Huntsman Jr. speaks at opening of Perelman Center for Jewish Life

The Ronald O. Perelman Center for Jewish Life celebrated its dedication on June 16, with 1987 College graduate and former Utah Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. as the event’s keynote speaker.

The Perelman Center is part of Lubavitch House at Penn, which opened in 1980 to serve as the University’s Chabad house.

A major renovation started in 2005, when Lubavitch House acquired the property adjacent to its existing location at 4032 Spruce Street. This expansion tripled the amount of usable space in the house, allowing 150 students to take part in dinners on Friday nights and holidays and 100 students to attend synagogue.

A member of Penn’s Board of Trustees and the son of Jon Huntsman Sr. (for whom Huntsman Hall was named), Huntsman Jr. maintains close ties to Judaism and Chabad, though he himself was raised Mormon.

“I have met representatives from around the world,” Huntsman Jr. said. “When I was posted running the United States embassy in Beijing, my best friend in Beijing was Amos, the ambassador from Israel. And my first request of him was, ‘Where can I find Chabad?’”

 Chabad on Campus is an international organization devoted to educating Jewish youth. It is rooted in the teachings of the Chabad movement, which originated in the 1700s and emphasizes the inner significance and intellectual study of Judaism.

The newly renovated center, located at 4032-34 Spruce Street, houses a synagogue, library, Beis Midrash (a Jewish learning center), eight studio apartments for students as well as one three-bedroom apartment, lounge areas, Kosher dining and offices for the Jewish Women’s Resource Center and the Healthy Living Task Force.

The $5 million revamp was made possible by 1964 Wharton graduate and 1966 MBA graduate Ronald O. Perelman, a member of the same Perelman family whose name pervades Penn’s campus. Perelman Quadrangle, the Perelman School of Medicine and Claudia Cohen Hall are among the family’s namesakes.

In a statement read by Ephraim Levin, one of the directors of Lubavitch House at Penn, Perelman wrote, “I am so proud that it [the center] will serve as a place at Penn where Jews of all backgrounds can worship, explore and celebrate their heritage in a warm and welcoming environment.”

Though Chabad is associated with Orthodox Judaism, its slogan is “Where every Jew is family.”

“This represents the best of community,” Huntsman Jr. said. “Our young men and young women are going to come into the Perelman Center for Jewish Life with different attitudes, different temperaments, different beliefs, different views of the world. And they’re all going to be looking for hope and inspiration.”

University Chaplain Chaz Howard, who also spoke at the event, said, “We need more of this. We need more of the sweet spirit of joy, the spirit of love, that you all bring to our campus and to our world.”

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