The Farash Foundation establishes challenge to support the Greenbaum Center for Jewish Life at the University of Rochester

The Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation recently established a $500,000 challenge to support the construction of the Greenbaum Center for Jewish Life on the University of Rochester’s River Campus. The Farash Challenge is designed to encourage other donors to join in helping to build the center, which will be the new home for Hillel at the University of Rochester and a resource for all students and the broader Rochester Jewish community.

“We are grateful to the Farash Foundation for this inspiring and significant gift,” says Sarah C. Mangelsdorf, president and G. Robert Witmer, Jr. University Professor. “The Greenbaum Center will have a transformational impact on Hillel’s ability to best serve Jewish students, staff, and faculty, and it will offer expansive programming and services for the Jewish community on campus and in the surrounding area.”

“Establishing this challenge is a way for us to support Jewish life at the University of Rochester, which plays such a vital role in the greater Rochester community,” says Jennie Schaff, chief executive officer, Farash Foundation. “It is also a way for us—and the collective Jewish community—to enrich the experiences of many Jewish students and others who study and work on campus or who visit there.”

Currently, Hillel at the University of Rochester—an organization that serves as a catalyst for vibrant, inclusive, pluralistic Jewish life on campus—is housed within the University’s Interfaith Chapel. Built in 1970, the chapel was designed to welcome people of all spiritual traditions. Today, that space is too small for all it serves. The planned construction of the Greenbaum Center will help address this, providing Hillel more space to grow and flourish. Another building—the Catholic Center—is also being planned to serve as a new home for the Catholic Newman community.

Named for its generous lead benefactors, David Greenbaum ’73 and his, wife, Laureine, of New York City, the center will house a lounge, multipurpose program space, two state-of-the-art kosher kitchens, a conference room, staff offices, and a Beit Midrash study and prayer space. Construction is slated to begin in 2023, pending funding.

“Thanks to the vision of the Greenbaums, the Farash Foundation, and other donors, the Greenbaum Center will create a much-needed space for our Jewish students to celebrate, learn, and socialize,” says Joy Getnick, executive director of Hillel at the University of Rochester. “The center is being intentionally designed to maximize flexible use, which will help us best meet students’ needs today and long into the future. ”

Jewish life on campus