Student rabbis give up their summer holidays to engage Jewish community in towns and villages of Oxfordshire

Student rabbis give up their summer holidays to engage Jewish community in towns and villages of Oxfordshire

Chabad of Oxford hosted two student rabbis from the US under the Chabad roving rabbi summer programme in order to visit Oxfordshire for two weeks and meet with Jewish people and families in the villages and towns of Oxfordshire as part of their training.

Student Rabbi Levi Duchman from NY and Rabbi Ari Treitel from Monteral visited over twenty families across Oxfordshire and surrounding counties.

With five million tourists a year in Oxford, they also made a point to meet people casually on the busiest street in Oxford on Cornmarket in the centre of Oxford.

Rabbi Levi commented that he doesn’t recall ‘visiting a place where people feel comfortable to just walk up to you, as a Jewish person, and engage in respectful conversation about all matters of .interest, from Jewish tradition, history or Israel and the Middle East’

As Oxford is streaming with young summer school students from abroad, many Jewish students who attend summer school met the student rabbis and struck friendships and joined the Shabbat dinners at the Chabad House on Cowley Road.

Two students studying in Oxford for the summer had the opportunity to celebrate their Bar Mitzvah, which they had not celebrated before, and a major celebration was held at the Oxford Chabad Society Friday night Shabbat dinner with their friends from their summer programme. One of the students, who celebrated his Bar Mitzvah, said, ‘When I told my father about it, he started to cry and was so grateful! Words can not describe how much I appreciate what you guys did for me last week’, he said.

The Friday night Shabbat dinner at the Chabad House of Oxford was full to capacity with students and tourists and the audience was addressed by the rabbinical students who told of their interesting travels and inspirational stories.

As the students were aware of Oxford as a place of learning, they bought with them a variety of books on Judaism and Judaica, enabling many the opportunities for the first time to acquire Jewish books in Oxfordshire’s villages and towns where they visited.

One place they visited was Burford, ranked sixth in Forbes magazine's list of "Europe's Most Idyllic Places to Live", where they were greeted by the Mayor of the town, Mr. David Cohen, who runs the town’s two fabric shops. We had an enjoyable conversation and parted with a warm hug, Rabbi Ari related.

This was the second year running that rabbinical students chose to come to Oxfordshire to visit Jewish people unaffiliated with the Jewish community.

Rabbi Eli Brackman, director of Chabad of Oxford, expressed his thanks to the rabbinical students for coming to Oxfordshire and making a warm connection with so many people in such a short period. He looks forward to hosting rabbinical students again next year to build on their success.