USC Chabad ushers in new era as hub of Trojan Jewish life

At Sunday’s joyous ceremony celebrating the $10 million expansion of the USC Chabad Jewish Student Center, Rabbi Dov Wagner shared his hope for the now 12,000-square-foot center: “May this building be filled with Torah, with mitzvahs, with laughter, with friendship, with Jewish pride, with thousands of Jewish students who discovered that they have a home here.”

Wagner, co-director of USC Chabad with his wife, Runya Wagner, told a crowd of more than 300 university leaders, donors, families, friends, alumni, parents, students and community members that he was thinking of current and future Trojans whose lives will be enhanced by their time spent here.

“A student will walk in here … and have their first Shabbat dinner,” the rabbi said. “Someone will meet their future spouse here. Someone will discover Torah here. Someone will decide that Judaism isn’t something their grandparents did; it’s theirs to own.”

The expanded and renovated house is the site of weekly Shabbat dinners, holiday programs, educational and leadership initiatives, student gatherings and countless opportunities for informal connections. The facility, on Severance Street a few blocks north of the USC University Park Campus, includes a library, a large dining room, residence rooms for students, classrooms, gathering spaces and a new rooftop kosher restaurant.

USC Chabad: A welcoming place for Jewish life

USC President Beong-Soo Kim expressed gratitude to the Wagners for their decades of change-making work.

“Thank you for your leadership,” he said to the couple. “Thank you for your moral clarity. Thank you for your wisdom and advice, and thank you for your friendship. USC is not the same place it was because of everything that you have given to it.”

Kim also shared how he feels each time he visits USC Chabad for Shabbat dinner and fellowship with students.

“I come away every single time with a renewed sense of joy and optimism,” he said. “I get that sense from the students I interact with who are so engaged in the real world, who are so wise, who are so optimistic and who are so eager to make a positive impact.”

Other speakers at the ceremony included USC Board of Trustees Chair Suzanne Nora Johnson, USC Dean of Religious Life Varun Soni, USC alumnus Paul Cohen and several current USC students.

Soni described USC Chabad as “a home away from home” for students and “a sacred place where sacred work is done.”

“USC has gone from a university that wasn’t on the radar of most Jewish students to a university that is now a destination for Jewish students from around the world,” Soni said. “That’s mostly because of Dov and Runya, who have worked harder and longer than anyone in USC’s history to support and embody Jewish life here on campus.”

Nora Johnson described the Wagners as “a model for everyone in the Trojan Family” who have over the last 26 years displayed “nothing but acts of love, acts of belief and acts of generosity.”

A place filled with Jewish joy: USC Chabad

The Wagners came to USC in 2000 with the mission of creating a place for Jewish students. Initially, they struggled to fill a single table for Friday night Shabbat dinner.

“We believed that if we created a place that was warm, welcoming and filled with Jewish joy, the students would come,” Runya Wagner said during her remarks. “Suddenly, we had the opposite problem from the one we started with: We didn’t have enough room.”

She recounted how a $1 million project that was to be a 1,000-square-foot addition eventually grew to become a $10 million project and 12,000 square feet.

It was a 15-year journey of construction, inconvenience, uncertainty and setbacks involving two architects, three engineers, three contractors and countless hours of planning, oversight, direction and redirection.

“Sometimes, when you dream big, the dream has other plans,” Runya Wagner said. “Through all of it, the community kept going, the students kept coming. The dream kept growing.”

USC Chabad makes it easier to keep kosher at USC

The expansion includes a commercial kitchen and the restaurant The Rooftop, which serves kosher offerings that include a schnitzel sandwich, grilled salmon, a flame-grilled beef burger, and falafel or shawarma in a pita.

USC Hospitality has teamed up with USC Chabad for a one-year pilot program that allows any Trojan with a campus meal plan to use their meal swipes at USC Chabad the same way they would at a dining hall.

“It is an extension of an ongoing commitment to provide kosher meals to our students who keep kosher,” said Dirk De Jong, assistant vice president of USC Hospitality and the USC Hotel. “It’s a nice opportunity to partner with USC Chabad as they are building out.”

Students and alumni appreciate connection

Senior Noah Razak of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences was among the student speakers, describing USC Chabad as “a home where Jewish students can walk through the door and know that they belong.”

“It gives Jewish students a place to connect over our shared Judaism, while giving us also the opportunity to learn more about it ourselves,” he said. “I know that the people sitting next to me, regardless of how different we may be or whether we even met before, share at least one thing in common: the desire to connect more with the Jewish community.”

Many first-year students also attended the grand opening celebration. Several said they have been to events hosted at the USC Chabad Center and already feel a connection that has helped them acclimate to university life.

“I’m going to come to every Shabbat,” said USC Marshall School of Business first-year JJ Harel, who is a member of the university track and field team.

Jennifer E. Cohen, who met her husband at USC, was among the Trojan alumni in attendance on Sunday. Three of the couple’s five children attended USC. They also attended events at USC Chabad, where Cohen’s daughter met her husband.

“You want to make sure that all kids have a place to join and feel a sense of belonging,” Cohen said at the event. “Pretty soon they bring their friends of all faiths here. It connects them in a very meaningful way.”