Rabbi Daniel Rabin, his wife Sarah Rabin and their children … new career challenge.

NAOMI LEVIN

NEW Chabad Campus director Rabbi Daniel Rabin knows the difference a rabbi can make to a university student — he heard about it from his father.

Rabbi Rabin’s father was a medical student in South Africa when he encountered a Chabad rabbi at university. He had come from a traditional Jewish home, but Rabbi Rabin said the encounter had sparked a new desire in his father.

“By the time I was born, my father had become religious,” he said.

South African-born and educated, Rabbi Rabin had hoped to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a doctor too. But a year at a yeshivah after school saw him reconsider his career choices, and a few years later he earned his smichah in Pretoria.
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Merkos on Campus Rabbi Yankel Rapp with La Trobe Vice Chancellor Prof Paul Johnson.

By Naomi Levin

LA TROBE University has pledged to make the university campus a more welcoming place for Jewish students following a series of incidents on its campus.

Prof Johnson, student services director Michael Torney and equity and student support services director Gary Thomas met with Rabbi Yankel Rapp from Merkos on Campus on Monday, June 29.

Rabbi Rapp shared his concerns with the university leaders about aggressive anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment on campus. He said the behaviour of some students demonstrated intolerance and a lack of respect towards their Jewish peers.

The rabbi said Prof Johnson believed students learnt more effectively when they were in a happy and positive environment, and incidents where students burst into lecture halls denouncing the Israeli government and its defence forces were unacceptable.

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