According to KU Chabad, the University of Kansas’s student body includes an estimated more than 1,500 Jewish students. Over the past five years, the demographic of Jewish students has increased by 2.6%, with the community continuing to grow and expand.
To meet the increasing demand, KU Chabad, led by Rabbi Zalman and Nechama Tiechtel, has hired four rabbinic interns to aid and support its mission to engage and assist Jewish students this semester.
Rabbis Mendel Kleyman, Menachem Hershkop, Pinchas Sudak and Chonon Levin have completed their rabbinic training in respected centers of Jewish learning across the globe and earned their rabbinical ordination. They are trained in many areas of Jewish knowledge and leadership, and they have developed their skills and expertise in various communities throughout the world. They now live in a shared apartment just off the KU campus. The young rabbis are filled with youthful energy and passion for their Judaism and hope to spread it throughout the campus.
“I’m excited to put my rabbinic training into practical use,” Rabbi Levin, from Brooklyn, N.Y., said. “During my time at KU these past few months, I can see how we can make a real difference.”
“It has been so rewarding to engage so many young Jewish people,” Rabbi Kleyman, from Buffalo, N.Y., said. “We also find that they connect easily with us being so close in age, and we can easily relate to their own personal journeys and struggles.”
The young rabbis plan to spend the year in Lawrence, dedicating their time to supporting and expanding KU Chabad’s reach. On a daily basis, they man information tables across campus that are stocked with informative pamphlets, resources for anything Jewish, and “mitzvot on the go” for students to participate in.
The rabbis also mentor students one-on-one to provide counseling and support and visit students who are ill or quarantined, bringing them kosher food. They teach Torah classes, lead initiatives in the business school and the Greek system, and lead weekly services in the synagogue.
“[The rabbis] are fun and helpful and devote their time to helping and supporting me in any way they can,” said KU senior Daniel Wachsberg.
“Rabbi Chonon [Levin] really listens,” said Zach Brownstein, a freshman from Leawood, Kan. “He helped me at a time when I was really anxious and stressed. It was different for me initially to have a rabbi as a friend, but that is truly the role he now plays in my life.”
With the added manpower, Rabbi Tiechtel said he is confident in Chabad’s ability to enrich the life of every single Jewish student at KU, and he hopes this initiative will lead to even more growth for the “Jewhawk” community.
The rabbinic intern initiative is supported by a grant from Kansas City philanthropist Bob Cutler, who is committed to ensuring that Jewish students at KU have all the support and resources that they need to stay connected with the Jewish community.
