Chabad on Campus for the St. Louis region has created a new social network for Jewish college students in the state of Missouri, called the Missouri Jewish Collegiate Network. The network can be found on the online Facebook community.

“This is a very logical extension of some of the resources that we’re offering students at campuses not in the St. Louis area,” Rabbi Hershey Novack said, director of Chabad on Campus in St. Louis. “We started over the summer and the function is to expand on Chabad’s Regional Campuses Initiative. There seems to be a trend that more Jewish students are going to college at out-state Missouri schools.”

Thirteen Missouri schools are included in this network, which is expected to serve two functions.

“One is to help students at campuses with limited Jewish resources available and to connect with similar campuses,” Novack said. “Another reason is a continuation of what we’ve been doing in the past, which is sending individual resources to individual campuses through the mail.”

In the past, they have sent Hanukkah kits and Passover packages to students while they were away at school, which is part of Chabad’s Regional Campuses Initiative. Chabad has helped students from schools around the state, including University of Missouri-Rolla, Southeast Missouri State, Truman State University and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

There are currently 26 students in the group so far, but the number will hopefully grow.

“I believe Jewish students at out-state universities are desperately underserved and this social network is a step forward in the Jewish community’s efforts to reach out to them,” Novack said. “We’ve found a mechanism. Facebook is a place where students are at already.”

Bryan Glass is an officer in the group for the University of Missouri-Rolla campus.

“At a school where mention of Hillel or even of Judaism is met with blank stares, it’s sometimes nice to be reminded that there are other Jewish students out there in similar situations,” Glass said. ” At my school, I am constantly reminded that certain people, often friends, believe that I am damned just because of my religion. It can be daunting to anybody, devout or not. The group gives us a chance to connect with other people who share our views, and to help out some of those who would otherwise be blindsided upon entering this type of environment.”

Glass said he hopes for a sense of community. He was appointed to be an officer by Rabbi Novack. Together, they have high hopes for the new group.

“Initially, I hope that this group makes Jewish students at our school a bit more comfortable,” Glass said. “In the future, it may even be possible for us to increase awareness around our campus. You can’t really blame people because their beliefs are different than ours. It’s one of the things that makes life interesting. I believe this will be a long process. I don’t see our school ever having a strong Jewish presence because we’re not very diverse as it is. Hopefully other minority groups at our school will follow suit as well.”

The network can be found by typing “Missouri Jewish Collegiate Network” in Facebook’s search engine.

“Developing a social network for these students is an accessible way for us to connect with them and for students to connect with each other,” Novack said.