College students from across the West Coast made their way to Southern California for an all-inclusive Jewish weekend billed by organizers as the social, spiritual and educational event not to be missed.
All told, hundreds signed on the seventh-annual West Coast Intercollegiate Shabbaton, which began Friday afternoon in the Pacific Beach neighborhood of S. Diego. Some 15 schools from California, Arizona and Nevada were represented at the gathering, a project of Chabad-Lubavitch centers on the West Coast and the Chabad on Campus International Foundation.
“I am so excited!” raved Sandra Bram, a freshman at the University of California, S. Barbara.
Bram, 18, said she’s a regular at her campus Chabad House because she feels safe and comfortable there, able to explore her Judaism in a non-judgmental environment. A day before the program, she was looking forward to sharing her hotel room in Pacific Beach with three of her sorority sisters, as well as meeting other students from across the state and its neighbors.
“I’m hoping to gain lots of knowledge about Judaism,” she added.
Different from past years, when out-of-towners descended on a specific campus and bunked with host students, this year’s Shabbaton took over two local beachside hotels.
“The Shabbaton was getting bigger and bigger each year, until it was not really feasible for most schools to host it,” said Mirel Levitansky, co-director of the Chabad House serving S. Monica College. “It just grew and grew so much.”
Raizel Brook, co-director of Chabad serving California State University, Northridge, who did most of the organizing for this year’s event, said the challenge was figuring out how to capture the energy of past years’ Shabbatons and take it off campus. Students and Chabad House directors together settled on a resort-style setting and an agenda jam-packed with meet-and-greets, roundtables and gourmet meals.
Like her counterparts at other schools, Bram, a member of her Chabad House’s four-person student board, helped recruit other students to attend the weekend. For Tiffany Alyesh, it was a quick sell. She attended last fall’s Chabad on Campus International Student Shabbaton in New York, and said that she was expecting to be inspired once more.
A Canada First
The West Coast weekend comes amidst several regional Jewish student gatherings in North America. The previous weekend saw the first-ever Shabbaton coordinated by Chabad Houses in Canada, a two-day affair hosted by Chabad of Western University. A total of 250 students from McGill University in Montreal, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, the University of Toronto, York University in Toronto, and the University of Waterloo, Ontario, attended.
“It was unbelievable,” said Rabbi Shmuly Weiss, co-director of Chabad of McGill University, who accompanied 17 students to the Shabbaton. “Everyone stayed up until 2 a.m. talking and asking questions.”
In the fall, Binghamton University was the site of the Chabad on Campus Northeastern Intercollegiate Shabbaton. In the coming weeks, Shabbatons will take place in Texas and Florida, and for students from schools throughout the Midwest.
Rabbi Yossy Gordon, executive vice president of the Chabad on Campus International Foundation – which has been providing funding and logistical assistance for regional immersion experiences across the continent – said that such gatherings are an important way for students to network with each other and learn about their heritage.
“With such a concentration of future Jewish leadership in one place,” explained Gordon, “the meaningful conversations and friendships formed take on so much more importance for the participants. We’ve seen from past Shabbatons that the experiences stay with students long after the weekend closes.”
Alyesh, 19, echoed Gordon’s point.
During the New York weekend, “I learned a lot about myself, about others, and a lot about Judaism,” she said. “And I made a lot of bonds and memories.”
The West Coast bash included a women’s-only gathering on Friday night with Molly Resnick, a former NBC producer who later in life, learned about Torah and Judaism from a young Chabad-Lubavitch emissary in Brazil, and embraced an observant Jewish lifestyle. She shared her experiences with the students, and offer insights on world events.
“I was at the height of my career at NBC News,” said Resnick, who in 1978, decided to take a break for a spiritual journey. “Everything was too glamorous, without having meaning or purpose.”
Resnick also led a workshop on Israel during the weekend.
“I admire their enthusiasm,” she said of college students, “their energy, and their desire to do good.”
Other workshops included a “Stump the Rabbi” session with Rabbis Mendel Loschak of the Chabad House serving UCSB, and Dov Wagner of the Chabad Jewish Student Center serving the University of Southern California; a Talmudic-based exploration of a modern-day ethical problem; and a presentation from Rabbi Zalman Kravitz, education director of the Los Angeles Jews for Judaism center.
After the close of Shabbat, Paul Cohen, a professional basketball agent, shared the highlights of his spiritual journey and how he makes Shabbat observance central to his practice of Judaism.
And while time was carved out in the schedule for students to take advantage of the sun and surf, Alyesh said she would have gone to the Shabbaton no matter the location.
“It could be in a hut, I’d still go,” she stated. “I wouldn’t miss it.”
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