Rabbi Eitan and Gitty Webb arrived at Princeton University to launch the Scharf Family Chabad House 22 years ago, providing ”a home away from home” for Jewish students. The house on Edwards Place, adjacent to the campus, has provided Shabbat meals, holiday celebrations, classes and a taste of Jewish life to students studying at the Ivy League institution.

It recently hosted a large contingent of IDF reservists who came for some much-needed respite and to connect with Jewish life in the United States. However, Chabad had outgrown its space and on the weekend of September 14-15 it celebrated the grand opening of its new $5 million expansion made possible by the purchase and renovation of the other side of the duplex in which it has been located.

“We couldn’t have opened at a better time,” said Rabbi Webb, who noted that in the last year in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and resulting pro-Palestinian protests, students have been coming to Chabad in unprecedented numbers.

“We’ve seen our numbers of students coming on a Friday night literally double from 100 to 200,” he said. “We’ve seen a crush of involvement. Instead of just coming on Friday we’re seeing them on Tuesday and Wednesday. The impact is completely constant. What’s lost in the narrative is that while it’s very easy to focus on the protesters, which is definitely a real problem, there are really smart, happy, joyous Jewish students at Princeton and probably at other schools.”

Rabbi Webb said the expansion has been in the works for a long time and the purchase of the entire building was made possible by the contributions of “many hundreds” of alumni. Now with 8,500 square feet instead of 2,800, there is room to accommodate 150 people for Shabbat instead of 25.

“We have spent 20 years outside in a tent,” he said. “Now we have a dining room and a beautiful commercial kitchen.” In addition to the eating facilities, the building now has a library and synagogue, making it “a real center.”

The grand opening was one of those joyous occasions and drew a crowd that included alumni and their families, some going back to the 1970s, said sophomore Eliana Bane, treasurer of Chabad’s student board.

“It was an incredible weekend,” said the Englewood resident. “It showed the dedication of alumni to Chabad and how much the Webbs have impacted so many people’s lives and so many on the Princeton campus.”

Bane said from the moment she stepped on campus as an operations, research and financial engineering major it immediately felt like a home away from home. “For me it has been a family on campus,” said the graduate of the Frisch School in Paramus. “They have always extended themselves and have opened their arms to me religiously and personally I have made some of my best friends on the Chabad board.”

Bane said she took an “incredible” trip to Israel last spring with Chabad, where students bonded.

While last year’s pro-Palestinian encampments were “emotionally and physically draining,” the Jewish community “has come together really cohesively in a way they have never done before.” She said all the campus Israel advocacy groups have banded together “to create an environment to make it possible to speak about October 7.”

Bane noted that as a result of that cohesiveness the play “Oct.7: In Their Own Words” was being presented Tuesday, September 24 at the Frist Campus Theatre. The event is sponsored by B’Artzeinu Princeton, the university’s “premier” Zionist advocacy organization, and is supported by several academic departments, according to Bane. The play presents verbatim stories of horror and heroics using only the words of those who experienced the attacks and dealt with the aftermath.

Chabad Student President Ellie Naider echoed Bane’s glowing assessment of Chabad as “an environment with the best people and best opportunities to practice and appreciate Judaism.” The senior public and international affairs major with a minor in environmental studies cited the weekly Shabbat dinners and community-building events such the mezuzah-making class. “I think the Chabad community is magnificent and a lot of that spirit is spearheaded by Rabbi and Gitty Webb. They are really the best.”

Naider recalled her freshman year spent in the old, cramped Chabad facilities and then two years in the basement while renovations were taking place. There she said the Webbs tried to make the space feel as welcoming as possible, hanging LED lights and putting up photos.

The new Chabad, however, represents “a real home as the community expands and becomes more vibrant.”

“This Jewish community really has become a home and safe haven,” observed Naider. “When I first came here I would say we got 50 to 75 students at a Shabbat dinner, and now we have surpassed, on multiple occasions, 200. What that means for the Jewish community is that there has been increased passion every single year. Students want to be at Chabad and be more involved.”

Debra Rubin has had a long career in journalism writing for secular weekly and daily newspapers and Jewish publications. She most recently served as Middlesex/Monmouth bureau chief for the New Jersey Jewish News. She also worked with the media at several nonprofits, including serving as assistant public relations director of HIAS and assistant director of media relations at Yeshiva University.