What was your involvement with JHP and what was your biggest takeaway?
It has been a very long time, but I definitely have good impressions and takeaways and experiences. I am actually still at Penn now, I am a professor at the graduate school of education. I am still in contact with Rabbi Levi, Ephraim, and Menachem. Those relationships have persisted over the years, which I think is really core to JHP. I think they understood that getting people to be more involved with Judaism and experience different events was more relationship-based, relationally based. I think the Rabbis really put that at the center of how they organized different classes and social events. This aspect certainly kept me coming.
They also found a way to infuse Jewish practice within this. One specific example I am thinking of is, you could host your own Shabbat service at your home and they provided all the necessary materials to do so properly. This was one way to invite friends over and do Shabbat together, which again was based on relationships and having that be the core of the moving parts of JHP. I think there were a lot of things like this that were very important.
The courses actually were another great expression of JHP. I took a course with Nechama. I remember coming every week and really enjoying the content and the way that she taught, as well as being there with other students who were friends of mine.
What about JHP makes it such a welcoming place?
There are no pre-requirements for your Jewish practice or Jewish identity. JHP and Chabad are very welcoming places for anyone with any form of Jewish identity. I think they do a really good job of making people feel welcome and making people feel closer to Judaism regardless of their backgrounds or families. For me, there were some other Jewish communities where I felt a little turned off by, only because if you didn’t have a certain background or way of practicing Judaism you weren’t as welcome and did not feel as comfortable.
I went to Jewish day school and was born in Israel, so I do have a very strong Jewish background, but I think this theme is universal with JHP. This is another big success of how JHP organizes its programming.
Is there something about JHP that resonates even to this day?
When I came back to Penn, I reached out to Rabbi Levi and immediately felt the connection I had made forever ago. Even if you do not talk to them for 10 years, you will always be welcome to come back. My first Rosh Hashanah, I went to Chabad with another professor who is now a friend of mine. I do think they have been successful in fostering this for all participants. Chabad is always your home whenever you are.
Was there a way that you found JHP impacted your relationship with Judaism as a college student?
Jewish practice was more part of my college life because of JHP. I do not know if it would have been as much otherwise in terms of the holidays or Shabbat. I don’t know if I would have had such an active Jewish life during college if it were not for JHP. And to be honest, I miss that now in my life and it is something that I am in the process of committing myself to building in my new community.
