After more than a year of construction and renovation, the Rohr Chabad Center at the University of Chicago and Hyde Park officially reopened on November 9. The 8,000-square-foot expansion, built on the Center’s seldom-used backyard, features a new recreation room, an event center, a lounge, and a mikvah (ritual bath).

The building, originally built as a seminary residence in 1918, had previously struggled to accommodate large crowds.

“Beforehand, if we wanted to have a dinner, 40 students was the max we could fit in [the building] comfortably. Even that was a little tight,” Chabad Director Rabbi Yossi Brackman said in an interview. “Our new event space can easily seat 120 people around tables, [and the new] lower level rec room could be used as an event space that could fit another 100 students. So if we wanted to do two simultaneous dinners, [we could] easily do that.”

In the past, Chabad’s services for the High Holidays—Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur— had been held in rented University halls or nearby event spaces. Former Student Board President Eliana Mazin, a fourth-year, recalled Rosh Hashanah services being held at the Definition Theatre on East 55th Street and breaking Yom Kippur fast in Hutchinson Commons.

“All these really important major holidays, we had to outsource the location for, which is a hassle, because the food—if we’re not catering it—we have to make it in a kosher kitchen, which is usually the Chabad kitchen. And then you have to lug all that food for hundreds of people across campus to these venues,” Mazin said. “Now that we have this new space… our Jewish holidays can be held in our own space.”

The expanded footprint also allows for multiple events to be held at the same time. Chabad hosts two Passover Seders each year—for undergraduate and graduate students—and now both can run concurrently in the Center.

Third-year and current student board member Michael Bolgov said he has noticed a general rise in attendance at Chabad events following the November 9 reopening.

“There have been way more students coming, especially for Shabbat dinners, and more people staying late after Shabbat dinners, which is one of the things that we’d been discussing in board meetings during the expansion,” Bolgov said. “‘How do we keep the students engaged, not just for dinner, but how do we keep them in the building for longer?’”

The Center’s expansion also includes new amenities, such as a pool table, seltzer fridge, and Pac Man machine, which have already helped encourage more attendees to linger, Bolgov said.

Chabad held a group Krav Maga lesson in the new event space on November 16. “Previously, we had tried to do a similar thing, but we had to do it in [Henry Crown Field House] because there was no room at Chabad House,” Mazin said. “I never would have conceived of doing something like that my freshman year in Chabad, but now it’s possible.”

“There’s events that we have before that we’ll continue to hold, like Cha-bakes and women’s events like beading and painting. Those are just going to be easier now that we have more room to do it,” Mazin continued.

Large events will also no longer take up the entire Center as they did in the past.

“[If] we have a speaker tonight, that doesn’t mean that you can’t come to Chabad because there’s a speaker,” Brackman added. “No, you hang out downstairs, even if you don’t want to listen. That’s, I think, a big benefit.”

Bolgov encouraged Jewish students on campus to visit the revamped Chabad. “There’s always free coffee, free hot chocolates, free mochas and stuff, free seltzers, free snacks. You can do homework, there’s always Wi-Fi,” he said. “It’s quite nice to visit for Shabbat dinner. That’s a very low stakes way to get involved.”

Even lower stakes is visiting Chabad’s Café Shira, which serves coffee and bagels on Mondays and Thursdays, Bolgov said.

More than just bagels, Chabad operates as a place for Jewish students to find community and strength, Brackman said. “A lot of students, when they’ve experienced or observed, not necessarily on this campus, but in other places, discrimination against fellow Jews, they turn inward to find strength.”

“Chabad has always been a place where our students and our community can find strength and friends and in a very non-judgmental, very open way,” Brackman added.