Our Mission
Meeting an ever growing demand for expanded Jewish programming, Chabad opened its Chabad Student Centre in time for the 2010-2011 school year.
Our mission is to reach out to every Jewish young adult and offer them a way to connect to their Jewish roots within a warm, welcoming, and stimulating environment. Our programs and services aim to challenge the mind, warm the heart, and touch the soul of each student who passes through our doors. Young adult life can be fraught with challenges, especially the challenge of peer pressure.
Chabad Student Centre is an incredible resource for these young adults who can find answers to questions and add depth to their lives. Holiday celebrations, Shabbat dinners, community service programs, guest lectures, and Jewish studies classes are some of the programs that will be offered through the Chabad Student Centre.
Off campus, Chabad hosts national Shabbat retreats with hundreds of students from dozens of colleges. Leadership training is highly valued by Chabad, and during the summertime hiatus, Chabad hosts a convention of campus representatives to strengthen leadership skills, share outreach strategies and prepare the next year's programming.
About Us
Rabbi Sruly & Esti Simon moved to Kingston to start up Chabad in Kingston in 2010. Previously they had lived with their 3 children, Chaya, Zali and Mimi, in Ottawa, where they worked in Adult Education and Programming for a local Chabad rabbi.
Sruly was born in Detroit, Michigan but was raised in a suburb of Albany, New York. Esti's beginning was a little more exciting having been born and raised in London, England. They met in Crown Heights, New York City where they lived for a couple of years before moving to Ottawa and then to Kingston, Ontario.
In 2010 Rabbi Sruly & Esti Simon moved to Kingston and opened the Chabad Student Centre of Kingston. Now, 9 years and 7 children later they have expanded and grown to serve the various needs of the Kingston community.
Sruly and Esti love being part of the Queen's University family, hosting Shabbat Dinners, Jewish holiday programs and services, study classes, challah bakes, social events and are a general home and support to hundreds of Queen's students.
