Thank

By Julia Segal ’24

Your giving has provided me with multiple opportunities for personal growth and development. As someone who deals with social anxiety, being welcomed into a nonjudgmental space, where it feels that everyone can be who they are and can share important experiences freely has helped me immensely.

This has not only added to feeling comfortable in Jewish spaces, but has also led me to flourish in other aspects of my personal and academic life. For example, in feeling that an important part of my identity is embraced, I have been able to grow into a more confident and self-assured person.

When I started college in September of 2020, I did not have a specific vision of what my involvement in Jewish life would look like at Vassar. As I now reflect back on how involvement with Chabad has shaped my experience at Vassar in the past two and a half years, it is difficult to imagine how different my life here could have been without your support and the feeling of connection that Chabad and the Sanoff family engender.

Outside of creating this welcoming and inclusive space, Chabad has also been a repeated source of inspiration to look at Judaism and my own Jewish identity in new ways. Each time that I leave Shabbat dinner or a conversation in the Chabad house kitchen over meal preparation, I find myself asking new questions about Judaism or considering how I engage with the religion from a different angle. Having the space to be able to do this is something that many students on our campus have benefited greatly from.

In addition to providing these new avenues for connection to Judaism, Chabad has also created the space to return to my Jewish roots, and to significant Jewish experiences I had earlier in life. For example, helping to prepare

Shabbat dinners each week has become one of the most important aspects of my week.

Doing so reminds me of my formative Jewish experiences of preparing Shabbat meals with my family, and having the space to continue with this has been meaningful to me on a number of levels. Being involved in things that interest me in a way that feels meaningful has been a great source of personal achievement and of feeling more equipped to take on leadership roles in other areas of my academic life.

This also contributes to a sense of being able to define my relationship to Judaism in a way that makes sense for me, and that connects back to my specific interests. Feeling inspired and supported in this way can make all the difference in the otherwise unpredictable and stressful circumstances of college life, and this has undoubtedly been the case for me.

You and other donors have left an indelible mark on my life at Vassar and have had a profound impact on how I approach Jewish spaces, and how I choose to engage with my Jewish identity.