About
Chabad at Duke, serves Duke students’ Jewish needs with a diverse variety of programs and activities. Our most popular programs are Shabbat and Holiday meals, which average about 100 attendees each week. This past year, in our overly small event space, students were often forced to enjoy Shabbat dinner in the hall or on the porch. Amid a turbulent 2020, we’ve located an opportunity for expansion at 204 N Buchanan Blvd, former site of the luxurious four-star King’s Daughters Inn, just across the street from Duke’s East Campus. With Hashem’s blessings we closed on the property. The tasteful, genteel 1920s building represents a crucial improvement over Chabad’s previous space for several reasons:
› It is spacious enough to accommodate Chabad’s growing event attendance
› It boasts a commercial kitchen, which would enable us to provide for our large Shabbat and Holiday meals.
› It can be open and accessible to students 24/7
› It has space for classrooms, a library, and a lounge with WiFi, charging stations, and free coffee and snacks
› It has living spaces that can be designated as:
¬ Guest suites for visiting parents
¬ Rental units, providing for an income and enabling a second couple to join the Chabad at Duke staff to offer additional programming, supported entirely by the rental unit.
› Complementing our ongoing partnership with Durham’s Orthodox Shul, it has space for our beginner services
Vision
The Fleishman Jewish Student Center will serve as a warm, welcoming, inclusive home- away-from-home for every Jewish student, meeting all their spiritual and religious needs in a nonjudgmental environment. Shabbat and holidays will be inviting and homey. Fresh kosher food will be affordable and delicious. Torah classes will be meaningful and enjoyable. Counseling will be accessible and fruitful.
In inspiring each and every student to become a leader on campus, in the Jewish world, and in the world at large, and also to be a mensch, the Fleishman Center will live up to the legacy of its celebrated namesake, Joel Fleishman. For half a century, Joel has been a pioneer of Jewish life at Duke, in America, and indeed worldwide. He has also been a champion of philanthropy and altruism. But perhaps most notable to all those who have had the pleasure of knowing Joel is how he is truly and thoroughly a mensch—humble, genuine, cheerful, funny, and kind. For generations to come, Joel’s legacy will be remembered through a student center that lives up to its venerable name.