Welcome to Chabad @ USC ‘s Second Annual Gala Benefit. We are so happy to have you all here with us for this special occasion, celebrating Jewish life at USC.

College campuses today are so often the scene of negative Jewish experiences: Anti-Israel or anti-Semitic sentiment, assimilation pressures, and so on. It is so important to have strong and vibrant Jewish communities and voices on campus, to help provide Jewish students with a community and a home.

On that note, Dov and I would like to specifically welcome our colleagues here with us tonight who provide the Chabad on Campus experience at other local schools: The Loschaks at UCSB, the Brooks at Cal State Northridge, the Gurevitches at UCLA, and the Levitanskys at SMC. Each of you inspire us in so many ways… each of you represent a true example of a Shliach of the Rebbe.

We’d also like to welcome and thank our partners in Jewish life here at USC, Lisa Ansell from the Casden Institute, Michael Jeser from USC Hillel, the brothers of AEPi and SAM, and each and every one of you.

Take a look around the room. You see around you proud Jewish Trojans – students, parents, and alumni who are deeply engaged in the USC community, without in any way compromising their Jewish identity. That wasn’t always so common, and we’re here tonight to celebrate how strong this community now is.

Take a look at the centerpiece on the table. There are two pieces of Judaica. A beautiful Passover Matzah plate, and a charity box / Purim gift holder. The two holidays, one just past and one quickly approaching. (I know! We’ll be serving some 1300 home-cooked meals during the holiday!)

Matzah is the simple bread of poverty. But it is also the bread of faith. It might not have all of the rich taste and texture of the proud Challah bread, but it speaks to something intrinsic and core about who we are, to a deep reservoir of faith that keeps us alive.

Chabad @ USC sometimes feels like the Matzah. We don’t have the extensive staff, the spacious buildings, or the super-connected boards of directors. We have but the simple faith of the Matzah, the knowledge that Judaism … vibrant and real… is essential for our youth and our generations to come. And somehow that perseveres.

Of course, to paraphrase King Solomon, “not on Matzah alone can an organization live”. Thus the Tzedakah box, symbolizing the generosity of our partners and supporters that allows us to continue to be a Jewish home away from home for every Jewish student.

It’s that combination of Matzah and Tzedakah, of simple faith and generosity, that we are here to celebrate tonight.

Please take a moment, reach over and feel around the underside of your chair. Two people at each table should find a note attached, one reading Matzah, and the other Tzedakah. The person who finds the note under their chair gets to take that item home with them tonight. It is our gift to you, as a token of our appreciation.

As we look back at over a decade of activities here at USC, there are so many special memories and so many special people whose lives have interacted with our own.

I could never forget our very first meeting with students. On an earlier visit, somebody had brought Dov over to the AEPi house, the only Jewish fraternity at USC at the time. There he had met a couple of guys – one of them, Dan Frysh, is here tonight. Dan told Dov about a guy he absolutely had to meet – the president of AEPi at the time, named Daniel Jankovic. And so we arranged to meet him and a few interested others at Nagila Pizza on Pico Blvd.

We had just gotten off the plane, 3 month old Mushky in tow. Experiencing for the first time the joys of trying to find parking in LA, we were running late, and I jumped out to tell the guys we were still coming. So there I am, barely past a teenager myself, never having been on a university campus, looking for these unusual beings called “students.” Indeed, my first question to the guy standing there was “are you a student?”

And so it started. A couple of students, found seemingly by chance, with a couple “fresh off the boat” from Brooklyn, trying to start a Jewish organization at that bastion of Jewish life… USC.

Some random memories:

A couple of weeks later, one of our first activities was a Farbrengen held in the AEPi house. It was quite an experience – songs, l’chaims, discussions. Late in the evening, Daniel brought Dov and a couple of students up to the rooftop, deeply immersed in conversation and thought. And at one point, inexplicably, Daniel pointed down the block at an old, boarded-up, abandoned house.

“That used to be the AEPi house,” he said. “And one day, maybe we can make it the Chabad House…”

It took three and a half years, and a lot of miracles, but that house – fully renovated – is still the proud home of Chabad @ USC.

I remember when we first met Azriela. Also early on, maybe our second year. We had decided to try a program together with Chabad @ UCLA. We planned a series of “Yeshiva nights”, alternating between the two locations, bringing students together with local yeshiva students for discussion and learning. Only that one, held at UCLA, ever happened. By all measures, the program was a flop. Whether due to timing or publicity or whatever, only two students showed up. One of them was Carrie Farley.

But it’s interesting. Just because something feels like a flop, doesn’t mean it is. We never know what interaction is going to make a difference in someone’s life.

That particular meeting had an amazing postscript. Some months later, when one of our students asked the people with her at a Shabbat host if they wanted to come along after the meal to the Wagners from Chabad @ USC,  Azriela aka Carrie, recognized our name, and decided to come along. There, she happened to sit next to Daniel. The rest, of course, is history.

I’m proud to say that – while we don’t indulge in matchmaking much – they are one of about a dozen couples to have met at our home.

One more memory. Sitting at the Shabbat table, numerous times those first couple of years. With 2 or 3 students along with us. And always with Jank, with a big smile, somehow relating a thought on the week’s Torah portion to an analogy from Star Wars.

So it went. One person at a time, one interaction at a time. And so it continues.

It gives Dov and I great pleasure to introduce to you the recipients of this year’s alumni award: Daniel and Azriela Jankovic.