LATKEPALOOZA

Welcome Back!!

Wednesday night, Penn State Hillel held its first ever LATKEPALOOZA. This Hanukkah party was complete with driedle, gelt, a hanukkiah and what was supposed to be a latke eating contest. There were over 200 people that showed up to celebrate the festival of lights with us! Unfortunately, there were not enough latkes for the contest. However, we did have an eating contest. Instead of scarfing 36 latkes in 2 minutes, contestants had to eat two slices of pizza and open, unwrap and eat three pieces of chocolate gelt. All of the competitors got Latkepalooza t-shirts for their fast eating, but the two fastest, Matt and Rachel got giftcards to the Penn State Bookstore. The event was filled with schmoozing and nashing and at the end of the night a few large games of dreidle broke out. Overall, it was a fantastic way to welcome Penn State students into this winter holiday.

Some more news: the new Student Board has been fully selected!! There are 16 students on our new board and we are so excited for this upcoming semester and year. At their next meeting, they will begin planning programs for the spring semester :)

Thanksgiving Shabbat

The table was set, the food was cooked, and students were arriving for Friday night services. But this was not your ordinary Shabbat. While the tables are set every Friday night, this night Friday night was different. In addition to the usual challah and grape juice, there were silver silverware, gold plates, festive napkins and cranberries galore. The food was not usual either. This week, Becky, with help from our usual chef Marisa, cooked a delicious Thanksgiving feast, complete with butternut squash soup, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, sweet potato pie, sweet and sour meatballs, corn bread, pumpkin pie, oreo pie, pumpkin muffins and homemade apple cider! On top of that, we had our second Alternative Shabbat, a discussion based service. This week's topic was the difference between being an American Jew and a Jewish American, with the conversation discussing the meaning of these two terms, if they apply, and under what conditions they apply. Overall, it was a very special Shabbat, our last service before the Thanksgiving break. So from all of us at Penn State Hillel, have a relaxing and joyous break!

What a Blast!!

Hillel does laser tag. Pictured here is one of the blue teams about to go into the laser maze against one of the red teams. We split the group into four different teams, played a few practice rounds to get used to the layout and the way the game worked and then we competed for points. The teams that weren't playing had the chance to relax and hang out, nosh on some pizza and talk strategy for their next round. Overall, it was a very exciting night!!

Tonight, we are pumped for our 5th Annual Thanksgiving Shabbat. Cooked, as always, for students by students, this Shabbat will be the last before Thanksgiving break. In addition to our regular Reform and Conservative services, tonight will feature an Alternative Shabbat Discussion about whether you believe you are a Jewish American or an American Jew. It sounds like a good topic. Check back after Shabbat for an update on the discussion and the new student board!!

Busy Busy Busy

Sorry for the lack of blog posts this week, yet again we have been very busy. Since the Judy Meisel event, we have held a Halloween bagel brunch, an Israel night, two successful Shabbats and we have selected the new executive student board.

The Halloween bagel brunch was small and simple, a chance for students to come together, eat bagels, schmooze and discuss next year's costume ideas. Israel night was a chance for birthright students, past and present, to share their stories and pictures, while enjoying some pita and falafel, generously donated by PitaPit. Coming up this week, we will be hosting free laser tag!

Shabbat services and dinner have been the same as always. Students celebrating the end of a busy week with friends and a home cooked meal. This week, we will be hosting our second Alternative Shabbat, a discussion based alternative to the traditional prayer service. Additionally, this Shabbat is our last Shabbat before Thanksgiving break, and we will be celebrating by having a Thanksgiving-inspired Shabbat dinner, prepared by students.

Student board applications were due at the end of October and the current president as well as a former board member and a current Hillel intern in addition to some Hillel staff held interviews to select the members of the new executive board. With those decisions being made, the new president and vice president will work with Hillel staff to interview applicants to fill the positions on the general board. Congratulations are in order for current president Michal for being awarded the Philip H. and Susan Rudd Cohen Student Exemplar in Excellence Award for all of her hard and dedicated work for Penn State Hillel at the General Assembly for the Jewish Federation of North America in New Orleans, LA.

Judy Meisel

Last night, eleven organizations came together to hear the story of Judy Meisel, a Holocaust survivor and civil rights activist. I was fortunate enough to go to dinner with her and many of the other sponsors before the event. She is a very sweet woman. We talked about where she's from (Lithuania but lives now in Santa Barbara, CA after previously living in Philadelphia, PA), what she does now (she has worked on the Hillel Board at UCSB for 26 years working to get them out of a small room that barely fit a minyan to a brand new building) and some of her life experiences (she met Martin Luther King Jr and worked to help plan the March on Washington).

After dinner, we made our way down to the auditorium for the event. She has a documentary made about her life experiences. It shows her reaction when a black family moved into her all white neighborhood--how this experience made her start talking about her own experiences in the Holocaust. She had not talked about it because she did not want to traumatize her children. But now that racism was apparent in her world, she no longer felt safe as a Jew in this neighborhood and spoke up for those who were being discriminated against. The movie then goes to show Judy revisiting the places she lived during her childhood: the house she was removed from when the Kovno Ghetto was formed, the house she lived in within the Kovno Ghetto, the rubber factory she worked at making boots for German soldiers, pictures of the round-up and deportation to the Stutthof Concentration camp, the gas chamber she was half into but managed to get away from, the farmhouse she ran to when the bombs were being dropped on Stutthof, the river she crossed to get from occupied Denmark to safe Sweden, and the Danish family that took her and her sister Rachel in when the war was over and nursed them back to health.

Judy used the movie to tell her story and when she spoke afterwards, it was not about what happened to her, but what she has done since then. She is a remarkable woman. Not many people could have gone through what she went through and lived, let alone talk about it. But Judy has done more. She has taken her experiences and worked hard to ensure that what happened to her never happens again. When it was happening to African Americans in the 1960, she no longer felt safe as a Jew thinking, "if they're being discriminated against, it's the same as if I'm being discriminated against."

She advocated for the end of bullying saying that "the Holocaust started with name-calling." Those simple actions then escalated into what we know as World War II. With the recent cyberbullying and suicides on college campuses, she urged us to think about what we say and the effect our words and actions have on others. If we do not stand up for what we know is right and stop someone from doing the bad action, it is as if we ourselves have done those bad actions. Her second appeal was for us to vote. We have the freedom to choose our government, and it is our responsibility to choose a government that will keep this country moving in the direction we want it to go. So many Americans take that right for granted while there are still so many people who do not have the right to choose who governs them.

Thank you so much to Judy Meisel, Bill Wallen, The Presidential Leadership Academy, The Jewish Studies Program, The Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council, Penn State Chapter of NAACP, MLK, Jr. Commemoration Committee, Schreyer Honors College, SPA Distinguished Speaker Series, Center for Ethics and Religious Affairs, University Park Undergraduate Association, and Students for Justice in Palestine for a truly remarkable program.

Israeli Dancing

Here is an example of the type of Israeli Dancing we did last night with Penn State Hillel. Led by student Dana R., we learned three traditional Israeli folk dances in just over an hour. The group was small, but it made the learning go a little easier. Dana did a great job of breaking down the steps, being patient with us as we learned the new moves and teaching us some pretty cool dances!

Tonight we host Holocaust Survivor and Civil Rights Activist Judy Meisel, check back for details!!

Pumpkin Painting and LDSSA

Monday night, Penn State Hillel hosted a Pumpkin Painting event. In the spirit of Halloween, we decorated pumpkins that would later be donated to the local preschool. Themes of pumpkins ranged from Penn State Spirit, to traditional jack-o-lanterns, to a very cool pumpkin couple with sunglasses and all! The event was very relaxed, we played ping-pong games while waiting for the paint to dry :)

I, however, was not there for most of this event. I was off at a LDSSA meeting (Latter Day Saints Student Association). Members of LDSSA had contacted our Director of Development Lizzy, for a few students who would be able to present to LDSSA students about the Jewish faith and what Hillel does on campus. I along with Ryan, another student board member, were chosen to go. We had a Penn State Hillel presentation and a Judaism in America presentation--both with general facts about Judaism in the United States and here at Penn State.

At the church, there were about 15 or so LDSSA members, so the setting was pretty informal. Ryan and I started our presentation and were quickly asked some very interesting questions. "What is the Jewish take on the after life?" "What is the relationship between prophets and G-d?" "What is Taglit-Birthright like?" "How do you deal with being a minority religion in the United States?" These questions were very interesting and showed their curiosity in the connection between Mormonism and Judaism. The questions about prophecy relate to the idea that Mormons believe in modern day prophets--the president of the Church is the current prophet. The afterlife questions reflect the Mormon belief in the afterlife in addition to the previous and current life.

I had a really enjoyable time explaining my religion--sharing what I had learned in my Jewish studies classes and my personal experiences growing up Jewish in America. We talked about the different sects of Judaism, how to become a rabbi, the transition from prophetic to rabbinic Judaism, prophecy, issues in modern day Israel and what Hillel does around campus. Not only did I feel like the LDSSA students learned a lot, but I learned a lot about a religion I had never really learned about. It was a great experience!