Students and staff watched history in the making with the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Rowan University Chabad Center, Rowan’s first Jewish Life Center on campus.
On Monday, Sept. 29, Rabbi Hersh Loschak, one of the co-directors of Rowan Chabad, started the ceremony with a prayer. Immediately after, a series of speeches commenced from Glassboro’s mayor, John E. Wallace, U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross, state Sen. John J. Burzichelli, and Rowan University’s president, Ali A. Houshmand, among others.
The Chabad Center will be named the Middleman Chabad Center after Stanley Middleman, the founder and CEO of Freedom Mortgage, in recognition of his $1 million donation to the project.
“I believe in supporting the students, and I think that Chabad does a really nice job of helping young adults make that transition from living at home with their parents to being at school. It gives them a little reminder of home, makes that transition a little easier, and if they’re so inclined, it gives them a place where they can be among peers,” said Middleman.
Middleman, who has been featured in publications such as Forbes Voices and the Philadelphia Business Journal, is set to make an appearance at the William G. Rohrer College of Business in December.
This 21,000-square-foot building will allow students to relax and study in the social hall. Also included in the Chabad Center will be eight two-bedroom student apartments as well as a completely kosher dining hall.
Alexa Lang, a 21-year-old senior studying elementary education who also serves as president of Rowan’s Chabad Club, provided a glimpse into Jewish life on campus.
“The only kosher options on campus right now are in Holly. They’re prepackaged kosher meals,” said Lang.
“Chabad” is a movement that is meant to spread Jewish awareness and education, with the word “Chabad” being a Hebrew acronym that combines the first few letters from the following words: Chochmah, which means wisdom, Binah, which means understanding, and Daas, which means knowledge.
“I enjoyed the speeches, I enjoyed the music. I’m not Jewish, but my friend Ruby is. I’ve been to one bat mitzvah and one bar mitzvah, I think it really helps to bring the community into perspective,” said Gray Gollihur, an 18-year-old freshman majoring in biomedical art and visualization.
Gollihur attended the event with her friend Ruby Gross, an 18-year-old education major.
“It’s fun. It was nice seeing everyone come together for this one goal of having an actual Chabad house. It’s nice to see everyone united around that, and it’s nice to see the Jewish community here expanding more and more,” said Gross.
With construction beginning this month, Rowan’s Chabad Center is set to be completed and open sometime in the Spring of 2027.
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