Chabad at the University of Maryland, Baltimore is a resource for Jewish students on campus looking to have a Jewish experience.
The Chabad chapter is slightly different than others due to the graduate student-age population that it serves.
Rabbi Yaakov Kaplan, the co-director of Chabad at UMB, said that his chapter provides mostly one-on-one meetings with graduate students due to their busy schedules, but it also has an annual Shabbat dinner with University of Baltimore law students.
Kaplan said that the chapter’s job is different from those on undergrad campuses because all the students have different schedules and living situations. They’re also at a stage in their lives where major life events are happening.
“I am on the front lines of Jewish continuity, because we come into these people’s lives when they’re starting, oftentimes, to meet people seriously and get into serious relationships,” Kaplan said. “It’s an opportunity to make sure that they marry somebody Jewish, that they understand what it means to build a Jewish home and are committed to building a Jewish home to continue the Jewish people.”
Kaplan said the goal is to be there for every Jewish student.
He said if a student needs a phone call, they’ll get it. If they want to come to the Kaplan home for dinner, they’re welcome.
“Our mission statement and our guiding light is Ahavat Yisrael. It’s the love of fellow Jews, and our focus is with the university students with young professionals in the area. And we want to do what we can for the Jewish people that are engaging with us,” Kaplan said. “I always love teaching. I’d love to share a mitzvah with another Jew. But if what they need is something else, then that’s what we’ll do.”
The Chabad chapter has also been dealing with the fallout from the Oct. 7 attacks and the ensuing rise of protests on college campuses.
Kaplan said that UMB has been dealing with the situation well, so there was little demonstration and other political action on campus.
But he added that there was a swell of emotion from Jewish students, and people had significant change in their personal lives from losing friends over the conflict. There was also a new focus on Jewish identity.
“I’ve had students that told me that there’s several classmates or friends that stopped talking to them, or said certain nasty things, so they stopped talking to them. There’s been a lot of questions and maybe a clarification of who their real friends are, which is tough,” Kaplan said. “All over, Jewish people’s identity is awakening after Oct. 7, where people felt that they had to do something to express their Judaism more than they had before, as a response almost to what happened.”
Kaplan said that, after Oct. 7, many students came through Chabad’s doors wearing the Magen David on a necklace or had bracelets with the phrase “Bring Them Home,” among other public shows of support for Israel.
Kaplan said the Jewish students at UMB made a bold statement to the anti-Israel crowd that they were going to be proud of their Jewish identities no matter what.
And the chapter also worked to promote events for Israel in the months following the attack and created a system where students would pick up a mitzvah they would carry out in honor of the hostages.
“People took up a mitzvah of lighting Shabbat candles. Some people took up a mitzvah of mezuzah. Each person did different things. Some people went to a little more prayer,” Kaplan said. “I want students to be able to feel that they connect with what it is that they’re doing to express their solidarity.”
For prospective students, Kaplan said the Chabad chapter is there for them as an extended family they can lean on for support away from home.
He added that incoming students are older than undergrads and have to make an effort if they want to be involved, but the door is always open for them.
“The Jewish people know they have a home wherever they go, wherever there is a Chabad, and wherever you are the Jewish people, you’re a home for one another,” Kaplan said.
