While we didn’t plan any formal alumni reunions this Winter 2025-26, we did get to meet up with and celebrate with alumni, and some of it in quite unexpected ways!
CAR-TROUBLE
This alumnus only spent one year with us at UAlbany. It was that first year after the Covid shutdown and it wasn’t an easy year. He transferred back to a community college near home. And finally went back to a different SUNY school to finish his degree and is now in his senior year. His car broke down up by the Canadian border so he came back up with his father to pick it up after the repair, and they spent a Cozy Shabbat with us.
Wow – you see someone in their freshman year, in Covid-setting, and then a few years later see them again. Both personally and religiously, this student blossomed tremendously, and it was a great pleasure and joy to see! He went on a Jewish-U trip with his new Chabad on Campus, got his own pair of Tefillin, got more involved and became an officer of their Jewish student group. And academically and personally, so much development and positive growth! Beautiful to see…
DATING UPDATE
We knew someone in college here, and just touched base again after some time that we were out of touch. Turns out he is dating a Jewish girl, an alum of a different college, but she attended one of the regional Shabbaton/Pegishas that we hosted here for Chabad on Campus! The interconnectedness many years later was a surprising twist!
Speaking of dating: We had another alumni couple visit for a different Cozy-Shabbos this Winter Break. Turns out their social circles and mutual friends overlapped quite a bit in NYC, and there were many opportunities for them to meet long before they did. But they both felt that had they met earlier they might not have clicked and connected the way they did later on, so the timing was just right.
TWO ALUMNI ENGAGEMENTS
We attended two alumni engagement parties this winter, (may there be many more Simchas!) one in Monsey, the other in Crown Heights.
The Monsey engagement worked out to be the last leg of our 1o-day road-trip to and from Florida. It was our last stop before getting home! At that engagement party Mendel met old Albany connections (now many years in Monsey) who knew his father and his grandfather Zeide Moshe, from the 1970’s and 1980’s in Albany. One man helped shlep the bunkbed Mendel and his brother slept in (and is still in their childhood home!) and his own children attended more than one of the Chabad on Campus Pegishas we hosted in Albany. The other gifted Mendel the Kiddush cup we use to make Kiddush every Shabbos. And Mendel remembers the specific Maamar that Rabbi Israel Rubin learned with this man before his marriage. So many pleasant surprises at this engagement party!
The Crown Heights engagement party was on the first Saturday Night of the Spring ’26 semester – the very cold weekend before the big snowstorm. We got Pizza started, left the rest with the kids and drove down to be there. This alumna marrying a Chabad guy was not at all on our Bingo card. But then again, this Chabad fiance of hers also had a life journey before ending up in Crown Heights. BH they are so happy together! It was really special to be there, to facilitate the “Kinyan”, break the plate with the mother, connect with this soon-to-be couple on a totally different level. We happened to meet an alumna from 1992 (before our time) at this engagement party, she’s from same hometown as the bride, and she follows us all the time on social-media. Who knew? One more blast from the past: For 7 summers starting in 1996 we staffed the ILTSP/now MyJSF study program in the Catskills. At this L’chaim we met a Chabad son of one of the students we had that first summer in 1996… On our way home we stopped for a quick prayer at the Rebbe’s Ohel – and then we drove back that night to beat the storm.
AN UNEXPECTED BABY NAME
On Wednesday, the first day of classes we traveled down to NJ to attend the morning Bris of a newborn son to two beloved UAlbany alumni. When the parents got up to share about the choice of the baby’s name, they described a family member he is named for but it got more emotional when explaining the other part of the baby’s name – for the Bibas kids. This family also has fiery redheads, they’re also into superheroes, and thousands of miles away – the story hit home. And this baby carries that name. It was unexpected and emotional for all present. It was a beautiful testament to our slogan: Every Jew is family.