Historic event unites Jewish students and faculty

Shabbat 1 at Rowan.jpg

Please note these photos were take before the Sabbath. Shabbat guests were treated to a four-course kosher, home-cooked style, Shabbat "family" dinner, and traditional shabbat songs at Shabbat for 120 at Rowan University.

(COURTESY PHOTO)

GLASSBORO -- Billed as "Shabbat for 120," 140 students and faculty filled a specially erected tent on the grounds of Chabad at Rowan on April 1 for a traditional Shabbat dinner. The historic event which was sponsored by Chabad at Rowan and AEPhi, was the largest Shabbat dinner ever at Rowan and likely the the biggest ever Jewish event at the university.

Shabbat is the Jewish Sabbath -- a day of rest that begins on Friday evening and closes on Saturday night. For those 25 hours, observers refrain from doing any work to focus on rest and reflection. Typically, Chabad at Rowan sees around 20-30 students each week at its dinner table.

Steve Weinstein, senior vice president for governmental relations, spoke before the "Shabbat for 120" dinner at Rowan University.

The Shabbat dinner was attended by students, faculty, administration and alumni. Vice President Steve Weinstein, Professor Mike Weiss, Co-director of Chabad at Rowan Fraidy Loschak and Rowan alumnus Christina Spadoro spoke before the dinner. During the event, guests took part in an informal evening service and a traditional prayer over wine. They were then treated to a four course kosher, home-cooked style, Shabbat "family" dinner, and sang traditional shabbat songs.

Professor Michael Weiss a faculty adviser declared that they "made history" on Friday night and celebrated advancements of Jewish life on campus: "When I first started teaching at Rowan in 2001, it wasn't a very active campus, Jewishly or otherwise. Fast forward to 2016, and we just celebrated Shabbat with a dinner for 140 people.

That is amazing to me. I'd never before been to a Shabbat dinner for that many people, and never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that this could happen at Rowan, of all places. But it did and that is largely due to all the Chabad and AEPhi students who worked on this event, the tremendous hard work and dedication of Chabad Rabbi Hersh and Fraidy Loschak, and all the students, faculty, administrators, staff and family in attendance that night. Each one of us played a role in making history at Rowan and I can't help but think that something very, very special is happening here."

"Our nationals reached out to us a few months back to encourage us to do programming which celebrated our Jewish heritage," said Shannon McGlynn, a Junior at Rowan and the Vice President for Programming at AEPhi. "I contacted the rabbi to see what we can do and we got to work on Shabbat 120. I didn't imagine that we would have dinner for 140 people with such a display of unity. Everybody at Shabbat 120 enjoyed it so immensely  and we look forward to do something like this again next year."

"Shabbat for 120 was just a truly remarkable evening of Jewish pride, tradition and unity at Rowan University," said Rabbi Hersh Loschak, co-director of Chabad at Rowan. "It was especially meaningful that this event took place during a Hakhel year, a once-every-seven-years celebration of Jewish unity and study. I can't thank all the volunteers and sisters at AEPhi enough. Next year bigger and better!"

This item submitted by Chabad at Rowan.

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