For students at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, going to class has taken on multiple meanings. Since Rabbi Mendel and Henya Matusof moved to campus in 2005, it’s just as common to find Jewish students studying for their final exams as delving into a classical work of Jewish thought.
Every week, some 100 students flock to one of the Rohr Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Student Center’s classes, which range from Chasidic philosophy to weekly Torah insights to one-on-one in-depth study. As the Chabad House’s most popular offerings, learning opportunities fill the schedule, with at least one class offered every day of the week.
“I love learning one-on-one. Whatever we learn, he makes it applicable and interesting,” said Keith Lewis, a sophomore math and economics major. “When I learned [in greater detail] about the commandment to love a fellow Jew, for example, I saw how to put this into action with others by not focusing on their flaws. It was really helpful in my life.”
One of the most successful programs is the Sinai Scholars Society, which draws 45 students in two classes each semester. The class, which is jointly sponsored by the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute and Lubavitch of Wisconsin, focuses on the Ten Commandments and is reportedly larger at UW than at many other campuses in the country.
“I really got a lot out of Sinai Scholars and the other classes that I’ve taken at Chabad,” said Zach Pestine, a philosophy and communications junior from Chicago. “I like that they’re all very applicable to my life. Rabbi Mendel is very relatable and easy to talk to. For me, it has been great to see how many students get involved with things beyond the party scene on campus and become very inspired by classes.”
Learning opportunities have enabled students to change their approach to many real-life topics as well.
“My approach to these matters would have been very legal,” explained David Glickstein, a political science sophomore who took a Talmudic ethics class covering such subjects as euthanasia. “I never thought of them from a Jewish perspective before, and why certain things may be ethical or unethical.”
For Mendel Matusof, who grew up in Madison at the local Chabad House, returning to the town to focus on its students has been especially rewarding. Now that UW, which is 10 percent Jewish, has its own Chabad center for Jewish life, students flock to programs and events. Chabad’s Sabbath meals are the largest on campus, with up to 120 students every Friday night, and this year’s Passover Seder was the largest yet, with so many students – 320 to be exact – that the Matusofs had to rent a space to accommodate it. But in the end, it is the classes that have increased Chabad’s popularity on campus.
“I like how Rabbi Mendel presents a question, a seeming contradiction, and then delves into it until we realize at the end that everything makes sense, it all fits together, and there’s a profound unity in the Torah,” said Emily Irwin, a recent graduate who will go on to study at the Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. “The classes clear up a lot of misconceptions and have enabled me to become very introspective and reacquainted with my inner self. I’ve really gained a new perspective on my life; learning has been an incredible experience for me.”
For many students, the classes’ personal approaches make them so attractive.
“I never feel like I’m being lectured to, it’s always discussion focused and very intellectually stimulating,” said Ilana Bandos, a biology senior who learns with Henya Matusof. “I liked learning, for example, the Jewish view of abortion. It was very different from what I expected and I’ve gotten into debates with my friends since I first learned about it.”
And the learning can be very practical as well. Bandos is set to study abroad on a marine biology program in the Caribbean this fall, so the Matusofs have been helping her prepare to observe the High Holidays on her own in faraway Turks and Cacaos.
“Torah study is the heart and soul of Judaism,” said the rabbi. “It’s important for students to connect to Judaism on an intellectual level. I just learn lots of Torah with them and let the Judaism speak for itself.”
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