Chabad on Campus UK hosted a reception on Monday, 12 July, in Central London for close to two hundred supporters in Chabad on Campus Bloomsbury’s brand new venue in the heart of London.
As Chabad on Campus UK is currently established on over twelve campuses in ten cities across the UK, the large audience represents the local support the Chabad centres have for their work and impact they are having on campus amongst the Jewish students and community, said Rabbi Eli Brackman, chairman of Chabad on Campus UK and director of Chabad of Oxford, who chaired the evening.
The hosts for the evening were Mr. David Slager, founding supporter of Chabad on Campus UK, Mr. Allan Freinkel, executive board member of the Oxford University Chabad Society and Mr. Alan Lee, supporter of Chabad on Campus in Bloomsbury.
Mr. Slager addressed the audience and spoke about his desire to show appreciation to Chabad for what he benefited while studying at Oxford as a student when Rabbi Shmuley Boteach was director of the L’chaim Society.
Mr. Slager duly compared a campus Chabad House to miniature models of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem that is being mourned during this period in the Jewish calendar. The Chabad House is a sacred place in a staunchly secular society and, as the Temple, which was a place where a lot of meat was consumed through the sacrifices, similarly, the Chabad House on campus seems to excel in attracting Jewish students through, in addition to education, a constant flow of delicious food and sumptuous Shabbat meals in abundance.
Mr. Slager concluded that Chabad on Campus manifests the philosophy of the founder of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1813), who taught that the purpose of existence is to create for G-d a dwelling in the physical world. This, Mr. Slager said, one can say, is being fulfilled practically by Chabad on Campus.
Guest speaker was communal philanthropist, Mr. Mendel Tajtelbaum, who spoke of the importance of teaching young people about Judaism as a way to respond to the Holocaust and also ensure Jewish continuity. As the son of a Holocaust survivor, Mr. Tajtelbaum told of his father who persuaded his brother, also a Holocaust survivor, who had moved to Argentina and assimilated, to return to Judaism by laying the Tefilin daily. He explained to him that this would be a way to set a tombstone for both their parents who were burnt in the crematoriums of Auschwitz in Poland with no remains. The Tefilin on the head, he said, can serve as a tombstone for their father and the Tefilin on the arm near the heart for their mother. Mr. Tajtelbaum concluded that his uncle, who recently passed away, wept profusely and returned to his roots as an observant Jew for the rest of his life.
Student from Nottingham University, David Stern, speaking on behalf of the students, said that since Chabad on Campus arrived in Nottingham two years ago it has ‘transformed Jewish life on campus’, he said.
Rabbi Yisroel Lew of Chabad on Campus in Bloomsbury welcomed the guests and mentioned the significance of having this reception as the very first event in their new venue - which marks the expansion and growth of Chabad of Bloomsbury in particular - paralleling the extraordinary growth of Chabad on Campus across the UK in general.
The aim of the reception was to highlight and pay tribute to the hard work of the Chabad on Campus rabbis and their wives over the past academic year in serving the Jewish students, all hours of the day, 7 days a week, with an open home away from home, educational classes, open Friday night Shabbat dinners for hundreds each week and creating a warm and vibrant social place for Jewish students to meet.
The programme included a presentation by Rabbi Mendy Loewenthal of Chabad on campus in South Kensington who completed a tractate of the Talmud as is customary during the days preceding the 9th of Av.
The programme concluded with a newly produced documentary about the work of Chabad on Campus UK by BBC producer Matt Boult.
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