New Chabad Jewish Center cuts the ribbon at UCF

When Rabbi Chaim Boruch and Rivkie Lipskier opened a new $6.5 million, 14,000-square-feet building recently to serve the 7,000 Jewish students at the University of Central Florida, one of the largest Jewish student populations on any campus in the world outside Israel, the ribbon-cutting ceremony in East Orlando drew 350 to 450 students, faculty, and administrators, city representatives and alumni from as far as Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York.

The Lipskiers used to accommodate 100 to 200 students for Shabbat and other celebrations at their home five miles from UCF in Orlando. The crowds were packed into five rooms and, during Covid, spilled outside under a neighbor's tiki hut. The lack of space in their 3,000-square feet home justified building a new Chabad Jewish center close to campus and big enough to serve the school's substantial Jewish population.

No student could be happier with the new Chabad Jewish Center of the University of Central Florida than health sciences sophomore Rebecca Zilberman.

"It gives us a nice place to go when we're stressed out for finals and to get a home-cooked meal," said Zilberman, who is Shabbat chair for UCF Chabad. "I grew up with it. I think they provide a very nice space and welcoming space."

Zilberman, who is from Lake Worth, Fla., added, "I love the friendly and welcoming atmosphere that has my friends and I coming back week after week. At Chabad, I feel like I'm with family."

The center was built to serve 7,000 Jewish students, which is an estimated 10 percent of the student body, said Rabbi Lipskier. In 2022, there were 1,800 unique visitors to Chabad.

There is a synagogue, social and dining hall, library, offices, student lounge, guest suites, a mikvah and the rabbi's residence. "We want to keep the family vibe. We want to make students feel that they are coming to our home."

The social hall is sponsored by the Ginsburg Family Foundation. Moshe and Lillian Tabacinic, for whom the Chabad campus is named, are also among the top financial supporters of the new center. Other major donors are Terri Fine and Paul Stenzler, contributors to the library, and Brian Hammontree, the non-Jewish neighbor with the tiki hut, gifted the student lounge for $154,000. "He fell in love with what we do."

Over $4 million has been raised so far, Rabbi Lipskier said. The two largest donors gave close to $1.5 million.

"This is one of the most exciting charity projects that we have been involved in and that has given the most joy to our family," Lillian and Moshe Tabacinic of Orlando said in a joint statement. They added that it was "rewarding and easy to support such a project that was led by people as devoted and committed as the Lipskiers."

The new building evoked special memories for alumna Cassidy Singer, a 26-year-old traveling nurse recruiter in Orlando, who made a significant gift. "During my college years, Chabad served as a beacon of warmth and support, offering not only nourishing meals during financially challenging times but also invaluable life lessons.

"The Chabad community's unwavering hospitality and guidance created an environment that extended beyond religious boundaries, embracing me with open arms," Singer said.

Terri Susan Fine, a professor of political science and founding faculty advisor for Chabad at UCF, said, "It's a very important and tangible representation of student empowerment and Jewish pride. It's an important symbol for Jewish students at the university."

Fine praised the building for having areas of worship, socializing, studying, eating and other ritual experiences.

The Jewish center offers a ballroom that can host up to 500 students with a kosher commercial kitchen.

Lipskier said that Chabad has had a presence on campus for 18 years. Since the 8-year mark, "it has been a dream to have a proper facility. We were running it out of our home for many years. We were squeezing people in four or five rooms. Once you sat down you couldn't get back up," he said.

"Sometimes as many as 20 shomer Shabbat students stayed overnight, often taking the children's beds. Others would walk four miles to be here."

In 2015, the opportunity arose to buy a two-acre property on North Alafaya Trail across the street from the campus. "It was a little bit of a stretch, we had to borrow money and we secured the land that year," Lipskier said. "A special thank you to Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky for his vision and encouragement helping make this vision a reality."

Chabad broke ground on the building in August 2021.

"This is a building that I would never think was a synagogue or a student center. It's not a typical design," Lipskier said. "It was built to the highest environmental standards. It's really something appealing to the eye."

Fraternal Pride in Accomplishment

In addition to the Lipskiers' proud parents, the ceremony also drew four other very special family guests, the rabbi's four brothers, each a campus rabbi in the Southeastern United States.

For almost 25 years, ever since Rabbi Zalman and Miriam Lipskier established Chabad at Emory University in 2000, the Lipskier brothers have been sources of inspiration, support, and advice for each other in dealing with the myriad opportunities and challenges that arise for the Chabad campus leaders at more than 850 colleges and universities around the world.

Following in the footsteps of their older brothers, three younger Lipskier brothers are today serving as rabbis at Chabad on Campus centers in the Southeast. Rabbi Kussi and Rosie Lipskier have been serving at the University of Alabama since 2015; Rabbi Leibel and Mushka Lipskier joined Chabad at Tulane in 2015 to work with undergrads; and Rabbi Shmuly and Mushka Lipskier joined Chabad at U of Miami in 2019 to work with undergraduates.

One thing all the brothers have in common this month is the pride they have in their brother and sister-in-law and how much their influence grows each year at UCF.

Chaim Boruch Lipskier sees the Center as a safe haven for Jewish life and learning for the students in the Orlando area. "We believe every person, regardless of observance or affiliation, should have a place where they feel comfortable to grow physically and spiritually."

Reprinted with permission from Chabad.org.