A palpable energy filled the streets of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, as nearly 2,000 participants converged for Chabad on Campus International’s annual Pegisha Shabbaton weekend. From Thursday through Sunday, they came from 160 universities across six countries.
“Jewish students spend much of the year as a minority on their campuses,” said Rabbi Yossy Gordon, CEO of Chabad on Campus International. “For one extraordinary weekend, they experience the joy of being unapologetically and proudly Jewish...”
After a beautiful candle lighting and Kabbalat Shabbat, participants were welcomed into the homes of hundreds of Crown Heights families for Friday night dinner. In addition to programming available at the Pegisha venues after the meal, farbrengens moved into the intimate setting of homes across the neighborhood, where students shared open conversations into the night.
Across Shabbat, participants chose from dozens of session including: Columbia University math professor Rochy Kamman on living as a proud religious Jew, Boston University’s Dr. Binyomin Abrams on where science and Torah meet, author Doron Kornbluth on why to marry Jewish, along with a faculty of scholars and educators.
As one participant wrote: “Pegisha was the most amazing experience of my life, and the most amazing Jewish event I have ever experienced.”
adapted from COLlive