Saying Goodbye to 93 College Avenue
by Hana Suberi Yavelberg ’05 Ed.M.’08
As an alumna, I consider myself very lucky to have spent the past few months working at Rutgers Hillel, for so many reasons. One of them is the chance to revisit old memories before the wrecking ball comes to demolish our home — 93 College Ave.
I remind myself that we have outgrown the space and now stretch it to its limits, like a teenager trying to wear last year’s favorite piece of clothing after a growth spurt. While I know the change is a much needed one, it is bittersweet for me to say goodbye.
When I walk through this building every corner has a memory attached and some spaces open up different memories each time I pass through them. I walk up the stairs where I sat and talked with my friends for hours, always trying to reposition ourselves so people could step around us. I sit on the window-seat and recall playing games on that same landing on many Shabbat evenings and afternoons. Each day I walk up the front steps, where I sat during my first Hillel BBQ and met a Kol Halayla member who encouraged me to audition. Some memories are harder to think about, like finding out from my sister that our grandfather had passed away and choosing to stay for seudah shlishit singing to be surrounded by my friends.
For each of us the memories are our own and we’ll continue to visit them long after the building is gone. Bittersweet seems to me the most fitting word, as I say goodbye to 93 College Ave. I know that this goodbye leads to a future with the space to build new memories in our new home, soon to be built.
Goodbye.
Hana Suberi Yavelberg (far right) along with fellow Kol Halayla members in the front parlor of 93 College Avenue: Abby Sage, Avital (Fogel) Greenbaum, Joel Yavelberg, Sara (Lewis) Sideman, Naomi Hauser, David Rosen, Yoni Weiss Wilbur, Melissa Rosen, Menachem Ejdelman, Joel Legatt, Daniel Wenger, and Bradley Goldsammler.