Magnifying Life

For the past several months I have been regularly blogging for MyJewishLearning.com on a variety of subjects. Most of the articles are reflections from my work on the Harvard campus. I invite you to visit my author page at the website to explore some of the articles I have posted there.

In particular, my most recent blog post entitled Magnifying Life reflects upon the one year anniversary of the passing of one of our dear students, Ilya Chalik z"l. His loss was a tragedy for the entire university community. Ilya was both an active member of the Harvard Hillel and at our home for Shabbat. I had the solemn responsibility of traveling to Chicago on behalf of the university to attend his funeral and the memory of his family and friends grieving for him will never leave me. I share one small piece here from my article on the one year anniversary of his passing:

Ilya, through his friendships, his life and his deeds, wove threads linking people and magnified life for all who knew him. Students, reflecting on how Ilya impacted their life,commented that because of him they now have come to appreciate how beautiful a tree in fall is or how serene an afternoon in Harvard Yard could be. They have come to see life can mean more than performing well, it can be just as much about living well.

May his memory be forever a blessing for all who had the privilege to know him.