Moises Rodan, 28: Computer Engineer Was ‘A Light Among His Peers’

Moises Rodan, center, with Rabbi Aharon Notik, left, and a fellow student at the University of Florida at Gainesville.

Known for his million-dollar smile and deep passion for Judaism, Moises Rodan graduated just last month with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the University of Florida in Gainesville.

A native of Caracas, Venezuela, Rodan was part of the warm cohort of South American Jews who attended UF, where he took up a leadership role at the Lubavitch-Chabad Jewish Center at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Rodan served on the student board for three years, helped plan many programs, and attended Torah-study classes and services at Chabad.

Before moving to the U.S., Rodan attended Colegio Moral y Luces Herzl-Bialik, a private Jewish high school in Caracas along with his close friends Andres Levine and Luis Sadovnik, who also lost their lives in the collapse of the Champlain Tower South in Surfside, Fla. The evening that the building collapsed, Rodan was staying at an apartment on the building’s third floor that belonged to his parents, Ricardo and Diana Rodan.

“Moises was a light among his peers,” says Rabbi Berl Goldman, co-director of Chabad at UF.

Tapping into the “incredible bond and warmth” students from South America share, Rodan would often inspire his peers to take part in Jewish life on campus.

“There was a true sense of refinement and honesty to Moises,” says Rabbi Aron Notik, co-director of programming at Chabad at UF. “We’d go tabling together, and Moises was always excited to teach and share what he knew with others.”

Rodan at his graduation a few months ago.

Rodan, second from right, listens to the reading of the Megillah on Purim.

Rodan, third from left, at a Chabad event on campus.