Yale Four dismissal inspires mixed reactions

Reactions to the decision among Yale's Jewish community seem split. Rabbi Michael Whitman from the Slifka Center said the Yale Four had misrepresented life at Yale to the public: "These four students here used media tactics saying that Yale has been a bastion of sexual promiscuity." While he was a scholar-in-residence at a synagogue in East Brunswick, N.J. this summer, Whitman said that many of the Jewish residents were surprised that the students had taken issue with Yale upon hearing that the University offered single-sex dorms with internal bathrooms as a compromise.

At the same time, however, Whitman also felt it was reasonable for Orthodox Jewish students to choose a particular university based on its housing policy. I can understand the decision for an Orthodox Jew to go to a university that provides off-campus housing," he stated.

Jesse Grauman, BR '00, the current co-president of Yale's Young Israel House, which runs the Kosher Kitchen, agrees with the Yale Four that campus life might not perfectly adhere to Orthodox Jewish standards, but he feels that the differences can be reconciled. "If I didn't think it was proper for me to be on campus, then I wouldn't be on campus. There are some issues, but they're things you work around," he said.

Elisha Hack, ES '01, one of the Four, maintained his view that living in Yale's dormitories encroached upon the rules of Jewish Orthodoxy, but regretted that he was not more involved in his community. "I would love to live downtown, I would love to have more contact with my friends, but you gotta do what you gotta do." He added, "I'd love to be more involved in campus life, but there are certainly parts of the community life I'd like to avoid." The other students of the Yale Four, Jeremy Hershman, SY '99, Lisa Friedman, SY '99, and Batsheva Greer, SY '01, also live off-campus.

Although he plans to appeal the judge's dismissal of the case, Hack welcomed being out of the media limelight. "I think I can do better without all the attention," he admitted, though he believes that "to some extent, publicity is useful, and not every freshman gets to go on national television."

Though most Orthodox students on campus disagree with the claims of the Yale Four, many acknowledge that the lawsuit and the resulting controversy have raised some important questions for Orthodox Jews in America. "In the Jewish-American community, it's still a big issue. When I go back [home], people still say, `What do you think of this?'" Evan Farber, BR '99, explained. Farber, who was co-president of the Young Israel House last year,added that the case raises the issue of degree of observance within the modern-day Orthodox Jewish community.

According to Whitman, the case raises possible conflicts over the relationship between the Orthodox Jews and the public at large. "[Within the Orthodox community], the question is how should Orthodoxy be involved with the larger community? It's an ongoing debate," Whitman said. Farber agreed, describing "the question which almost all American Jews feel strongly about, which is how to be Jewish and American at the same time. Some people will look at this and say [Yale is] inhibiting religious practice, and some will say [the Yale Four are] inhibiting being an American."

Farber thinks a key reason many American Jews disliked the case was because "it kind of created tension within the community." He enumerated three possible reasons for the tension. "We didn't entirely agree with some of the actors in the lawsuit. Secondly, it threatened to deter Orthodox Jews from applying to Yale. And lastly, the Yale Jewish community felt just generally fed up," he said.

With shopping period in full swing, Orthodox Jewish students, like most Elis, seem more concerned about classes and settling back into Yale life than with the most recent chapter in the Yale Four case. "Most people I talked to didn't even really want to talk about it," Grauman said. "Everybody is all wrapped up with the beginning of the year."

Farber agreed and added that the Yale Four issue had "resulted in many debates and ill will last year.... It's not so much the outcome that people [at Yale] are concerned about. People are just glad that it's over."

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