The Jewish Community
First off, hey guys! I'm Mad. It's short for Madeline. I'll be an RA next year in WestCo and that should be hardcore exciting. I'm sure we'll update you with good information about housing for next year at some poitn in the near future. But for now I'd like to concentrate on...
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY!
I've heard it said that Jews represent about 30% of campus. That's kind of, um, a lot. A good deal of these Jews are pretty non-practicing, but if you check off anywhere, anywhere, that you're Jewish, the Rabbi will start sending you tons of e-mails and automatically add you to the Jewish Student Listserv with information about Jewish activities going on each week.
There's a Shabbat service and dinner every week on Friday nights. Home-cooked amazing delicious dinner, I might add. It's usually vegetarian, but sometimes there are meat options as well... the services themselves are student-led. We don't split up into subgroups by denomination, and we're just one big happy community that really likes to sing. Especially "L'chah Dodi." Extreme.
Rabbi David is our Rabbi; he's reconstructionist, a fantastic guy, and he has an ADORABLE LITTLE BABY and you can watche him grow up, because he comes to services each week! He's just now starting to be able to walk with support.
There's a kosher kitchen if you keep kosher. Actually, there are two kosher kitchens; one, you can use your meal points at (like MoCon or Summerfields) and is a little restauranty thing in the basement of the Butterfields. The other is an actual kitchen, located in the Bayit, which is kept completely kosher and you can make use of whenever you like.
Speaking of the Bayit, the Bayit. Remember when you may have learned that "Bayit" means "home" in Hebrew? That's what the Bayit is. It's not a big fancy Hillel building like Brown has - it's a house. A really adorable cushiony wonderful house. It's a program house, so students can live there as a sophomore, junior, or senior, and plenty of programs go on, as well.
Note that we not only don't have a Hillel building, but we don't have a Hillel. What, you ask?! We do have an organized Jewish community, but we prefer not to be bound by the restrictions of an umbrella organization, AKA the man, AKA Hillel. That's mostly jest, but in reality, we truly don't have a Hillel - though we do have a "Havaruh" group that functions to organize Jewish events on campus and is basically what Hillel would be if it existed. It's a fantastic group of students and meets on Sundays.
We also have Kol Israel, a Zionist organization. There's also Lunch & Learn every Saturday afternoon which has FREE BRUNCH with bagels and humus and yummies and occasionally actually discussing something intellectual. There are tons of random events and lectures and good stuff throughout the year, as well.
And, if you've never been B'nei Mitzvahed, but have always wanted to... now's your chance! A subgroup of people organizes B'nei mitzvah lessons, teaching each year's "class" for free about Judaism and reading Torah... culminating in a B'nei Mitzvah ceremony and party in April!
That's all for now, but if you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY!
I've heard it said that Jews represent about 30% of campus. That's kind of, um, a lot. A good deal of these Jews are pretty non-practicing, but if you check off anywhere, anywhere, that you're Jewish, the Rabbi will start sending you tons of e-mails and automatically add you to the Jewish Student Listserv with information about Jewish activities going on each week.
There's a Shabbat service and dinner every week on Friday nights. Home-cooked amazing delicious dinner, I might add. It's usually vegetarian, but sometimes there are meat options as well... the services themselves are student-led. We don't split up into subgroups by denomination, and we're just one big happy community that really likes to sing. Especially "L'chah Dodi." Extreme.
Rabbi David is our Rabbi; he's reconstructionist, a fantastic guy, and he has an ADORABLE LITTLE BABY and you can watche him grow up, because he comes to services each week! He's just now starting to be able to walk with support.
There's a kosher kitchen if you keep kosher. Actually, there are two kosher kitchens; one, you can use your meal points at (like MoCon or Summerfields) and is a little restauranty thing in the basement of the Butterfields. The other is an actual kitchen, located in the Bayit, which is kept completely kosher and you can make use of whenever you like.
Speaking of the Bayit, the Bayit. Remember when you may have learned that "Bayit" means "home" in Hebrew? That's what the Bayit is. It's not a big fancy Hillel building like Brown has - it's a house. A really adorable cushiony wonderful house. It's a program house, so students can live there as a sophomore, junior, or senior, and plenty of programs go on, as well.
Note that we not only don't have a Hillel building, but we don't have a Hillel. What, you ask?! We do have an organized Jewish community, but we prefer not to be bound by the restrictions of an umbrella organization, AKA the man, AKA Hillel. That's mostly jest, but in reality, we truly don't have a Hillel - though we do have a "Havaruh" group that functions to organize Jewish events on campus and is basically what Hillel would be if it existed. It's a fantastic group of students and meets on Sundays.
We also have Kol Israel, a Zionist organization. There's also Lunch & Learn every Saturday afternoon which has FREE BRUNCH with bagels and humus and yummies and occasionally actually discussing something intellectual. There are tons of random events and lectures and good stuff throughout the year, as well.
And, if you've never been B'nei Mitzvahed, but have always wanted to... now's your chance! A subgroup of people organizes B'nei mitzvah lessons, teaching each year's "class" for free about Judaism and reading Torah... culminating in a B'nei Mitzvah ceremony and party in April!
That's all for now, but if you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
posted by Mad Joy at 2:42 PM
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