A partial view of the crowd making there way into the gymnasium for Shabbat 1500. The record-breaking event was spearheaded by Chabad House Jewish Student Center of Binghamton and attracted 1,400 students at Binghamton University in New York, Friday March 23. (Photo provided by Chabad of Binghamton)

1,500 challah rolls, 800 pounds of chicken, 100 volunteers, and one record-breaking Shabbat.

On Friday night, 1,400 students gathered at Binghamton University for “Shabbat 1500,” the largest campus-wide Shabbat in the United States, according to organizers.

The annual event, spearheaded by Chabad House Jewish Student Center of Binghamton, included prayers, songs, traditional food, and a chance for Jews across the campus to come together as one.

“I felt an overwhelming sense of unity,” said sophomore Dori Gelb.

“Shabbat 1500” was sponsored by Chabad of Binghamton and was co-sponsored by Hillel-JSU, The Jewish Heritage Program, and a grant from The Elaine Heumann Memorial Foundation.

Rabbi Aaron Slonim and his wife Rivkah Slonim, co-directors of Chabad of Binghamton, started the tradition in 1994 in an effort to draw Jews from the periphery to the center of the Shabbat experience.

“We had many people who had ‘Shabbat 1000’ as their entry point in to Jewish life on campus,” Rivkah Slonim said.

Since then, the idea has spread to colleges like Harvard University, Cornell University, and the University of Texas at Austin.

In 2005, Chabad of Binghamton set the record for the highest number of students at a single Shabbat dinner at 1,240.

The number of students that attended Friday night’s dinner, however, surpassed the attendance of 2005’s event and the attendance of all other single “Shabbat 1000” dinners at campuses since its inception, according to Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, chairman of Chabad on Campus Foundation.

To gather the 1,400 students, a number representing about half of the Jewish student population at BU, a committee recruited 110 to 120 table hosts who, in turn, recruited ten to twelve attendees for their respective tables.

The recruiting committee scoured Facebook accounts and Instant Messenger buddy lists to “put together a list of every Jewish person on campus we knew,” said organizer L.J. Spaet, a senior. “We asked [each of] them to host a table.”

For the students who didn’t make reservations, but decided to stay for the dinner anyway, organizers made sure to leave at least one table vacant. That table, according to Binghamton tradition, has been numbered “Table 18” for “Chai [Life],” said Spaet.

Student volunteers also helped with putting out tables and chairs, publicizing the event, and catering.

All food was cooked in the kitchen of the Chabad of Binghamton, located on a road adjacent to the campus.

“That’s like making food for four weddings all rolled in to one,” said Rivkah Slonim.

Slonim was also impressed by the students’ effort in preparing for the event.

“I felt that the student body at Binghamton University is quite outstanding,” she said. “The amount of students involved, the amount of hours they gave, the amount of talent they lugged, the enthusiasm they exuded, the love they showed.”

And while the preparation resulted in a record-breaking event that drew attention from a handful of local media outlets, “Shabbat 1500” also maintained its spiritual foundation.

“It was so amazing to get so many people together to do a mitzvah,” said freshman Ayla Gordon.

Three students light Shabbat candles at Shabbat 1500. (Photo provided by Chabad of Binghamton)

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