleeing flood waters to seek shelter in its stadium, Boudjnah took some 50 college students with him to make the rounds of the stadium.

“We’re always trying to figure out what we can do to help,” said the rabbi. “I have a database of 1,000 e-mails regarding people living in the area. So we’re constantly checking up on them and working the phones.”

He said that stadium officials were looking forward to a food truck dispatched by Chabad of the West Coast’s Los Angeles headquarters and stocked with enough kosher food for about 2,000 people.

“Food is a big deal, because people are passing out snack bars and stuff,” he explained. “With this sort-of mobile kitchen, we’ll be distributing soup and other kosher items. It won’t be fancy, but it’ll help.”

Always on the horizon, though, was the threat of further evacuations. All told, nine Chabad institutions in the S. Diego area were under evacuation orders on Tuesday.

“It’s pretty close,” Mairav Boudjnah said of the fire. “The kids’ school is one mile away from the fire line, and classes at S. Diego State have been cancelled. We’re always listening to the radio and checking on the Internet to monitor what’s going on.”