Tulane ‘Shabbat 1000’ biggest to date

By JOSH AXELROD, Special to the CCJN

At Tulane University, a school where 27 percent of the student body is comprised of Jews, Shabbat, is no minor matter. Yet, despite the hundreds of students who show up to weekly dinners, Rabbi Leibel Lipskier, the undergraduate director of the Rohr Chabad Student Center decided to raise the bar.

Sorority sisters display “It’s Lit” T-shirts for the Shabbat 1000 event. (Photo by Rebecca Fenn)

For the ninth year in a row, Shabbat 1000, an annual Chabad-sponsored event, was held at 5 p.m. last Friday. This year over 1100 students were present on the Newcomb Quadrangle, establishing a new attendance record.

“Our motto is that there is always space for you at our Shabbos table,” Lipskier said. “Shabbat 1000 is the epitome of that.”

Preparations were also the biggest to date. Most of the food was prepared by students, including a Chabad student group, the Pi Beta Phi, Sigma Delta Tau and Alpha Epsilon Phi sororities as well as the Zeta Beta Tau and Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternities.

Chabad served a four-course meal starting with Caesar and Asian cabbage salad, matzah ball soup and challah with hummus and baba ghanoush. The main course was barbeque chicken, followed by cakes and pastries for dessert.

Sophomore Gabi Schwartz, a Sigma Delta Tau member, helped prepare for the event and thoroughly enjoyed it. “I thought it was an amazing event and I was so happy to be a part of it,” Schwartz said. “I thought it was awesome how so many Jewish students came together to celebrate Shabbat and just created a really great atmosphere and it was just cool to see how the whole thing came together.”

Rabbi Liebel Lipskier, second form left, with student participants. (Photo by Rebecca Fenn)

Senior Brittany Gerstein took on a leadership role within the Chabad student board, heading up registration. She recruited over 100 table heads who in turn invited 10-12 of their friends. Over 90 percent of students were Jewish, but many non-Jews were also in attendance.

Freshman Jacob Morris is not Jewish, and Shabbat 1000 was a novel experience for him. He found it exciting to learn about the culture and felt welcomed. “It was cool to be at such a large scale event,” Morris said. “The sense of community was as strong as the matzah ball soup was delicious.”

Lipskier, a former New Yorker who has been at the center since 2015, was pleased with the student turnout, encouraged that students enjoyed a wonderful evening of community and ritual.

“The feedback that has been coming after Shabbat 1000 is just mind-blowing,” Lipskier said. “People have been excited about it even after it was over for days.”

In the upcoming weeks Chabad will continue to host weekly Shabbat dinners, and will also have unique celebrations for Purim and Passover, two significant Jewish holidays in the spring.