Hakesher Magazine - December 2020

Chabad of Binghamton

‫בס’’ד‬

‫הקשר‬ December 2020 | Kislev 5781

the connection

Uber Love Page 7

We Cannot Do Without Delight Page 18

Community. Education. Inspiration.

A word fROM THE DIReCTOR Executive Director Rabbi Aaron Slonim Associate Director Mrs. Rivkah Slonim Education and Ritual Rabbi Zalman & Rochel Chein Chabad Downtown and Development Rabbi Levi & Hadasa Slonim Programming and Engagement Rabbi Yisroel and Goldie Ohana President Mr. Michael Wright Vice President Mr. Al Lavker Board Members Mr. Charles Gilinsky Dr. Chaim Joy Mr. Alan Piaker Solomon Polachek Ph.D. Dr. Charles Rubin Mr. Brian Savitch Mrs. Susan Walker Dr. Mark Walker Founding Board Members Mr. Abe L. Piaker OBM Prof. Philip M. Piaker OBM Dr. Barrett J. Raff OBM The Rohr Chabad Center for Jewish Student Life at Binghamton University 420 Murray Hill Rd. • Vestal, NY 13850 607-797-0015 info@chabadofbinghamton.com

www.JewishBU.com December 2020, Volume 11, Issue 1 Hakesher is published four times a year; September, December, March and May

by Chabad of Binghamton, 420 Murray Hill Rd., Vestal, NY 13850. Postage paid at Newark, NJ post offices.

Volume 11, Issue 1

Published by Chabad of Binghamton Contact us at: Hakesher@JewishBU.com Editor

Staff Writer Proofreading

Design & Printing

Photo Credits

Rivkah Slonim Alex Abel Segal Marlene Serkin, Chaya M. Slonim The Printhouse Zev Blumenthal Rosalie Coscgugnano Danielle Kinches Shoshana Klein Goldie Ohana Levi Slonim

ABOUT THE COVER: (l-r) Danny Gabel, Hanah Blas and Michael Khakdarov help pack hundreds of meals sent out to students for Rosh Hashanah.

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Dear Friend,

Substance over form is an accounting principle; more widely, it seems to me, it has become the 2020 Covid doctrine.

Unable to do business as usual, we have all had to come up with new, creative ways to retain the substance of our lives in its new and unsettling form. And it hasn’t all been bad. There are so many blessings to be found and celebrated. Let me share with you one such example: For years, people have been asking about/analyzing/studying Chabad Shluchim, emissaries of the Rebbe, in a quest to understand what makes us tick. The secret sauce, it turns out, is not a well-guarded secret at all. It’s in the public domain for anyone and everyone to access. It’s the teachings of the Rebbe; his radical reframing of Jewish identity, mitzvot, nationhood, and the relationship of each person with G-d. And the sense of love, devotion and urgency in mission that he imparted to us all.

Shluchim—each in their own location, and periodically in cohorts—constantly study the Rebbe’s talks and discourses, and his vast corpus of correspondence. We view snippets all the time, of the hundreds of thousands of hours captured on film of the Rebbe’s interactions with people from all walks of life. But each year, at the annual International Conference for Shluchim, these teachings come alive in a visceral way; it’s as if the very air we breathe is saturated with the Rebbe’s inspiration and vision. As the troops in the "Rebbe's Army," 5,000 strong, we get our jolt and return renewed to our respective posts.

With the conference held virtually this year, the hearts of shluchim worldwide were heavy.

We could forego the plenaries, breakout sessions, workshops. We had to forfeit seeing our siblings, relatives and friends arriving from their far-flung locations; those we get to see only once a year. We would do without it all, including the epic banquet. But forego visiting the Ohel, the Rebbe’s resting place? And what of the heart and soul of the conference— the farbrengens comprised of soulful singing and heartfelt sharing of Torah and Chassidic teachings, and life experiences? Especially during this challenging year?

Do you know what happened? The farbrengen, via zoom, planned originally to take place on Saturday night, in lieu of the annual Melave Malkah session, lasted for six whole days!

When, at times, it reached the capacity of participants at 1,000, people were routed to vimeo. For 136 hours (yes, it is officially the world’s longest zoom session!) we shluchim from more than one hundred countries speaking English, Yiddish and Hebrew (depending on the hour, certain time zones and correspondent languages predominated) opened our hearts, often speaking with raw emotion, about our problems, our successes, our hopes and aspirations. Interlaced throughout, were Chassidic melodies and stories about the Rebbe, always prodding us onward and upward. It was almost as if we were actually in one room with our arms around each other, lifting each other higher. This was a farbrengen to end all farbrengens!

So we never had to do without. We simply had to open ourselves up to a different form.

It wasn’t planned; it happened organically. Sometimes, the best things in life happen just like that.

Please G-d, we will soon be able to be together in spirit and body. Until then, I wish you all the best. Stay safe and healthy and open to all the miracles and blessings nestled in our current situation. And all that can happen, just like that.

N’hiye B’kesher, let’s stay connected and in touch!

Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe of righteous memory

torah for today

The Lightness of Being

By Rabbi Yanki Tauber

The candle flame, the ray of light, the glowing coal — these are the images in which we recognize our yearning for a better world, for a wiser, more virtuous, more G-dly self.

“The light at the end of the tunnel.”

"You light up my life.”

“He’s an enlightened person.”

If you recorded every word you said for 24 hours, you'd probably find hundreds of references to light. Light, brightness, radiance — these are the metaphors we use when we wish to speak about hope, wisdom, and goodness. The candle flame, the ray of light, the glowing coal — these are the images in which we recognize our yearning for a better world, for a wiser, more virtuous, more G-dly self.

We are encouraged by the fact that a luminous body like the sun, by simply being what it is, can have such a profound effect on entities and beings millions of miles away, enriching them with light, warmth, energy and life. We are encouraged by

the fact that a tiny flame can banish a roomful of darkness. If so, all is not lost. If our own souls are “candles of G-d” (as King Solomon proclaims in the Book of Proverbs), then little me is not so little after all. The big bad world out there can yet be transformed. All we need to do is be what we truly are, to act out our innate goodness, and the darkness will melt away.

Once a year, we celebrate this truth. For eight days and nights, we celebrate the power of light: in ascending number — one little flame on the first evening, two flames on the second, three on the third — we kindle the Chanukah menorah, recalling that miraculous victory, 22 centuries ago, of quality over quantity, spirit over materialism, right over might. And pray for the day when such victories are no longer “miracles”, but the way things are in G-d's world.

Rabbi Yanki Tauber is a noted scholar and author.

DECEMBER 2020 | 3

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studentspotlight

ShelliCOHEN '20

Passionate Activist Fights to Create Lasting Change

By Alex Abel Segal '12

“I love math because there’s one right answer,” Shelli Cohen said laughing. As a senior math major, she’s often tackling trig and calculus in the classroom. The problems she’s solving outside of it though, are even greater. While life may not be as clear cut, doing the right thing remains at her core.

The Brooklyn native is passionate about voting and has spent the last six months working with the Andrew Goodman Foundation, an organization that aims to educate young people to become more active and engaged citizens. “I see voting as a right,” she explained. “As a Jew, my ancestors have had their voices suppressed. I want to help others use their voices to make a difference.”

While Cohen has fond memories of voting—her parents would always take her to the polls and even had her pull the lever for them once they told her the candidate they wanted— getting started on her own was daunting. When she turned 18, she says she felt uneducated and at a loss of who to choose.

That experience is what led her to want to help others feel more comfortable exercising their civic right.

It’s a passion she hopes to continue to pursue once she graduates in the spring. “My career goal is to work for an organization or a person that has a mission that I believe in,” she said. “I want to make a positive impact on the world.”

At 21, she’s well underway. When she was home in NYC during quarantine, she delivered boxes of food to families in need once a week through the Sephardic Bikur Cholim.

She also got involved with an organization called Get Us PPE. When health care workers were really struggling at the beginning of the pandemic, this organization would take requests from facilities that needed more supplies. Others

could donate to the organization and then volunteers, like Shelli, would coordinate the donor and recipient lists to facilitate the delivery.

Back at school, Cohen works at the Binghamton food pantry where she hands out packages of groceries to students who experience food insecurity and may not have money to buy what they need. She also worked with a Vestal councilwoman to paint a pedestrian lane on Vestal parkway—in an area where many students walk to and from Chabad late on Friday night and may not be seen by the speeding cars. “In my gut, I’ve always had this drive to work hard and make change,” she said. “I’m always thinking that things can be better, and if I don’t push that forward, who is going to?”

She expresses her words through action with an additional roster of extracurriculars that seems to leave little time for sleep. She served as the Vice President of Communications for Women in Tech, where she set up a support system for female students entering STEM fields. She is also a Jewish Foundation for the Education of Women (JFEW) scholar—a program to help students with career development. Her freshman year, she worked with a local organization called RISE which supports victims of domestic violence. She and her team remodeled their counseling room which included raising all the money to buy the furniture, researching the best colors and designs to make the patient most comfortable and then saw it through to the end—purchasing the furniture and setting everything up.

Despite her busy schedule, getting involved with Chabad was a no brainer. She grew up modern orthodox, attending the Ramaz School from Kindergarten through 12th grade. When she walked into Chabad her freshman year, she knew it was where she wanted to be. Her first order of business was taking on the soup delivery service. If a student on campus was sick, a friend or parent could order kosher chicken soup and tea for them and then Cohen would deliver it to their door.

Things snowballed from there. She started going to Supper and Study and spent all her Shabbat meals at Chabad—going earlier in the week to help prepare the chicken soup. She even started a Sephardi minyan for Yom Kippur that brought in 60 students and now occurs every year. Now she’s also an eruv executive—finding volunteers to check the eruv and make sure it’s kosher for Shabbat.

“Chabad has given me everything in my Jewish life at Binghamton,” she said. “I really wanted to give back. As a college student, your parents aren’t around. With Rivky, she can tell something is off in a second and she’ll give you a hug.

It’s a special place—a community of amazing people.”

Alex Abel Segal '12 is an editor, writer and content creator. She has served as the Editor-in-Chief of 2.0, News Editor at People Style, and assistant editor at Seventeen. Her work has appeared on POPSUGAR.com, People.com and Time.com. She is currently the founder and editor of chaionlifemag.com

DECEMBER 2020 | 5

What Happens When a Plant Grows in Orbit

By Velvl Greene Ph.D.

I

n 1960, NASA became the big item on the agenda. In his inaugural address, President Kennedy said that the American goal was to put a man on the moon within 10 years.

All of a sudden, billions of dollars were being appropriated to work in a field that no one knew anything about. I was a microbiologist who was looking for microbes on the walls of hospitals and bacteria in the air of laundries and operating rooms. So when NASA wanted to find out if there were any microbes in the stratosphere, believe it or not, I won the contract to explore the stratosphere for living microorganisms.

There was a whole group of us. The plan was to send a satellite around the earth and let it orbit for maybe three days, 20 orbits or so, just like John Glenn. No humans would be aboard this spacecraft. Instead, it would be filled with scientific experiments of one sort or another, all designed to help us learn a little bit about what happens when you put live things into outer space and keep them there for a while.

We know that for all kinds of living things, when they are in their young, formative, sensitive stages, they’re the most vulnerable. Most of the bad things that happen to children happen when they’re the youngest—in utero, or relatively soon after birth. Plants are equally sensitive. So to get the greatest effect, we biologists decided to conduct our experiments on very young units—we had little worms, we had little sea urchins, and a few other young things. The idea was to put them in little containers, send them up, let them orbit for 20 revolutions, and then bring them down. Then we’d look to see what happened.

Another of the experiments we sent up involved the germination of seedlings—wheat, rye and barley seeds, and green beans. This kind of experiment is a classic. Everyone who’s ever been to first grade has seen this: The teacher takes a bean seed, folds it into blotting paper or cotton batting, soaks it in water, and maybe puts it between two pieces of glass. Then you leave it alone for a little while, overnight,

over Shabbat. When the kids come back to school, they’re astonished: the seed has sprouted.

This is the perfect example of the complexity of simplicity, and one of those everyday miracles that overwhelms me.

Everything that plant needs to begin life is within the seed.

All it needs is a little water and a bit of nurture.

So at NASA, we sent up our seedlings, and we brought them back. When we opened the container, there wasn’t a single person in the room who wasn’t completely fascinated.

Unbelievable!

The seedlings had germinated. They sprouted, just as they would have on earth. Indeed, the root sprig began growing downward. But then, chaos intervened. Instead of continuing down, the roots radically bent sideways, or horizontally. Sometimes they started growing up, sometimes they turned back and grew down again, in a loop.

Understand, it was a root. It had the requisite root hairs. But the system didn’t grow in any predictable fashion, it just meandered around in chaos. It was a freak of nature, or to use a very scientific term, a monster.

The same was true of the stem: It sprouted just fine, but from there, all was chaos. The stem didn’t grow up, it jutted here and there, back and forth, in loops and whirls. Unlike anything I’d ever seen.

I took the pictures of our seedlings and brought them to the Lubavitcher Rebbe. He gazed at them, as fascinated as I was. “See?” he said. “Even a plant needs to know what’s up and what’s down. Even a plant knows where up is.”

Today we know a little more about it. Hormones are involved in determining the direction in which the germinating shoots will grow. In fact, we know now that you can correct the damage. Put the seedling into a centrifuge, and restore the elements of gravity that had been withheld.

Given some sense of gravity, the seedling corrects itself, and will grow up and down.

But everything—even a simple plant—needs to have an orientation.

“Even a plant needs to know what’s up and what’s down. Even a plant knows where up is.”

A former Fulbright scholar and pioneer in exobiology, Professor Velvl Greene spent years working for NASA searching for life on Mars. He continued to lecture right up until his passing in 2011. This story is adapted from Curiosity and the Desire for Truth (Arthur Kurzweil Publishers, October 2015).

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Uber.

Founded March 2009 S. Francisco, CA

Uber eats.

Founded August 2014 S. Francisco, CA

Uber love.

Founded January 1985 Binghamton, NY

Thanks to a generous group of matchers, your donation to Chabad of Binghamton — for 36 HOURS ONLY — will be matched dollar for dollar!

Please donate generously on December 22-23 and follow the campaign's progress!

Please let your friends and family know and encourage everyone to participate at www.Matchathon.com/Essential Your much needed donation will help ensure that Chabad of Binghamton can finish this year in the black and face the future on sure financial footing.

DECEMBER 2020 | 7

ALUMNI NEWS

Mazel Tovs ‘93 Leah Chaya and Shabse Beilin announce the engagement of their son, Tzvi to Tzivia Raubvogel; a January 11 wedding is planned. The Beilins also announce the birth of their granddaughter, Ettel Shaina Shapiro, on September 29, 2020.

‘95 Hadasa and Emmanuel Behar announce the birth of their granddaughter, Rochel Leah Felderbaum born August 12, 2020.

‘98 Masha Kuznetsov announces her engagement to Arthur Milstein; a May 23, 2021 wedding is planned. Masha is a Russian and Spanish translator for Immigration; Arthur is a self-employed accountant. They will make their home in New Jersey.

‘05 Meeka (Levin) and David Natanov announce the birth of their daughter, Yael Hannah, on November 5, 2020. She was welcomed home by older siblings, Ahuva, Eden and Benjamin.

‘06 David and Linda Rahmani announce the birth of their son, Benjamin Baruch, on October 8, 2020.

‘07 Matthew and Jessica Saunders announce the birth of their son, Yosef Gershon, on Sept.16, 2020. He was welcomed home by older siblings, Elchonon Dovid (Dovi), and Meira Toba.

‘08 Dana Stecker and Avi Stein announce the birth of their son, Raphael Ilan, on July 21, 2020. He was welcomed home by big sister, Ayelet.

‘17 Elie and Shira Cohen announce the birth of their daughter, Shaili Adina, Skylar Addison, on July 15, 2020.

Zachary Ungar announces his engagement to Corey Muckley; a January 24, 2021 wedding is planned. Zach is an accountant at Ernst & Young; Corey is a nurse in a NYC hospital. They will make their home in NYC.

Danielle Bayer announces her engagement to Ari Roth; a May 2021 wedding is planned. Danielle is doing data analytics at NYU while pursuing her Masters there; Ari will be pursuing a degree in physical therapy. They will make their home in the NYC area.

‘18 Jake Salner announces his engagement to Abigail Greenbaum; a summer 2022 wedding is planned. Jake is a second year medical school student at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM); Abigail works in Human Resources in the pharmaceutical advertising industry. They will make their home in the NYC area.

Aria Avraham Hourizadeh was married to Sara Elianna Hedvat on November 22, 2020. Aria is a student at NYU Dental School and Eliana is a student at Lander College for Women. They live in the NYC area.

Sammi Plotsker announces her engagement to Yaakov Loboda; a May 2021 wedding is planned. Sammi works at a pharmaceutical ad agency; Yaakov is earning his Masters in real estate. They will make their home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Ariel Ingber was married to Lipa Boyarsky on August 31, 2020. Ariel works in Human Resources at Touro College; Lipa is the head of International advocacy for the Aleph Institute. They make their home in Brooklyn, NY.

‘10 Rebecca (Cohen) and Eric Moskowitz announce the birth of their son, Theodore Charles (Teddy), Shlomo Azar, on July 11, 2020.

Tobey (Lass) and Nachi Karpel announce the birth of their son, Gavriel Schneur Zalman (Gabriel Solomon) on June 26, 2020. He was welcomed home by older siblings, Joey and Layla.

‘11 Esther (Liberman) and Josh Khakshoor announce the birth of their daughter, Ava (Aviya) Maayan, on May 8, 2020.

‘12 Shayna (Dayna Driscoll) and David Muller announce the birth of their daughter, Emmanuella, on September 3, 2020.

Rena Asher was married to Yona Remer on September 13, 2020. Rena is bi-coastal Realtor working in Philadelphia and Los Angeles; Yona is completing his MBA at UCLA while also working in Healthcare Management. They make their home in LA, CA.

‘13 Michael Gelb announces his engagement to Raquel Saxe; a summer 2021 wedding is planned. Michael is a Principal Consultant at Ebiquity; Raquel is a Program Manager at Google.

Eliza Abraham announces her engagement to Josh Kaplan; a June 6, 2021 wedding is planned. Eliza is a speech-language pathologist and Josh is a program manager for the Air Force. They will make their home in Cambridge, MA.

Rachel (Herring) and Ayal Adamit announce the birth of their son, Noam, on July 18, 2020.

‘14 Cara London was married to Ross Freilich September 6, 2020. Cara is a Social Worker and Ross is a Senior Manager at Deloitte Consulting. They make their home in Long Island City, NY.

Yaelle (Tuvy) and Scott Weinblatt announce the birth of their son, Nathan Meir, on July 13, 2020.

‘19 Stephanie Schatz and Jonas Leavitt announce their engagement; a June 17, 2021 wedding is planned. Stephanie is studying at Cardozo Law School; Jonas is teaching Science at Yeshiva Rabbi Samson Samuel Hirsch (Breuer’s).

Abigail Greenbaum announces her engagement to Jake Salner. See ’18 for complete details.

Sympathies

Chabad mourns the passing of...

Dana Petrover ’85, on September 4, 2020, mother of Zachary ’15 and David’15 and mother in law of Devorah ’15 Petrover Chanan Meir Hakohen Gold, on September 18, 2020, father of David Gold ’89 David Betesh on July 26, 2020, father of Shimon Betesh '95 Robert Matthew, Rueven Meir, Klein, on July 14, 2020, brother of Brenda Corwin ‘05 and Ellen Wirchin ’10.

Beth Shamah, on July 2, 2020, mother of Adam Shamah ‘11

May the families be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

For up to date Chabad Alumni news, visit:

www.facebook.com/ChabadBUAlumni

Do you have the

‘15 Molly Sigel announces her engagement to Yonah Reback; a January 28, 2020 wedding is planned. Molly is a hospital social worker; Yonah is the Manufacturing and Services Coordinator at Olympic Veterinary Corp.

They will make their home in Seattle, WA.

Chabad of Binghamton

‘16 Jason Cutler announces his engagement to Renee Wietschner; a May 9, 2021 wedding is planned. Jason is a Systems Administrator at RustOleum; Renee works as an HR Coordinator at the Orthodox Union. They will make their home in Forest Hills, NY.

Relive the memories, recapture the smells and share it with the world.

Gilad Ingber was married to Rachel Bernstein on August 31, 2020. Gilad is a financial analyst at Ernst & Young; Rachel is an Early Childhood teacher in NYC. They make their home in NYC.

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COOKBOOK

Copies can be ordered through on our website at

www.JewishBU.com/cookbook

mattbielski ‘05 ALUMNIspotlight

Descendant of Holocaust Hero Forges His Own Path of Greatness

By Alex Abel Segal '12

Matt Bielski was born with resilience flowing through his veins. He is the grandson of Alexander Zeisal "Zus" Bielski, a man known, along with his three brothers, for rescuing more than 1200 Jews in Belarus during the Holocaust.

The Bielskis built a community deep in the forest during the war—establishing a bakery, kitchen, mill, bathhouse, medical clinic and school in underground dugouts. They fought tooth and nail for Jewish survival—taking down Nazis and anyone else who threatened Jewish life.

The 2008 movie, Defiance, in which Liev Schreiber plays Zus Bielski portrays that story. Matt’s grandmother—Zus’s wife, Sonia—always said to him, “Never forget you’re a Bielski.”

“That turned into motivation for me,” he said.

After he graduated from Binghamton with a degree in economics, Bielski joined the IDF, serving as a paratrooper in the Special Forces. “Being in the military, you learn discipline,” he shared. “It made me competitive but also taught me how to work with a team which are all things that have helped me in my life.”

Bielski stayed in Israel to get his MBA at Bar Ilan University and then landed a job in the States. He climbed the ladder at companies such as ProShares, BlackRock and Direxion before starting his own exchange traded funds (ETFs) company in 2018 called Defiance ETFs, an homage to his predecessors.

“I’m an entrepreneur and leader at heart,” he said. “So when I saw an opportunity to start my own company, I took it. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.”

He brings that determination to his activities outside of work too. He is involved with the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation where he works with a third-generation committee to collect stories of the adult grandchildren of partisans. In 2017, he was honored for his work.

Bielski naturally shares his passion for Holocaust education and forging the legacy of his grandparents with his siblings— he has a twin sister and another brother and sister who are also twins. All of them went back to Belarus in July of 2019 for the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Bielski partisans from the Nazis.

The trip included other descendants of those who were saved in the Bielski camp, who you could call family as well.

Each one of their stories is unique, Bielski explained, but

their bond is instant. “To walk in the woods where everything happened is a feeling that’s hard to describe,” he shared.

“There are probably 50,000 descendants alive today because of what they did. It was a very touching and emotional experience.”

Chabad at Binghamton was a big part of extending the Bielski story. When the movie Defiance came out in 2008, Rabbi Slonim helped coordinate for Matt’s uncle to speak at different Chabad houses around the country to talk about things from a more personal account.

“To walk in the woods where everything happened is a feeling that’s hard to describe.

There are probably 50,000 descendants alive today because of what they did.”

That tie stays strong years later. “Rabbi Slonim officiated my wedding,” he said. “I went to the Ohel the day before I launched my company as well. Chabad ignited a real spiritual connection in me, which remains to this day.”

Bielski now lives in New York City with his wife and oneyear-old daughter, Noa Sonia, named for his grandmother, yet another way he keeps the legacy of his family alive. “My grandmother helped change Jewish history forever—it’s an honor to name my daughter after her.”

Alex Abel Segal '12 is an editor, writer and content creator. She has served as the Editor-in-Chief of 2.0, News Editor at People Style, and assistant editor at Seventeen. Her work has appeared on POPSUGAR.com, People.com and Time.com. She is currently the founder and editor of chaionlifemag.com

DECEMBER 2020 | 9

PHOTO GRAPHS

Please note: Where students are pictured in close proximity to each other they are room/suite/housemates.

Welcome Back

Fall 2020 was a semester like no other but Chabad offered a slice

Freshman Falafel

of "normal" with a full array of welcome and welcome back activities.

Welcome Back BBQ

The Iconic Jewau Cruise

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Holidays Hundreds of Rosh Hashanah meals were sent out to students and community members.

Rosh Hashana services were held in a large tent in shifts.

PHOTO GRAPHS

For a full gallery of pictures of these events and others, please visit: www.JewishBU.com/photos

Amid a global pandemic students found solace and strength in community and tradition.

For Sukkot, four shifts were hosted for each meal in Chabad's Covid-friendly designed Sukkah.

And the annual Rock'n'Ribs was a blast, as usual!

Yom Kippur services were held in the University West Gym and at Chabad, and a "break the fast to go" was distributed to hundreds.

DECEMBER 2020 | 11

PHOTO GRAPHS

Please note: Where students are pictured in close proximity to each other they are room/suite/housemates.

Fun. Fun: Fun!

Coming together to enjoy fun events was more important than ever!

GNO Sushi Rolling and Tye Dying

C HO P P ED !

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& More Fun!

PHOTO GRAPHS

For a full gallery of pictures of these events and others, please visit: www.JewishBU.com/photos

Jewpardy!

Apple Picking

Inter-Greek BBQ

DECEMBER 2020 | 13

PHOTO GRAPHS

Please note: Where students are pictured in close proximity to each other they are room/suite/housemates.

CHABAD Downtown

Yom Kippur Services Doing the Tefillin Wrap

Doing the Lulov Shake Torah N' Tsou

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Challah Baking

PHOTO GRAPHS

For a full gallery of pictures of these events and others please visit: www.JewishBU.com

EDUCATION In person, socially distanced, and virtually, a record number of students, alumni, friends, and local community members came together to study Torah.

• The Camren Vilinsky Supper with Study Beit Midrash • Sinai Scholars • JLearn • Pizza and Parasha • Thursday night Mishmar • Hilchot Nida • Rashi Sichot • JLI (the Jewish Learning Institute) and much more!

DECEMBER 2020 | 15

PHOTO GRAPHS

Please note: Where students are pictured in close proximity to each other they are room/suite/housemates.

Main Events The Camren Vilinsky Shul Dedication On Sunday, September 13 family and friends gathered to formally dedicate the newly renovated Camren Vilinsky Shul at Chabad. The moving program included greetings

by President Harvey Stenger, the shul Gabaim, fraternity brothers and Camren's parents who affixed the mezuzah on the door leading into the Shul. Camren was also posthumously awarded a special tribute from BU's SSD office. A special Seuda followed the program.

Mega Challah Bake

This annual tradition, gone virtual, united hundreds of students in Binghamton as well as alumni at home, and featured Social Media influencer "Busy in Brooklyn"!

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Standing Together, and For each Other

PHOTO GRAPHS

For a full gallery of pictures of these events and others please visit: www.JewishBU.com

Looking out for ourselves, for our own, and for others.

The Metropolis Deli guys and the Chabad Cafe Crew kept students happy with delicious eats offered take out.

Close to 200 students loaned Mezuzahs for their rooms and houses from Chabad's Mezuzah Bank

This year's Mitzvah Marathon, a program held annually in honor of those who fell on 9/11, featured a mega blood drive held in conjunction with the Red Cross at the Binghamton Arena.

Scores of care packages were sent out to students in quarantine due to exposure and to students who were isolated upon contracting the virus.

Even Family Weekend had to go virtual!

DECEMBER 2020 | 17

We Cannot Do Without Delight:

A personal reflection on Covid-19

By Yehoshua November

The first month of the pandemic seems like a lifetime ago. At dusk, one of those evenings mid-March, I walked down my suburban New Jersey street to deliver two bags of flour—one whole wheat, one white--to a couple in their sixties. Because of the lighting in the house, and the lack thereof outside at that hour, I could see right into their living room. They must have been playing music on their record player. He must have spontaneously taken her hand and lifted her into a dance. I left the bags inside the screen door and made the trip back home, a chilly breeze beginning to gust. How exhilarating and fresh, how beautiful to renew love in that way. And how beautiful it was to learn some mysticism and then pray alone, at my own pace, for a couple months—the home filled with words of prayer, my children beside me (or escaping up the stairs as I called after them to remain beside me).

One night, in April, I took a walk with my eldest daughter and son. Soon, we stood before a lake, moon and stars reflecting off the black waters. My son—who’d finally emerged from the Zoom cave of our guest room and agreed to join us—imitated the loud squawking of a fleet of ducks. Away from his laptop screen for the first time in a month, he appeared alive and free. His body housing a soul that now called out unimpeded, a mini resuscitation of the technologically dead.

And how renewed I felt when I finally returned to communal prayer under a neighbor’s oak tree. Was I really seeing, in the flesh, the faces of those I had prayed beside for almost a decade? Was this a taste of what it

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meant to stand with fellow Jews in the morning air at the base of Mount Sanai, to hear that booming Divine voice for the first time? A rabbi with a Bronx accent chanted the portion of the Red Heifer through his mask, offering precise instruction on an ancient procedure whose impact transcended reason. Just as we all attempted to resume the ordinary routines of our lives, uncertain of what would happen or what secret message G-d was encoding in the pandemic. The sound of the Torah reading rose over the white garage and potted plants.

I recalled that, at Sinai, G-d’s voice was called “Great” because it was not relegated to that moment in time, not confined to that desert geography, but would continue to flow through any voice that would ever read words of Torah--in any place, at any time. A lady bug landed on my knee.

In the other universe of hospitals, friends’ fathers and mothers were dying. We comforted the surviving loved ones framed by squares on screens too narrow to hold their disorientation, their sorrow. Death was always surreal, but now, its aftermath seen second hand, we could not be sure if we were dreaming.

Some, with shelves of holy books behind them, stared into webcams, citing dates and texts, trying to explain precisely what was happening. Emails came from the university outlining layoffs, my heart fluttering before I realized I had misread a few important words.

Was it fair to draw any theological conclusions about what all this meant, not having lost a loved one, no one in my family having contracted Covid (thank G-d)? Was

it selfish and small-minded that I relished the freedom from my commute, teaching poetry from my basement as my students mourned another kind of death—that of their college social lives? People all around the world were dying or struggling to scrape by. Those more fortunate empathized, but the world’s overarching sadness remained in the background, almost unreal.

Almost like the college logo backdrop shifting in and out of distortion whenever one of the deans moved his head during a cyber meeting.

Many secretly, or not so secretly, felt untethered from the less important things, reborn. Which reminded me of a Jack Gilbert poem about delight in the face of suffering: “….The poor women at the fountain are laughing together between the suffering they have known and the awfulness in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody in the village is very sick. There is laughter every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta, and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay.

If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction, we lessen the importance of their deprivation.

We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure, but not delight.”

ONMYMIND

My son—who’d finally emerged from the Zoom cave of our guest room and agreed to join us—imitated the loud squawking of a fleet of ducks. Away from his laptop screen for the first time in a month, he appeared alive and free. His body housing a soul that now called out unimpeded, a mini resuscitation of the technologically dead. ourselves to get caught in a thicket of despair, therefore, “lessen[s] the importance” of all those who have suffered or moved on to the next world. “We can do without pleasure,” Gilbert writes. Certainly, this is not a time for amusement parks, not a time to sport our Hawaiian shirts. However, to honor those who have suffered, “we must,” Gilbert warns, “risk delight.”

Delight. A sense of wonderment and newness, especially when encountered in the ordinary or familiar, in that which we have overlooked in our habituation.

In Hebrew—Ta’anug. A delight, the Jewish mystics say, felt most profoundly not in a departure from daily life, but a delight simply because. Joy in being oneself. Joy in being a Jew, come what may. We will not understand this chapter of misfortune—like all the other chapters of misfortune—until the one great day when all is explained. Until that point—and to hasten its arrival--we might pursue a form of Jewish delight, tuning in to the wonderment of daily life, revivifying our connection to our heritage, and—the counterintuitive secret to tasting the deepest delight—inconveniencing ourselves to help others with their struggles.

Explanations for suffering—or joy in its wake—make me feel uneasy. It’s true, however, that the majority of us remain quite blessed in obvious ways. Allowing

Yehoshua November '01 is the author of two poetry collections, God’s Optimism (a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry and winner of the MSR Poetry Book Award) and Two Worlds Exist (a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award and the Paterson Poetry Prize). His work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, The Sun, Virginia Quarterly Review and on National Public Radio. November teaches writing at Rutgers University and Touro College.

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A happy group doing the "Lulav Shake."