Student Lounge Opens at Oxford

Chabad of Oxford hosted this week the grand opening of a new dining hall and lounge for Jewish students at the Chabad House of Oxford, enabling many more students to be hosted in comfort and elegance for Shabbat and holiday dinners and its varied stimulating events throughout the year.

The hall, together with its adjacent student lounge, was dedicated by the Tajtelbaum family and the Slager family, and was opened amid great celebration in the presence of the Lord Mayor of Oxford Cllr Dee Sinclair, President of the Oxford University Student Union David Townsend, members of faculty, as well as about 100 students and local community members.

“Oxford Chabad has served me, as well as countless others, with a really important community, Jewish learning environment and opportunity just to engage in stimulating conversation in a Jewish atmosphere,” enthused David Poritz, Rhodes Scholar and deputy President of the Oxford University Chabad Society. “This new hall will serve as a place where the community can come together to host ambassadors and high profile scholars, as well as to serve as an environment for really important student learning,” he predicted.

The Lord Mayor of Oxford Cllr Dee Sinclair commented with equal enthusiasm: “Chabad in Oxford obviously forms a very important part in the Jewish community and it’s very clear to me how much love and care has gone into its development.”

David Townsend, President of the Oxford University Student Union, congratulated Oxford Chabad, saying that he knows that this is going to be a very valuable place for the students in Oxford for the years to come: “Part of being a student in Oxford is having not just a rich academic life but also a social life, an emotional life and indeed a religious life, all of which the Chabad Society provides so well.”

The keynote speaker was philanthropist Mr. Mendel Tajtelbaum who dedicated the hall in memory of his late father, Yitzchok Tajtelbaum, an Auschwitz Holocaust survivor. Mr. Tajtelbaum said he is proud to be involved with the development of Chabad at the University of Oxford. He movingly related how his father would share his daily single piece of bread with others in Auschwitz and inspired the students to recognise that although people have plenty today, we should always share what we have with others, whether materially or spiritually.

Anatolij Glemson, student at Balliol College and recipient of the newly established ‘Oxford University Chabad Society Ambassador Award’ told listeners that it was the open minded atmosphere and intercultural and Jewish academic exchange at Chabad of Oxford that really attracted him. “When I came to Oxford, Shabbat dinners at Oxford Chabad were one of the first things that I found out about and it really helped me integrate into Oxford and find new friends.”

Rabbi Eli Brackman, director of Chabad of Oxford, commented that “the new hall and lounge will help serve the Jewish students in greater comfort and help us build on the great success that has been achieved so far, reaching out to a broad spectrum of students from all background and continuing to inspire strong Jewish student leadership at Oxford impacting Jewish life for generations to come,” he said.

Leader of the Labour Party, Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP, who studied in Oxford, wrote in a personal message to Chabad of Oxford: “I want to congratulate Oxford Chabad on the opening of the new Jewish student dining hall and lounge at the Oxford Chabad House Jewish student centre. I know how much Chabad does for the Jewish students at OxfordUniversity, actively demonstrating care, kindness and community, values which have been at the heart of Judaism for generations. I hope and trust that your long tradition of hospitality at Chabad House will continue for many years in the future.”