A Shliach’s Vision Broke Barriers and Inspired Generations on Campus

“When I first began my Shlichus on campus, it was during the student riots over the Vietnam War. The place was a pressure-cooker, and they bombed several buildings. It was so intense you could cut the air.”

So begins one of many remarkable stories Rabbi Nosson Gurary shares in a wide-ranging new interview about his early days as a Shliach in Buffalo, NY. His very first day on campus gave him a taste of what lay ahead. Walking into the Student Union, Rabbi Gurary approached a student and asked if he was Jewish. The student’s face turned red with anger. “And if I’m not Jewish?” he shot back. “If not for my respect for my father, I would punch you in the nose!”

As the student spoke, a crowd began gathering around Rabbi Gurary. “My heart fell out… they were going to attack me! So I just got out of there. I left the Union and thought, ‘This is not for me.'”

“But,” he adds with characteristic resolve, “I realized that this is my place.”

That realization would prove prophetic, as Rabbi Gurary reveals throughout the interview. In the decades that followed, he would transform the Jewish landscape at Buffalo University through a combination of determination, creativity—and Hashgacha Pratis. His early attempts to attract students’ attention were as bold as they were ingenious – signs declaring “L.S.D. for sale” and “POT for sale” would turn heads across campus. Of course, as students discovered upon closer inspection, “LSD” stood for “Let’s Start Davening” and “POT” meant “Put on Tefillin.”

But it was the Rebbe’s guidance that would prove transformative. “The Rebbe told me I should only teach if they’re accredited courses,” Rabbi Gurary recalls. This advice shaped his entire approach. Soon, he was teaching Jewish mysticism and other subjects to classes of 40-50 students each semester. “The impact was astonishing,” he shares. “Students were actually learning about Judaism in a serious way, with midterms, finals and a written paper.”

His authenticity in the classroom only added to his effectiveness. In one lecture, when a student asked his opinion on clairvoyance, the yeshiva-educated Rabbi admitted in the interview, “I had no clue what that meant… I saved myself by saying ‘That deserves an evening for itself!'”

Getting students to attend the Chabad House on Shabbos presented a different challenge entirely. “College students sleep all day on Shabbos,” Rabbi Gurary explains in the interview. “Who ever heard of a Minyan?” But the need for ten men meant running through the dorms until finally assembling a Minyan in the late afternoon.

One such Shabbos afternoon, while attempting to wake a student, Rabbi Gurary realized he’d made a mistake – the young man he’d roused looked like a baseball player, and he wasn’t the intended student at all. “I was worried he’d beat me up,” Rabbi Gurary recalls with a smile. “But it turns out he was the right guy after all – because he happened to be Jewish!” Not only did the student attend the Minyan that day, but he remained connected and now leads a fully observant life. “Of course,” Rabbi Gurary adds, “there are no accidents.”

Perhaps no story better exemplifies Rabbi Gurary’s persistence than the saga of the bridge. In the mid-seventies, Rabbi Gurary moved his Chabad center across the river from the university’s newly opened main campus. Wanting to ensure easy access for students, he took matters into his own hands and built a makeshift pontoon bridge—wooden planks floating on barrels. While this innovative solution was short-lived—prompting complaints from a fisherman and even sparking headlines like “Chabad Went One Bridge Too Far”—Rabbi Gurary remained undeterred.

Undaunted, he navigated the necessary permits and commissioned a permanent bridge, even though funding was uncertain. “It was a very expensive project, and I knew we couldn’t afford it,” he recalls. “Everytime someone brought it up, I’d say, ‘We can’t think about payment right now, we just need to get the project done!’” In what he calls a series of “miraculous” events, the state eventually funded the project. Today, the sturdy bridge stands as a lasting symbol of the bond between Chabad and the campus community that Rabbi Gurary helped forge.

His influence would extend far beyond the campus itself. In the interview, Rabbi Gurary speaks of developing relationships with Supreme Court Justices and establishing the International Institute of Jewish Law, which was inaugurated at a remarkable dinner attended and keynoted by Justices Scalia, Breyer, and Ginsburg. “The Institute only existed in my mind,” he says with characteristic wit, “but in the meantime there’s this dinner to inaugurate it.”

These relationships, which grew to include Justice Kagan as well, lasted for years. Yet Rabbi Gurary maintains his humble perspective: “It’s all from God. It has nothing to do with me. It could have only happened from God, and with the Rebbe’s blessings.”

Throughout his years of service, Rabbi Gurary considered bringing students to Crown Heights to meet the Rebbe his “greatest gift” to them. The impact of these experiences, like his broader work, continues to resonate through generations. As Howard Alt, who conducted this interview, attests: “You’ve affected four generations of my family, from my mother to myself and my sister, and from my children to now, my children’s children.”

From those tense early days during the Vietnam War to today’s thriving Jewish presence on campus, Rabbi Gurary’s journey embodies the transformative power of unwavering dedication to one’s mission. That angry student in the Student Union who threatened to punch him? He turned out to be just the first of countless souls whose lives would be touched by a rabbi who recognized, even in that difficult moment, that this was indeed his place.

Be a part of Chabad of Buffalo’s ongoing impact! Your support helps continue Rabbi Gurary’s mission, fostering vibrant Jewish life on campus and beyond. Join us in making a difference: ChabadofBuffalo.com/Donate

To hear Rabbi Gurary’s stories in his own words, watch the full interview below: