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This school year has been an exciting one for the Jewish community at UCLA and particularly for the JLI community. The opening of the new Yitzchak Rabin Hillel Center for Jewish Life presents JLI with opportunities for growth that did not previously exist; a centralized location for shiurim and chevrutot, a beit midrash and Jewish library. This is so important on a campus that houses 4000 Jewish students.
The shlichim organize and host Shabbatonim and classes focusing on Shabbat, the Jewish calendar, and Israel as a means of strenghthening the emergent Orthodox community at UCLA. Friday night and Shabbat morning services at the Hillel center attract Jews from all denominations on the UCLA campus. The building contains a kosher kitchen and a meal plan, allowing a greater degree of cohesion between Jews on campus.
JLI has also established a daily Shacharit Minyan on campus, something which never existed at UCLA previously. Minyan is followed by a dvar halachah on matters pertinent to tefilla, light refreshments, and a shiur in Mishna. The rabbi also delivers the weekly law school Talmud class, a venerable institution of Jewish life at UCLA, and the Goldsteins hold a popular Thursday night parasha class at their apartment.
A number of students have become so enthusiastic about enhancing student life that they joined JLI for a week in New York City during spring break, for an intense program of Torah learning and student dialogue.
Educators speak: "Drastic changes have taken place in UCLA's JLI community...We have added various dimensions to our program, including daily and Shabbat Minyanim and a Beit Midrash. These two feats are unprecedented at UCLA and their success testifies to the fact that our new community is becoming well established and thriving."
Rabbi Uri and Julie Goldstein, JLI UCLA 2001-2004