Middle East analyst David Makovsky (center) spoke with Binghamton University students on March 21. Norman Finkelstein spoke at BU the next day.

Iran’s increasing significance, and the ramifications of that for Israelis and Arabs, were discussed by Middle East Analyst David Makovsky on March 21st, and controversial professor Norman Finkelstein spoke the next day.

In “Shifting Sands of the Mideast,” a program sponsored by Hillel-JSU, Makovsky met with small groups during the day, and presented a 45-minute lecture in the evening. Makovsky is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former editor of the Jerusalem Post.
Nicolas Kolios, Hillel ICA representative summarized Makovsky’s appearance in a letter to the editor in April’s Hatikva Magazine:

He spoke on involvement of countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan in trying to oppose Iran’s apparently growing influence in the region. [He] Encouraged the pursuit of alternative energy and stressed its role in helping the U.S. avoid having dual and opposing roles, i.e. military involvement in the region, while also buying oil. The lecture was followed by a 40 minute Q&A session, after which several students stayed around, talking more personally with David about his early career in journalism, and getting further political analysis.

The next day, Norman Finkelstein, professor of political theory at DePaul University in Chicago, gave a lecture entitled “A Question of Justice: Historical Origins of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict and the Prospects for Peace.” The talk was sponsored by the Middle East Cultural Association, Palestine Solidarity Committee, the Graduate Student Organization and the graduate vice president for multicultural affairs.

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)

Other Media Coverage of Shabbat 1500

Armed with audio-trape recorders and warm smiles, eight students of the Hillel-JSU are visiting the homes of local senior citizens with a mission: to bridge a gap.
Student Jessica Lanoil is leading the group, Dorot’s Senior Citizen Program at Hillel, on bi-weekly visits to the homes as they perform interviews, listening to real-life stories toward creating oral histories, all while establishing new friendships.
“These regular visits are the beginnings of relationships for us with the Jewish community outside the university borders,” said Lanoil, a senior politics, philosophy, and law major, adding “”For the senior citizens, we hope our support and admiring smiles brings them some warmth into their already welcoming homes.”
On April 29, the students will present the oral histories to other students, senior citizens, and the local community at a luncheon.
The project is sponsored through a grant by Dorot, a non-profit agency that helps both the Jewish and non-Jewish elderly and develops volunteer-based programs. “Dorot” is Hebrew for “generations.”
Lanoil told CampusJ that visiting senior citizen Leah Schwartz has become a Friday ritual for her and two other Hillel students; they travel weekly to hear the woman’s memories of Vanderbilt University, her life in social work and the “AEPI boys.”
Once, Schwartz shared her photos and stories of her grandchildren with a new student visitor. “Although I had heard the story that she proudly told of her grandson before,” Lanoil said, “I saw once again the joy Leah had in opening her home and her life stories with us.”
In addition to forging new bonds, the visits have opened the door to new Jewish experiences for these Binghamton students.
For Purim, freshman Allison Adges rode a bus from campus to bring her senior a basket of hamantashen.
And Lanoil experienced Shabbat like never before. “In my visits to Leah on Friday afternoons, I have often stood with her, saying the prayers and lighting the electric candles for welcoming in Shabbat,” she said, noting that “although I attend Friday night services on campus, this was the only time I lit candles for Shabbat in Binghamton.”

A radical change is coming to Hillel at Binghamton, Frank Bovenzi of Pipe Dream reports:

After a 5 1/2 year tenure as executive director of Hillel at Binghamton University, Gary Coleman will be leaving the organization he helped found to serve as the executive director of the Cleveland Hillel Foundation at the end of the semester. Coleman considers the transition from Hillel, a chapter of the national Hillel Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, bittersweet.
“[My feelings] are very mixed,” Coleman said. “I’ve enjoyed my years — we’ve been able to do a lot of innovative things.”
As the director of Hillel at Binghamton, Coleman, through programming and events, has been active at helping Jewish BU students identify and appreciate Jewish culture and traditions. Hillel provides students the opportunity to participate in social gatherings, community service activities, Israeli cultural and educational events and the observance of Jewish holidays.
“Hillel enables Jewish students to identify with their Jewish heritage,” he said.
Coleman has always held himself responsible for the students of Hillel and greatly encouraged student involvement in Hillel decision making.
“Anything that Gary Coleman thinks is a good idea is not a good idea until the students decide it’s a good idea,” Coleman said, describing the involvement of students in Hillel policy-making.

Coleman wanted to relocate to Cleveland primarily so his children could attend parochial school.
As executive director of Cleveland Hillel Foundation, he will be working with students from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State, Kent State and Oberlin.
Hillel has yet to announce who its next director will be.