Chabad House a home to many
Orthodox Jewish organization is thriving at liberal Harvard campus
By Jason Nielson
Advocate Staff

April 18-24, 2003

CAMBRIDGE – No one thought the Chabad House would be able to survive Harvard, but after five years it has graduated from an apartment 10 minutes away to a two-story house just a few blocks from the main campus.

Rabbi Hirsch Zarchi, executive director and founder of the Chabad House, isn’t surprised his organization has been able to connect with the Jewish community at Harvard. Speakers at the dedication of its Banks Street location on April 6 reinforced the idea that the Chabad House has found its niche on the famously liberal campus.

"What moves Jews at Harvard is the same thing that moves Jews elsewhere," Zarchi said. "The only difference is that you have to prove yourself intellectually. When you project Judaism in an intelligently compelling manner, they open themselves up."

The new Chabad facility features remodeled dining and meeting rooms to better accommodate the students who have been coming to Shabbat meals and attending informal Torah discussions. The Chabad House also offers classes on Jewish mysticism and introduction to Judaism.

The 5-year-old organization formed as a way to empower the Jewish community at Harvard with the knowledge and experience of Judaism and Jewish heritage. Zarchi tries to show students how they can merge their Jewish identity and professional or academic pursuits.

Zarchi finds that once students participate, their perceptions change about the religiosity and Orthodoxy of the Chabad House.

"There are just Jews," he said. "Some observe more and some observe less. We are open and tolerant to everyone despite their background."

Jared Kushner, 22, a senior from Livingston, N.J., has been involved with the Chabad House since his freshman year, when he met Zarchi at a prayer service at Harvard Hillel. He attends Shabbat meals and participates in holiday events such as the menorah lighting ceremony. An Orthodox Jew, he believes the different Jewish denominations are equally represented at Chabad House.

"Rabbi Zarchi provides a service that the Harvard campus needs," Kushner said. "It’s geared towards the campus as a whole, not just undergraduates. You meet people from all the graduate schools, professors, alums. It really gives you a wide array of people of what Harvard has to offer in a very intimate, personal setting."

Kushner said attendance at Friday night meals has nearly doubled to more than 90 people since he first started attending as a freshman. Despite the rapid growth, he said Zarchi still knows everyone at the table on a first name basis. All attendees sill must say their name and give a personal thought about the week.

"The personal relationship to Rabbi Zarchi is the best part of the Chabad House," he said. "He makes everyone feel very comfortable by the way he advises."

He believes the Chabad House and Hillel fill complementary roles on campus.
"You go to Harvard Hillel to be with friends," he said, "and Chabad is a place to be with family. It’s nice to have something that can reinforce (a person’s Jewish heritage) in a friendly way."

The Chabad House became an official campus organization in 2000. Zarchi became an official Harvard chaplain in 2001.

Alan Dershowitz, a law professor at Harvard, agreed to become the Chabad House’s faculty adviser because he feels the group adds an element of diversity to the school’s Jewish community. A post-denominational Jew, he said he hasn’t found the organization’s religiosity to be a deterrent.

"The Chabad House adds a loot of warmth and energy to Jewish life at Harvard," Dershowitz said. "It’s an opening home to all Jews who want to learn and experience more."

He explained that the Chabad House serves an important purpose because students are feeling alienated from their Jewish roots and Israel. "We need all the positive identification we can get, " he said.

Funding and support to start the organization arrived largely from Harvard alumni. Penina Yerushalmi, 32, of Brookline, a 1994 Harvard graduate, believes the organization has added something to campus that was missing when she studied Russian history and literature there.

Yerushalmi befriended the Zarchis when they move to Cambridge to open the Chabad House. During her undergraduate days, she experimented with Hillel and attended Boston University’s Chabad House.

"A lot of the success is bound up with Hirsch and his wife, Elkie," she said. "He’s a rabbi with a beard and his wife is dressed to the laws of modesty. Inwardly, people relate to them. They have many roles for people – confidant, teacher, and rabbi – but fundamentally people think of them as their friends."

Zarchi also helped start Chabad houses at Brandeis and Tufts.