L'Chaim Society

The L'Chaim Society was a student society in existence at Oxford University from 1991 to 2001, under the leadership of the original Chabad Lubavitch American Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. At its onset, the society formed part of the Chabad movement, but evolved to become an inter-faith group. [cite web|url=http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/695 |title=L'Chaim promotes inter-faith dialogue at Oxford (see also [http://web.archive.org/web/20030618071221/http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/695 here] )] However, it should be noted that Boteach was not in any official position at Oxford University. Richard Dawkins revealed,

"Shmuel Boteach was a rabbi who moved from America to the city of Oxford, where he lived for 11 years. He never had any official status in the University of Oxford. He arrived and bought a house. As anybody is free to do, he ran a club, which Oxford students were free to join." [ [http://richarddawkins.net/article,2591,Richard-Dawkins-Responds-to-Rabbi-Shmuley-Boteach,Richard-Dawkins 'Richard Dawkins Responds to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach' by Richard Dawkins - RichardDawkins.net ] ]

Past presidents of the society included Newark, New Jersey mayor Cory Booker, and linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann. [Jacobs, Andrew. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01E7D8163EF937A15757C0A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2 "Youth, Money and Ambition Fuel Rival to Newark Mayor"] , "The New York Times", April 24, 2002. Accessed December 31, 2007. "Mr. Booker's gift for conciliation found a wider audience at Oxford, where he joined the L'Chaim Society, an Orthodox Jewish student group. To the chagrin of leaders, he went on to become its president."] [ [http://www.uq.edu.au/uqresearchers/researcher/zuckermanng.html?uv_category=com Assoc Prof Ghil'ad Zuckermann] , University of Queensland. Accessed December 31, 2007.]

However, Rabbi Boteach and the Chabad-Lubavitch organization in England did not agree on all issues regarding how to reach out to Jewish students at Oxford and the role of non-Jewish students. Booker's presidency exacerbated the differences, and Boteach ended his relationship with the organization after an invitation he extended to Yitzhak Rabin to speak at Oxford was rejected by Chabad leadership. [Wall, Alexandra J. "Making Judaism Sexy", "Moment", June 2000. "The tension between Shmuley and the Lubavitch leaders worsened when Cory Booker, an African American Rhodes scholar and practicing Baptist (now a councilman in Newark, NJ), became L'Chaim president. The breaking point, according to the British press, was when Shmuley invited Yitzhak Rabin to speak at Oxford in 1994 (Rabin's stance on giving up land for peace was anathema to the Lubavitcher Rebbe). But according to one Lubavitcher, the Rabin story was planted by Shmuley to deflect attention from the real issues: his outreach to non-Jews and his outlandish tactics, which put him beyond the Lubavitch pale."] Furthermore, Rabbi Boteach was criticised by the British government after an investigation showed that he was funding a lavish lifestyle from charitable donations. Sonia Tugwell of the Charity Commission stated, "The inquiry established that a number of apparent inappropriate payments were regularly being made by the founder of the charity, Rabbi Boteach and his wife. Fundraising costs and administrative expenses were high in relation to relatively low charitable expenditure." [ [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,73709,00.html FOXNews.com - Pinocchio Loses by More Than a Nose - Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Arts And Entertainment ] ]

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