Chabad on Campus Expands Operations in Europe
By Joshua Runyan
Further expanding on the services available to Jewish students worldwide and those studying abroad, the Chabad on Campus International Foundation announced Wednesday that Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries would soon be opening new European campus operations, including Florence in Italy, Berlin and Frankfurt in Germany, and Amsterdam in the Nethlerlands.
The announcement comes one year after Chabad on Campus Europe unveiled its new European push with the opening of a Chabad House in Debrecen, Hungary, and Paris, France, and the expected opening of four other centers throughout the course of the 2011-2012 school year.
“Our vision is a streamlined globally-integrated network, seamlessly delivering excellence on every campus in every young adult community,” Rabbi Yossy Gordon, executive vice president of the Chabad on Campus International Foundation, said after the announcement at the annual campus emissaries conference in Stamford, Conn.
More than 800 Chabad House directors and their children attended the four-day 11th annual conference, representing 175 campuses where there are full-time operations and the hundreds more where services are offered through Chabad-affiliated student groups. Workshops, lunch table discussions, dinner programs and general sessions explored such topics as improving Friday-night planning and maximizing alumni development to fundraising.
The European announcement came during a Wednesday evening session that was open to Chabad House supporters and students.
“These new Chabad Houses are designed to both serve local student communities, as well as the significant numbers of U.S. and Israeli Jewish students who are studying abroad in those cities,” said Rabbi Eli Brackman, director of Chabad on Campus Europe and Chabad at Oxford University. “Each campus Chabad House, wherever it may be found in the world, is truly global in scope. When students spend a semester or two abroad, emissaries help integrate them into the local Jewish community, further providing them a home away from home.”
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