With a focus on empowering tomorrow’s future Jewish leaders by strengthening their connections to their heritage and history, a seventh anniversary dinner celebrating the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Student Center serving the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign highlighted the work of students and their parents.
More than 200 people attended the dinner, which officially honored Brian and Andrea Birkan as parents of the year and 24 members of the Chabad House’s student board. All told, parents and alumni spent 10 months planning the gala event, which included a tribute video and speeches from those touched by the organization.
“Rabbi Dovid and Goldie Tiechtel have a long-term commitment to getting the community together and keeping them connected,” said Amy Matsuhashi, who found a welcoming place at the Chabad House when it moved to campus her freshman year and stays in touch with the Tiechtels three years after graduating. “I appreciate this connection and love to stay involved. Chabad always gave me a place to go and truly was my home away from home.”
In its seven years serving the suburban Chicago campus, the Tiechtels’ Chabad House has grown to include more than 1,500 students in its regular offerings of Torah classes, in-depth seminars, holiday programming and weekly activities. More than 100 students flock to the center for its Shabbat dinners every Friday night.
But for Steve Bojan, a 1989 alumnus of the university and the event’s chairperson, the center is part of a larger phenomenon. By getting involved in Urbana-Champaign, he said, Jewish students find themselves “plugged in” to the more than 3,000 Chabad Houses around the globe and, by extension, the wider Jewish world.
“Chabad has done so much for my family,” said Bojan, who became active with Chabad centers in his hometown of Milwaukee. “There was no Chabad presence when I was on campus, but for the young folks now, it is critical to Jewish survival. It’s really a center of Jewish life on campus and they are an inspiration to all of us involved.
“This beautiful event was truly a testament to everything they’ve done,” he continued.
Bill Choslovsky, who graduated in 1990, emphasized how the dinner showcased the profound effect that Chabad has had on its students in “just seven short years.”
“It was a beautiful night,” said Choslovsky, who served as the evening’s master of ceremonies. “The students who came up on stage with beaming faces speak for themselves. You see how these students – who come out of college knowing who they are and what they are, and stand as leaders and embrace Judaism – serve as a testament to Rabbi Dovid and Goldie.”
Shizue Taerbaum, vice president of the Chabad student leadership board, was one of the students honored at the dinner. The sophomore from Skokie, Ill., became involved last year by planning Shabbat dinners.
“It was important for parents and the community to be able to see what Chabad does on campus,” said Taerbaum, who helped to advertise for the end-of-year event and make the video presentation. “Many parents don’t really know what Chabad does or why their kids are getting involved with it, so this event helped to make sure that Chabad keeps running in the future.”
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