With the rich call of a ceremonial ram’s horn, Rabbi Chaim
Seidler-Feller proclaimed the new Yitzhak Rabin Hillel Center at
UCLA open for business.
“I hope that I can say that this building is a
gateway,” Seidler-Feller said before a gathering of 500
students and members of the community on Sunday afternoon.
“You enter this building to learn. You leave this building
with love. Let’s hope that the learning induces
love.”
The ceremony marked the culmination of 1 1/2 years of
construction and 6 1/2 years of planning. The new three-story
structure is located on the corner of Hilgard and Strathmore
Avenues and is characterized by its distinct Middle Eastern
architecture and white stone facade.
The event was hosted by UCLA Hillel and boasted many prominent
guest speakers such as Professor Dan Neuman, the executive vice
chancellor of UCLA, Congressman Henry Waxman, and Yuval Rotem, the
consul general of Israel.
The building cost $6 million and was completely funded by
donors, including Steven Spielberg and the late Lew Wasserman.
Although the ceremony was attended almost entirely by members
from the Jewish community, much emphasis was placed on the fact
that the building is a place for all students.
“It’s going to be a hub,” predicted Avishai
Shraga, a fourth-year computer sciences student and the vice
president of Bruins for Israel. “It’s going to be a
campus building that happens to be Jewish.”
“We’re all about pluralism,” affirmed Matthew
Knee, a second-year political science student and the media chair
for BFI. Knee said that the attractiveness of the building will
hopefully draw students of all races, religions and
backgrounds.
The ceremony began with a procession from the old Hillel
headquarters on the first floor of the University Religious
Conference Center on Hilgard Avenue to the new center. Preceded by
musicians and bearing the ceremonial Torah beneath a chupah, or
canopy, the revelers sang Jewish songs of celebration.
The chupah is symbolic of the Jewish home, and the bearing of
the Torah symbolizes the transfer from one house to another.
The parade made its way up Charles E. Young Drive to the new
building, where a brief opening ceremony was conducted.
During the program, words of joy and praise were mingled with
calls for awareness and peace.
Neuman called the building a testament to the bond between
Hillel and UCLA.
He also drew attention to the building’s namesake, former
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, calling Rabin a “great
statesman and a champion for peace.”
Rabin conducted a landmark peace treaty with Jordan and made
significant steps toward a peace process with Palestine before
being assassinated by a Jewish nationalist in 1995.
Rotem praised the opening of the Hillel Center and charged the
UCLA community with safeguarding Rabin’s legacy and
ideas.
“I invoke his name and call upon his memory to help guide
us toward peace,” Rotem said.
Waxman, a staunch supporter of Israel, welcomed all students to
“join us in celebrating Rabin.”
“We are all proud of our heritage, and we stand ready to
make peace,” he said.
Seidler-Feller concluded the ceremony by calling for tolerance:
“We must pursue unity, but let us never be frightened by
difference.”