Gainesville Dinner Marks 10

Gainesville.com

Ten years after moving to Gainesville to establish a student Jewish center, Rabbi Berl Goldman and his wife Chanie are getting ready to expand for the second time.

The Lubavitch-Chabad Jewish Student and Community Center, which opened in a rented 2,100-square-foot home off 34th Street and for the last several years has operated from a 3,100-square-foot home they purchased in 2002, will break ground in September on a two-story, 21,000-square-foot center on its current 2-acre site on Northwest Fifth Avenue.

Built on a $1.5 million property, the multi-use facility will include the first traditional synagogue in Alachua County and a residence for the Rabbi and his family. It also will have a library, a community center and social hall, a kosher kitchen, fitness room, laundry room and a Mikveh, all at a cost of $3.5 million.

“Judaism is a lifestyle. It touches every part of our lives and being,” said Rabbi Goldman, 37. “So the experience needs to be a total experience; it may be (for some students) their only experience.”

The Lubavitch-Chabad Jewish Student Center, which celebrated its 10th anniversary Sunday with a gala dinner at the Gainesville Women’s Club, has seen attendance at Friday Sabbath go from 11 university students the first night to a turnout of between 250 to 350 people.

Chanie Goldman, 34, who co-directs the center with her husband, teaches Kabbalah and other classes to students, some of whom have not had any formal Jewish religious instruction.

She also set up the center’s website and serves as student confidant and informal guidance counselor to college students.

“Even at this age, they are looking for positive influences. They are looking for role models and happy families and they like to be around kids,” she said, referring to the Goldmans’ six children ranging in age from 18 months to 10 years old.

Elias Benarroch, a senior at the University of Florida, said the center has been his home away from home since the first sabbath he attended five years ago. His family, who lives in Hollywood but hails from Venezuela, are very observant of their Jewish faith.

More importantly, while Lubavitch-Chabad is traditional in its observance, everyone is welcome without being judged.

“At one table, you’ll have the most orthodox person with another person who has never been to a synagogue,” he said. “They’re just Jewish and (students) enjoy that.”