Tiffany Hakimianpour, 20, can’t wait for the weekend. After a class at 8:00 and a test at 2:00, the University of Southern California junior is going home to pack for a trip to New York with her friends. They’re headed to New York City to join 850 Jewish collegians from around the world for three days of inspiration in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.
Since 1961, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement has invited student groups in various forms to visit the neighborhood to learn more about their heritage and develop communal connections.
It’s Hakimianpour’s second year attending the Chabad on Campus International Student Shabbaton and Conference.
“It changed my view of things,” she said of the experience last year, which saw her join a local family for a traditional Sabbath dinner and participate in a series of lectures and workshops tailored to her and her peers’ interests.
The conference gave her a hands-on experience she said she carries with her today. It gave the Sabbath and the concept of rest more meaning, and inspired her to begin attending Jewish programs more frequently.
“I learned a lot not only from someone in a classroom, but from seeing it and being a part of it,” she said. “I felt more connected.”
She’s looking forward to meeting her hosts this year and excited to see this year’s lecture track.
“There’s a lot you can take away. I recommend everyone should try it at least once,” said Hakimianpour. “It’s good for your heart and your mind.”
Hakimianpour is one of 25 students joining USC Chabad Rabbi Dov Wagner for the trip, which has grown immensely in both numbers and offerings since he started taking students to New York in 2001. Wagner looks forward to the chance to travel with the students for a Jewish experience that takes them outside of their everyday busy lives.
“Normally it’s much more of a short component in the variety of their lives,” he said of their typical Sabbath experiences. “When you do a trip, you’re really immersing in it.”
Activities this year include a large Saturday night carnival and a Sunday trip to the Cambria Heights resting place of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, as well as optional tours of a Jewish ritual bath and the Rebbe’s library.
“All of those things help them come back with a sense of context as for what Chabad is beyond their individual Chabad House,” said Wagner.
On a more local level, students also get the chance to bond with each other and their campus Chabad House directors, who may see crowds of 300 for Friday night dinners throughout the year. The smaller size of Shabbaton delegations allow for deeper interactions.
The friendships developed during such trips endure, noted Wagner, and draw students back to their local Chabad House to take part in activities and see their pals.
Wagner credits the Chabad on Campus International Foundation with generating tremendous growth, as well as facilitating a structure that invites compelling speakers and builds meaningful workshops to take the weekend to the next level.
“It makes it so the event utilizes the time to make the greatest possible impact on the students participating,” he said.
Sari Zlotnick, 20, a new transfer to Drexel University in Philadelphia is attending the weekend with new friends. She decided to go after hearing about it from Rabbi Chaim and Moussia Goldstein, who she met this semester. Zlotnick’s looking forward to being with other Jewish students and also seeing Crown Heights, a part of New York that might go unnoticed to typical tourists.
University of Wisconsin junior Jonathan Padway, meanwhile, sees the Shabbaton as part of a larger process of Jewish involvement that began with a retreat he attended and then a trip to Israel with his campus rabbi, Rabbi Mendel Matusof.
“You get in touch with yourself, and also meet a lot of like-minded college-aged Jews,” said Padway, who will also reunite with friends from Amherst and Florida during the program. “I’m going into it with an open mind.”
For Rabbi Yossy Gordon, executive vice president of the Chabad on Campus International Foundation, the goal is provide a positive growth experience for each and every student.
“For some, it might mean an intense educational experience, for another it might mean being uplifted by a Chasidic melody, and for others it might mean learning something relatively basic,” says Gordon. “100 percent of students walk away with a growth experience.”
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