My relationship with Chabad of Binghamton began rather casually. Freshman year, absorbed in many new pursuits, I made time some Friday nights to tend to an old one: my Jewish identity. With the memory of Friday nights at home fresh in my mind, spending it with students was an altogether different experience for me. While I had spoken to Rabbi and Mrs. Slonim before, I did not think that either of them really could keep track of me with hundreds of other people in the room. Two years later, I was surprised and delighted that they remembered me when it came time to plan a food drive that would culminate in building a huge menorah out of cans of food. I realized that I could bridge the two sides of my life here at Binghamton by using my role as a community service chair in my sorority Sigma Delta Tau to work with Chabad for the greater Jewish community. Since that event, I was lucky enough to do an internship with Chabad last semester, where I learned so much.
My internship responsibilities ranged from mailings to data entry to peeling endless potatoes, but the tasks at hand were not important in and of themselves, but rather for the end they were for: a mitzvah.
Through this experience I learned an invaluable lesson: To help your fellow man, to rekindle someone’s spirit and give them a sense of belonging and strength is worth any type of work. I learned countless other lessons through this semester as well, all leading back to the importance of mitzvot. To have Chabad working so hard for the good of this campus makes Binghamton University truly blessed. Oh and did I mention I also got married with Chabad last semester? ;)