By conservative estimates, about one-fourth of Yale is Jewish. From flipping through the phone directory, that seems like a pretty reasonable, if not a little low, number. The mailing list for Yale Hillel is about half that size. I think that is pretty interesting. After all, it is not as though there is some larger Jewish framework, and then Hillel to represent a particular constituency within the Jewish community on campus.
In fact, Hillel gets much of its mailing list information from the chaplain's office based on the cards that incoming freshmen send in with religious information. Hillel, at least in theory, is the umbrella organization for campus Jewish activity. Furthermore, it represents the Yale branch of an international network of Jewish collegiate organizations (as opposed to a college-specific Jewish Student Union or some such organization) and claims to represent the campus Jewish community in all of its shapes, sizes and colors.
Truthfully, I don't really give a damn about Hillel as an organization except inasmuch as it successfully promotes exuberant Judaism on campus. I hope that I didn't just devastate the political clout of the Jewish community by acknowledging that even the umbrella Jewish organization is only aware of half of its assumed membership; I didn't think that information would surprise anybody. But what I do wonder is this: why do the dynamics between the organization and its individual constituents seem so different for Jewish groups than for other cultural groups? Why is it that, while a Jewish group has to struggle to sell Jewish programming to an audience, members of other groups seem to thirst for exploration and celebration of their own identities?
Maybe the answer is in the question. Because Hillel gets its information from the chaplain's office, there is an assumption that Judaism is a Religion, with a stern, white-bearded God and lots of Rules which come from THE BIBLE. This is, of course, true on some level. (I happen to like the Rules, the Plan, the Way of Life - they make me happy.)
But there is more to Judaism than religious doctrine and the occasional matzah. After several thousand years of music, art, and literature there is more to Judaism than High Holy Day services (which are, by everybody's admission, long and boring). There is even more to Judaism than Woody Allen and bagels (not to denigrate - perish the thought - the vital position both of these hold in 20th century Jewish-American life). And discovering the rich and complex beauty of this intertwining of the ancient and the modern doesn't involve some blind acceptance of dogma. Rather, it simply means experiential exploration of oneself and one's own origin.
I feel like I have been very rudely condescending to a lot of people and implied that somehow I am superior because I speak fluent Hebrew, or in some other way. I don't mean to do that. I also don't think, ha ha, that if the Hillel mailing list were twice its size that somehow we would all be getting it right. But if you've only got one evening to spare for something Jewish - ritual or otherwise - skip the Yom Kippur night Battell Chapel thing and try a Shabbat dinner, or a Rabbi's Table discussion, or a Klezmer Band concert. Or heck, come to my house for a Passover Seder.
David Kurtzer is a sophomore in Jonathan Edwards College.
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