THE "HOME-AWAY-FROM-HOME" SETTLES IN THE MIDWEST

No longer basking in the palm-tree-dotted skies of sunny LA, Rabbi Shalom and Mrs. Suri Garfinkel are thrilled to be joining the JET team in Chicago. After spending three years at UCLA working with one of the premier outreach organizations in the country, they have landed in Chicago and are still a bit confused as to why it rains during the summer! While they leave behind the sunshine of Los Angeles, their mission to embrace every Jewish college student with warmth, care, and concern remains very much the same.

Rabbi Garfinkel, originally from northern California, and his wife Suri who grew up in Brooklyn have dedicated their lives to Jewish outreach. Rabbi Garfinkel grew up in a very nurturing Jewish family, went to Sunday School and High Holiday services, and lived a typical American Jewish life. "Achieving success at school was clearly the most important goal," he remembers, "being Jewish was important, but my friends and I never had a clear idea of what that meant besides a general notion of being nice to others." In high school, Rabbi Garfinkel traveled to Israel with his Confirmation Class and recalls, "I knew then that there was much more to learn about being Jewish." The pressures of high school resumed and only after his Freshman year at Stanford University on his second trip to Israel did he begin to explore Judaism seriously. "I then returned to my sophomore year at Stanford loving being Jewish and yet confronted with life on campus and in a non-Jewish fraternity." After his sophomore year, Rabbi Garfinkel took time off from Stanford to study in Israel for two years. "My parents thought I would never come home, and they were elated when I returned to finish my degree." Upon graduation, Rabbi Garfinkel returned to rabbinic school in Israel, studied for two years, met his lovely wife, Suri, and continued his rabbinic studies in Jerusalem for six more years before returning to do Jewish outreach on campus at UCLA.

Mrs. Suri Garfinkel grew up in a Torah observant household in Brooklyn, NY and studied advanced Jewish studies in Israel for two years after high school. In her third year, she was chosen to be a peer counselor in the women's college to help the new students in their stay in Israel. Upon marriage, Suri was hired by her women's college to teach and to be a faculty counselor. She gained invaluable experience relating to students' issues and emotional needs. "Going to do outreach on a college campus was not even on my radar screen when I first went to Israel," she recalls, "yet after seeing what an incredible difference a warm, loving Jewish home can make in the lives of Jewish students, I was hooked!" Mrs. Garfinkel balances work on campus with being a mother of her four beautiful daughters, Tehilla age 8, Rachelli age 6, Ariella age 4, and Adina age 2. "We feel very blessed that our children's love for Shabbos and being Jewish has made a deep impression on our students," Suri remarks, "many students don't have a warm and loving Jewish home so they become part of ours."

Suri learns and mentors Jewish college women making weekly "coffee-dates" and teaching them her famous challah recipe. "The guys complained that they were left out of the challah baking," she smiled, "so we started co-ed challah baking!"
The Garfinkels are looking forward to building upon the wonderful success of Rabbi and Mrs. Hilary Kahn, the founders of JET, in working with college students. Suri and the rabbi cook up a storm on Thursday nights to prepare for anywhere from ten to thirty-five guests each Shabbat evening and will host Shabbat meals and activities on the various campuses. The Garfinkels will continue to run the Maimonides Leaders Fellow program with the Kahns throughout the city. They will meet with students individually, organize social programming, and introduce students to the thriving Jewish communities of Chicago. "College students know that the rabbi and his family take being Jewish seriously," the rabbi muses, "but they just don't know that there are doctors, lawyers, and businesspeople who also do!" In addition to their activities in Chicago, the Garfinkels will be strongly focused on arranging highly-subsidized, exciting, and educational Jewish trips around the world to Israel, London, New York, Florida, and possibly even to South Africa for their students. From shades in winter to salting the driveway, the Garfinkels have found a very nice home with JET in Chicago! For more information about their programs or a sampling of Suri's challah, please email rabbishalomg@gmail.com.