The Yale Hillel lets students see Jewish life, Eli style

Community is the first thing I associate with being Jewish at Yale. I've found in Yale's Jewish community a warmth and openness that has made me feel welcome as an individual with my own unique Jewish identity while allowing me to identify with the community as a whole.

For Friday night dinner at the Slifka Center, the whole community descends on the Kosher Kitchen. It creates a feeling of an extended family coming together every week. Jewish life at Yale is also defined by the opportunity to pray in a service that is personally meaningful and responsive, one that I can help shape and to which I can bring friends.

At Yale, Jewish practice is integrated with a commitment to social justice. Members of the community dedicate themselves to planning and executing programs and conferences such as the Jewish Conference on Women and Freedom. It also provides the Jewish community with challenging ways to examine Judaism and its roles by bringing to campus speakers such as Betty Friedan and Zalman Shoval, the Israeli Ambassador to the United States.

Yale's Jewish community has something to offer every Yalie. Whether you're eating pizza bagels for lunch on Friday at the Kosher Kitchen or enjoying The New York Times at the monthly Sunday bagel and lox brunch, celebrating Simchat Torah by dancing through Old Campus and college courtyards, having an intimate Shabbat dinner in your residential college, or attending a concert of Yale's Klezmer band, there's an enormous number of opportunities here that you can contribute to and benefit from.

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