Students from Over 160 Universities Head to Crown Heights

It’s that time of year again. Pegisha is back, and Crown Heights is about to fill up.

This weekend, Chabad on Campus International is hosting the Pegisha, bringing Jewish college students to Crown Heights for one of the most anticipated weekends on the Chabad on Campus calendar. They are coming from over 160 universities across six countries.

In a sicha about Pegisha, delivered at a farbrengen connected to the program on Shabbos Parshas Bamidbar 5741, the Rebbe spoke about the weekend’s real purpose. He said the point of such an encounter is to bring together Jews of every kind and make them one. At the start there is a host and a guest. That holds for only a moment, because they quickly become one. He tied it to Shabbos itself, the day that draws unity out of a week of otherwise separate days.

In Crown Heights, this is not abstract. Organizers, on behalf of the many Shluchim and Shluchos attending, thank the Crown Heights community for stepping up again, right after a packed Tishrei, with its signature Ahavas Yisroel. Homes and hearts are opening. Shabbos tables are filling up with guests. Families are making room for students they have never met. The host-and-guest line the Rebbe spoke about is gone by the first meal.

Pegisha began in the winter of 5721 with one yeshiva student, Dr. Yaakov Hanoka, and a simple idea. Rabbi Hodakov asked him to arrange something for students over winter break. Hanoka figured a full vacation was too much to ask, so he proposed a weekend instead. They needed a name, and since “encounter” was the popular word of the era, they called it “An Encounter with Chabad,” which became “Pegisha” in Hebrew. The budget for the whole thing was $25 for flyers, and seventeen students showed up. That first small weekend has since become one of the most iconic programs in Chabad.  (A Chassidisher Derher, “Shlichus on Campus”)

From seventeen students, the encounter keeps growing. And this week, carried by its signature Hachnasas Orchim, Crown Heights hosts it again.