Our Story

For 18 years, we have been serving the University of Kansas Jewish student community — fondly known as the Jewhawks.

Now, we’re building a home.

In March of 2006, we made Lawrence our home, welcoming four Jewish students to join our very first Shabbat dinner in the city. In the years since then, the number of Jewish students at those weekly Shabbat dinners has grown exponentially. Chabad at KU has reached thousands of students, developing relationships over four-year periods that last for a lifetime. We keep in touch with a network of thousands of alumni. Tens of couples began their lives together with a chance meeting at Chabad.

Each new semester sees hundreds of students come through our doors—because for Jewhawks, Chabad isn’t just a place. It’s a home. A home where they feel embraced, where they feel inspired to live as a proud Jew on campus.

Now, that embrace is needed more than ever. 

Since October 7th, students have found it more challenging than ever to be proudly Jewish on campus. But they’ve also felt the urge to connect with their Jewish sisters and brothers more than ever.

That heightened sense of connection and community has resulted in overflow crowds in the small converted duplex on 19th St. that has been the home of KU Chabad for nearly two decades—a home that is small in square feet but big in warmth. Students can be seen at Chabad at all hours of the day and night, schmoozing, studying, joining Shabbat dinner or a holiday event, or enjoying a warm bowl of Jewish Penicillin on a dreary winter afternoon.

But the space simply wasn’t big enough—not to mention the challenges of cooking Shabbat dinner for dozens of students each week in a small, simple residential kitchen. 

Eighteen years after we arrived in Lawrence with a dollar and a dream, we’re dreaming big — six million dollars big. 10,000 square feet big. Reaching-every-single-Jewhawk big.

We’ve begun the process of building a much larger Chabad House at the same site, by acquiring the property next door with space to build a large facility to accommodate the growing crowds that converge at Chabad for every event. We are going to great pains to preserve the home-away-from-home feeling that Jewhawks have come to rely upon in the past two decades. 

The new Chabad House will be full of features designed to help students truly feel at home. A large lounge area will take center stage, as students will have plenty of space to simply hang out — a place where they can exist as proud Jews, without worrying about being judged for their kippah or Chai necklace. A large dining hall will welcome dozens to Shabbat dinners and will be able to seat overflow crowds of well over 100 for Passover Seders, High Holiday meals and other large events. 

The building will also include a full blown kitchen, the first commercial kosher kitchen in Lawrence, which will enable the Tiechtels to pump out Shabbat and holiday meals and will also open the door to create additional local kosher food offerings on and off campus.

The new construction began in August of 2024 and is expected to be completed by September of 2025. We are delighted to welcome YOU to be part of this journey by making this dream happen for every Jew af KU. Please consider making a dedication in this beautiful new building which will serve as an everlasting legacy for you and your family!

With love,

Rabbi Zalman and Nechama