More than 800 men, women and children gathered last weekend at the Sheraton Hotel in Parsippany, N.J., for the Chabad on Campus International Shluchim Conference, an annual event for the families who run Chabad Houses on university and college campuses around the world. From Rabbi Nosson and Miriam Rodin, who serve students throughout Beijing, China, to Rabbi Yossi and Manya Lazaroff at Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, to the large Jewish community served by Rabbi Dov Yona and Sarah Korn at New York University, the breadth, scope and dynamism of Chabad on Campus were represented.
The conference is a project of Chabad on Campus International Foundation, which provides programming, support and structure to the current 191 centers worldwide. Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, chairman of the foundation and vice chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of Chabad-Lubavitch, set the vibrant tone when he told the group: “This coming year marks 20 years since the passing of the Lubavitcher Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory.” Therefore, he said, “we must increase all the activities we do by 20 percent as well.”
Coordination is a key to the ongoing success, organizers noted, so an important part of the program was the “National Initiatives” session, directed by Rabbi Moshe C. Dubrowski, director of programming for Chabad on Campus, where the opportunities offered by Chabad on Campus International were presented by representatives of various Chabad Houses. Participants were introduced to new initiatives and support in areas like Torah-study classes and event programming, in addition to marketing, branding and fundraising.
The session was moderated by Rabbi Eitan Webb, co-director of Chabad at Princeton University with his wife, Gitty. “Although the Chabad on Campus network reaches in excess of 80,000 students each year, the directors of each location are generally laser-focused on the needs of their own campus,” he said. Coming together at a conference like this “affords us the opportunity to step back, network and simply absorb the larger picture. Until I was asked to moderate this session, I myself had no idea of the scope, and I believe many others were similarly reached,” he said.
The extended weekend, which was chaired by Rabbi Dov and Runya Wagner of University of Southern California and Rabbi Chaim and Moussia Goldstein of Drexel University, began on Friday afternoon with a fully packed schedule of seminars to engage and address the needs of the Chabad emissaries, or shluchim. It also served to tackle the challenges they deal with on campus, such as the application of Jewish law to specific modern-day issues, parenting large families while being fully available to the university population, and their own personal growth and inspiration. One seminar focused on student-related problems concerning drugs and alcohol, what signs to look for and what to do about it, led by Rabbi Shais Taub, an acclaimed author and expert on addiction and recovery.
Introducing New Couples, Seminars for Women
With the ongoing growth of new Chabad centers opening on campuses, a special four-hour session took place for couples beginning their campus positions, including how to utilize the support offered by Chabad on Campus International. These couples had the opportunity to speak and hear from other emissaries who have been on campus for years and, in some cases, even decades.
Unique to the women’s program on Friday was a presentation from the Ashreinu Society for Shluchos, an initiative that provides camaraderie, learning, support and collaboration for emissaries. Twice a month, small groups of women have phone conferences where they share their successes and their trials, and receive and give input with others on campus who can relate to them and offer essential feedback.
Henchi Fellig, co-director of Chabad at the University of Miami, has participated in the Ashreinu Society of Shluchos since its inception three years ago. She explained to the other women that “the group provides unconditional support, where we encourage one another to grow and develop to greater heights. When connecting and sharing each other’s strengths, we have abilities that we would never have on our own. We truly feel not just like friends, but like sisters.”
A ‘Family Reunion’
While the range of programming covered numerous topics, challenges and directives, one main goal tied everything together. Ultimately, the purpose behind the entire weekend—from the meals, to the children’s program (attended by as many as 500 kids), to the camaraderie and the learning—was to let each and every person know that they are not alone. They are part of a family. And family is always there for one another.
Rabbi Yossy Gordon, executive vice president of Chabad on Campus International, said “we aren’t here because we are all in the same line of work. We are here because we are a family, and families have family reunions. Our family is excellent, and by coming together, we become even more excellent.”
He shared some statistics highlighting the impact that Chabad has on campuses throughout the world. He explained that any given week, some 12,000 students learn Torah, 9,000 attend Friday-night Shabbat dinners, and 81,000 active relationships are being nurtured.
And these numbers will continue to grow, for as Gordon stressed, “shluchim don’t stop!”
Similar sentiments were stressed by George Rohr, chairman of the Chabad on Campus International Advisory Board, and key partner and funder of the Chabad on Campus initiatives. Following a powerful show of respect for all shluchim, he asked the men in the room to give a standing ovation to the women, stating emphatically that the day-to-day running of Chabad Houses could never happen without these women, who are full partners in Chabad activities on campus.
Following this, he noted how shluchim face nonstop demands—and yet, he declared: “The demands should continue relentlessly!”
It’s All in the Planning
The conference was structured to ensure that every moment was well-utilized, organizers said. The babysitting program began at 8:30 a.m. and ended at midnight, though for hours afterwards the adults could be found talking about strategic planning, discussing their work and just reconnecting with one another.
A parallel comprehensive kinus, conference, for the children was organized by MyShliach, the Merkos program that provides support to the children of shluchim. The children’s program fed, entertained and educated the younger set from morning until night so their parents could fully focus and participate. From a carnival and moon bounce to an adorable show the children presented on Sunday evening, they were not only kept busy, but had the unique opportunity to bond with other kids like them.
“My children are so proud to be shluchim along with us on campus. For them to spend four days with kids their age—kids who understand them and are like them—is an incredible gift,” said Rabbi Dovid Tiechtel, who runs the Chabad on Campus at the University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign, along with his wife, Goldie. “Just like I attend to gain inspiration and be rejuvenated, the same is provided for my children,” he said.
One of the most moving parts of the weekend was a talk given by Rabbi Shmuel Posner, who, along with his wife, Chana, arrived at the Chabad House near Boston University in 1985.
The rabbi, with characteristic wit and humor, managed to make the audience laugh one minute and then cry the next as he recalled the years in which he brought students to the Lubavitcher Rebbe to participate in farbrengens (Chassidic gatherings) and receive from him dollars for charity on Sundays, in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y.
The Posners served their campus well before there was the type of support and initiatives available today. They were among the trailblazers who remain an inspiration for those who have followed. Speaking about the challenges in the years that followed the Rebbe’s passing in 1994, he emphasized that he knew that the work had to continue. Posner said he “absolutely knew” that was what the Rebbe expected from him.
Following the extended weekend, Chabad on Campus International Foundation held two full days of seminars dedicated to fundraising and marketing techniques, to help bring the lessons learned from the conference into immediate action.
Inspiration, connection and growth are essential to the work of Chabad on Campus, said organizers. But ultimately, as the Chassidic saying goes, ha-maaseh hu ha-ikar—“it is the action that counts.”
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