A delegation of 25 students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign packed their bags Wednesday for a week-long trip to Berlin under the direction of Rabbi Dovid Tiechtel, co-director of the Chabad Jewish Student Center at the university.

Called Alternative Spring Break 2008, the trip will see the students take part in community service projects coordinated by Chabad-Lubavitch of Berlin, meet with their German counterparts and visit former concentration camps in the area. “There is an urgent need to bolster integral services in the Jewish and general community,” said Tiechtel.

“Students will work in soup kitchens, do programming for Holocaust survivors, help refugees and children at risk, clean up the Jewish cemetery, help provide health care to the needy and much more.” …