Musmakhim in the Limelight: College Outreach

Reprinted with permission of Yeshiva University, copyright 2008, originally appeared in Chavrusa, April 2008, Vol. 42 No. 3.
Chavrusa1.pdf
Musmakhim in the Limelight: College Outreach

The ba’al Hahaggadah uses the phrase “ba’avur zeh asah Hashem li b’tzeiti miMitzrayim” (Shemot 13:8) twice. We find it first when responding to the she’eino yodeyah lish’ol and a few sentences later when answering the question why must the mitzvah of sipur Yetziat Mitzrayim occur the night of Pesach, and not two weeks earlier. Why do we need to repeat the same pasuk twice within a very close proximity? Rav Meir, the son of Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev responded by quoting a commentary of the Ohr HaChayim HaKadosh (Shemot 13:14). The Ohr HaChayim advances that there are two mandated times when we have a mitzvah to retell the story of Yetziyat Mitzrayim. First, we must offer the story of the Exodus any time we are asked about it, and secondly, at the Seder(im), we have an obligation to tell the story even if our children do not ask. According to Rav Meir, this is why the Hagadah juxtaposes the mitzvah of sipur Yetziat Mitzrayim with the sugyah of yachol merosh chodesh. Even when the she’eino yodeyah lish’ol does not ask, we are nonetheless obligated to tell him the story. There are those who argue that there is a fifth child, the one who does not even attend a seder. In the 1980s some voices advocated leaving an unoccupied seat at the Seder table, representing those behind the Iron Curtain who were unable to attend a Seder and live a Jewish life. The late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson zt’l, countered that we should not feature an empty chair at the Seder, but rather, we should invite someone to take up that seat who would otherwise not attend a seder.

Some will argue that kiruv r’chokim and chizuk k’rovim represent the most dire calling and need in the Jewish community today. Whether we look at the off the derech phenomenon or the Federation world’s concern with continuity, millions of dollars and thousands of hours have been spent analyzing and addressing this challenge. Within the world of kiruv, the college campus has become one of the most important and popular venues for funding outreach. Some of our best, brightest and most committed klei kodesh from the entire spectrum of the Orthodox world have moved their families to take residence on campuses across North America with the goal of bringing the message of Torah to the unaffiliated and to assure that those who come to college Orthodox remain committed within the cultural cauldron of the university. In this Pesach edition of CHAVRUSA, we will focus on our young men and their families teaching and modeling a Torah life on the college campus. CHAVRUSA posed questions to three such young men currently working and living on college campuses. Rabbis Avi Heller (RAH), Eli Kohl (REK) and Yehuda Sarna (RYS) and their families serve the Jewish communities of Boston University, the University of Maryland and New York University respectively.

CHAVRUSA: What is your assessment of the state of the campus today? What are the greatest needs for a campus worker like you?

RAH: On the one hand, you have 18-22 year olds living independently for the first time in an environment of extreme permissiveness in which their values are often under attack. On the other, you have a deep desire by students to find out who they are and what will bring meaning to their lives. Campuses with strong infrastructures and an approachable rabbinic couple (such as NYU, Maryland and BU) have much better odds of engaging these students in how to choose and embrace their Yiddishkeit as adults rather than seeing it as a burden thrust on them by adult authority figures. JLIC (see sidebar page 16) is helping to create a very healthy environment for Orthodox students and those who want to learn from and be inspired by Orthodox educators. At JLIC campuses like BU, there are shiurim every day of the week, regular minyanim and dozens of chavrutas. It is also hugely important that there be a Torah Umadda, Torah Im Derech Eretz option on campus, not just Chabad, Maimonides or Aish, though they are also filling an important niche. After all, there are more than 3,500 Jewish undergrads at BU!

The other side of the coin is that there is a tremendous ba’al teshuva movement on campus. At BU, one of our goals is to help Orthodox students be reinvigorated in their spiritual lives by seeing Judaism through the eyes of the newly observant.

Shira and I assist in providing the Jewish infrastructure on campus, but BU has long had kosher food, an eruv, etc. More importantly, we (and our children) model Orthodox family values, how a husband and wife talk to each other, how we are mechaneich our children to daven and be polite to others. An observant, spiritual and meaningful lifestyle can be visualized and then become something to aspire to. On the intellectual side, we engage students with thoughtful, high-level learning (so as to match their academics) on topics that they were not mature enough in high school to care about.

Lastly, we are often just someone to talk to at the right moment. Even if a student thinks the last thing they need is a rabbi, something–dramatic or subtle–will happen in their lives over the course of four years in which we can make a huge difference in their lives just by being there. I can accept the possibility that I am only here to help a student one day in four years and even that a student won’t recognize what I’ve done for them until they are twenty years older.

REK: Religiously, Hillel provides many opportunities for students to get involved, whether through programs, social opportunities or Israel advocacy. We try to provide Jewish learning opportunities through formal and informal relationships. Our hope is that we provide a warm and welcoming community that is conducive to religious change and growth. On a campus as big as Maryland, many students still do not have people to go to for guidance; with 30,000 students on campus, people can get lost. It’s our job to make sure that they have a mentor to whom they can turn, a place they can go to for a warm Shabbos meal, and a role model from whom they can be inspired. Students need someone on campus who is personable and who genuinely cares for them emotionally and religiously. Once the student feels comfortable with you, you are able to have an effect on them.

RYS: There are two distinct kinds of Jewish college students: the non-Orthodox, for whom the question is, ‘Is being Jewish important’ and the orthodox, who assume that it is, but ask ‘What will my level of observance be?’ This characterization is overly simplified, but speaks to the tension that I feel everyday—if I devote myself to reaching out to people who question their Jewish identity, then won’t those who are currently committed begin to fade? On the other hand, if I nurture those with a solid identity to increased observance and Torah learning, then I’m abandoning 90 percent of Klal Yisrael. The only direction to head in is to make the core so vibrant and alive, creating a center of gravity that others feel drawn to. NYU now has 400 undergraduate Orthodox students, and 200 non-Orthodox students learning in our programs on a weekly basis. The numbers keep increasing, and the faces change every year.

CHAVRUSA: What advice would you give parents of college students?

RYS: College students experience every decision as a “big question.” Whether to take the LSAT’s or MCAT’s feels like a question that will determine where someone will be in thirty years. Going out on a date for the first time feels like committing to marry them. Life is obviously more fluid than that. The most important thing parents can do is listen well and not be judgmental.

REK: I would say that you really have to know your children and what their needs are. Once you know that, take time to ask them what they seek out of the college experience. Research the college and see what’s available. Make sure that you see the campus for yourself. Speak with current students and their parents to hear from an insider what life is really like on campus.

RAH: The most important thing you can do for your children is to treat them like adults. They think they are adults and they assume that their parents do not think so. But they are the ones who will decide what to do after you drop them off at their freshman dorm. I always give my business card to the student when I meet with visiting families; often, I do so over the extended hand of the parent. When you go for a Shabbat (you definitely should) let them stay in the dorms and have a real college experience. Let them ask the questions of the Hillel director and the local students. There is no doubt that a college campus is not as safe a place as a seminary or their parents home, but I see my students learning to make mature religious decisions every day and often becoming more deeply religious over the course of their college years.

CHAVRUSA: What can the Jewish community/rabbonim do to help the cause of campus kiruv?

REK: Communal rabbis and institutions can put effort in to strengthening relationships with those of us professionals in campus work. We are lucky to work closely with the local rabbonim in Maryland, this helps ease the transition to campus and then later facilitates a smooth segue when they graduate into the Jewish community at large. By interacting with local rabbanim students feel motivated to take the learning and growing they do on campus with them when they graduate to become leaders of their Jewish community. The more educated rabbanim are as to the realities of campus life, the more they can help educate, inform, and support their parents and students.

RAH: A huge problem on campus is that it is neither fish nor fowl. The local community – Brookline in our case – usually does not see the campus as a real part of itself. At the same time, we have students from practically every Jewish community in the country. Those communities – though we are the lifeline for their children – do not see us as part of themselves either.

Other rabbanim really need to talk to campus rabbis, both to understand the realities of campus life and also to communicate about specific students. The likelihood that I can engage a particular student goes up exponentially if I know who they are and something about them, if I can invite them to be a part of some thing individually. If I don’t even know who they are and the choice is up to them whether to come find me or not – well, that’s risky, and sometimes they’ll never even walk in the front door.

Communication is key. No campus rabbi is looking to woo students away from YU where they can take advantage of the beit midrash and very rich Jewish environment. But there are many students who are choosing to go to other colleges and we need to be able to provide for them. If CJF or Azrieli provided us with the names of students graduating high school and/or studying in yeshivot affiliated with the S. Daniel Abraham Israel Program, who are planning to go to BU, we can reach out to them. We may even be able to meet them in Israel to get them excited about continuing their learning on campus and, hopefully, begin to educate the yeshivot and their talented hanhalot about the virtues and challenges of American university life.

RYS: What college students need is full-time rabbis living on campus with their families who understand them and are available to them. I credit the Orthodox Union with stepping up in creating the best model for this, the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (JLIC), which does exactly that. The problem is that even if there were four times as many orthodox rabbis on campus, we would still be under-serving our constituency dramatically. The community needs to understand that the rabbinic attention a person receives in college, when they are making life decisions, should be significantly more, not less, than when they were in high school or yeshiva in Israel.

CHAVRUSA: What can RIETS or YU do to help campus kiruv?

RYS: I think it would be beneficial if RIETS encouraged campus work as a first job to people finishing semicha. It broadens your perspective on Am Yisrael and the world, and reinvigorates your commitment.

REK: RIETS can create and encourage a speakers bureau where roshei yeshiva, Kollel Elyon fellows or RIETS interns would be available to lecture or spend Shabbos on campus. Also stressing campus work as a calling for those students for whom it would be appropriate.

RAH: I would love to see Kollel Elyon fellows traveling to campuses – or over satellite – to teach and give shiurim as well as RIETS-organized y’mei iyun for and by campus rabbis. I also think Torah Tours should come to campus as they would to any other kehilla. It would also be great if there were grant money available to college campus professionals to help ignite innovative programs. But I think the most important thing is a national awareness of the need for sustained attention to this area of Jewish life. JLIC has taken the first steps in developing a “shita” for making college a place where Orthodox students turn on instead of dropping out. Let’s not stop there.

Rabbi Avi Heller’02 is the director of Jewish education at the Florence and Chafetz Hillel House at Boston University. Rabbi Heller also acts as Rabbi and co-rav hamachshir for kosher dining at BU Hillel and as a university chaplain for BU. He and his wife Shira will be JLIC campus educators at BU Hillel for the 2007-2008 year as well. After graduating Boston University in 1997, Rabbi Heller worked for a year in the Hillel International Center in Washington D.C., where he had the opportunity to visit Hillels all over the country. Prior to coming to Boston, Rabbi Heller was the director of the Community Kollel in Boca Raton, FL where he also functioned as Rabbi and spiritual leader of a new (and rapidly growing) synagogue in West Boca.