Tishrei at JLIC Binghamton: 400 Students on Yom Kippur

On Yom Kippur, 400 students davened with JLIC Binghamton, from Kol Nidrei until Neilah.

Rav Jared and Sarit Anstandig, JLIC’s directors at Binghamton, packed the chagim with tefillah and Torah learning. Along the way, students stepped up to make each holiday meaningful.

Yom Kippur

On Yom Kippur night, students led chaburot where their peers could reflect and learn. After the fast, everyone headed to a bagel break fast from Hillel to end the day as a community.

Over 100 students at the Anstandigs’ table

Over Sukkot, the Anstandigs hosted more than 100 students for Yom Tov meals, where students got to meet each other.

Between meals, the Torah learning kept going: the Weekly Women’s Shiur, Mishmar, Dip into Torah, and The Great Debate, which pitted the sukkah against the lulav.

Soup in the sukkah

Cold weather didn’t stop JLIC’s annual Soup Festival. The decorated JLIC sukkah filled up with students and pots of French onion, mushroom barley, and winter squash soup.

Three hours of dancing

For Simchat Torah, JLIC teamed up with the other Jewish organizations on campus, and Binghamton’s Jewish community danced and sang for more than three hours.

Thursday nights and one-on-ones

Every Thursday evening, JLIC hosts Mishmar. Chevrutot learn over good food, and then one student gives a chabura to the room.

Any student can also book one-on-one time with Rav Jared or Sarit. There’s no set curriculum, so the student sets the agenda. Those conversations give students a relationship with religious role models on campus, and the support that comes with it.