[Jewish] Open Letter to the JSU

[Gideon Bass]

Hey fellow JSUers! I hope you all had a great year and have awesome summers.
Sarah, Tamara and I have been doing some thinking about where the JSU is right
now and where we see it going next year, and wanted to share some thoughts with
you, and see if you have any opinions or ideas about things. Feel free to reply
to the list-serv (jewish at lists.hampshire.edu) or if you feel uncomfortable just
email some or all of the signers (gpb05 at hampshire.edu, tnm06 at hampshire.edu,
sld06 at hampshire.edu).

1.        Social Events. One thing we’ve budgeted more money for and want to try
and do
more of this year is to have a greater emphasis on events which are purely
social, rather than religious. The idea is to have a chance to just hang out
with other Jews in a comfortable friendly environment and do awesome stuff.
Joanna’s doing a lot on this, maybe she’ll send an email about her ideas. If
you have any thoughts (really cool ideas for things to do or whatever), email
her. Or us. Or the list-serv (jewish at lists.hampshire.edu)
2.        More “spiritual” Shabbat dinners. So our thoughts on this was that
Shabbat
dinners have been basically a glorified social gathering/free food thing with a
couple of blessings in the beginning. One idea we had was to try and do kabbalat
Shabbat before hand (for those unfamiliar, kabbalat Shabbat is the singing part
of the Friday night services, without all of the muttering prayers to yourself
parts). Another idea was to sing zmirot (jewish songs) after Shabbat every few
weeks. To that end, Sarah and myself are going to try and assemble a song sheet
with English, Hebrew, and Transliteration of a whole mess of songs that we can
sing. If you have any favorites, please email us so we can make sure they’re
included.
3.        Another thing we were thinking about was Best Part of the Week. For as
long
as I’ve been here (a mere two years, I know), we’ve always started Shabbat
dinner off with the Best Part of the Week. It’s supposed to be an uplifting
thing where you can reflect on how great your week has been (or if it’s been
crappy, you can at least remember that one good part). However, a lot of people
have talked about it almost as if it’s a chore – “Oh right, I have to think of a
best part of the week.” So we figured we’d ask you all what you think of Best
Part of the Week? Do you love it? Hate it? Indifferent? What it not be Shabbat
if it’s not there?
4.        Cultural Events. Another idea we had was trying to do stuff about
Jewish
Culture. We know a lot of people identify themselves as “culturally” Jewish but
not “religiously” Jewish. This past year, JSU hasn’t really done anything in
that regards, and we’ve been thinking it would be good to try and meet that
interest, if it’s there. So again we’re asking for the brilliant ideas I’m sure
you all have. What parts of Jewish culture do you love but haven’t really gotten
at Hampshire?

Uhmm, yeah, so sorry about the long email.  That’s basically it though. Again,
if you have any comments, feel free to reply to the list-serv
(jewish at lists.hampshire.edu) or if you feel uncomfortable just email some or
all of the signers (gpb05 at hampshire.edu, tnm06 at hampshire.edu,
sld06 at hampshire.edu).

-Gideon Bass
-Sarah Danson
-Tamara Maurey