Brought To You By . See Your Byline Here! Next Issue: The Detroit Jewish News with support from the Stephen H. Schulman Millennium Fund of the Bloomfield Township-based Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. jewish@edu is written by Jewish college stu- dents from Metro Detroit.You can submit stories, photographs, art, reviews, opinion — all require some Jewish component. kcohen@renmedia.us Look for more stories written by college stu- dents for college students when we run an issue of jewish@edu extra before you head off for winter break. Happy Chanukah ... a little early! • • for college students by college students Wherever You Roam Jewish communities offer a home . / VOLUME 1, NO. 3 By Zachary Colman My genera- flan is bad with reli- gion. That's what my father told me when I asked him which synagogue I should go to in my new home of Springfield, Ill. With only two synagogues in this city of 117,000 people — one Conservative, one Reform — there weren't many options. On Rosh Hashanah, I chose the Conservative syna- gogue, where the average age was somewhere between octo- genarian and six feet under. So I called my dad, wonder- ing whether I should stick it out at the Conservative synagogue. And that's when he told me about my generation, and that's why he said I should go to the Reform synagogue for Yom Kippur. I've had to start over two times in the past five months. I moved to Omaha, Neb., for an internship right after gradu- ating from Michigan State University in East Lansing, and now I'm in Springfield; I didn't know a single person in either city. But my natural instinct was to seek out the Jewish community. Through my early post-grad- uation travels, I've learned one important thing — you may be far from home, but you're never far from the Jewish com- munity. And, in a way, that is home. I joined the Jewish Community Center in Omaha the first week I was there, and that's how I met my Omaha friends. The Jewish community there put me in touch with more people than I even had time to meet; and it did the same for a few area newcom- ROAM on page 28 NOVEMBER 11, 2010 / 4 ICESLEV 5771 edu Israel Fest MSU celebrates the Holy Land. By Casey Weiss East Lansing More than 450 Michigan State Agriculture And Judaism Spring break farm program leads to digging new roots. University students gathered Oct. 27 at Union Ballroom for the 6th Annual Israel Fest: Global Israel to celebrate Israel's culture and con- tributions to global society. By Sam Plotkin Sponsored by ASMSU, MSU's undergraduate stu- East Lansing dent government, and orga- nized by the Jewish Student Union (JSU), MSU Hillel and S now and ice caked the win- dows as I sat on my couch in Huntington Woods, captivated by the picturesque landscape of Mendocino County in northern California. It was December 2008, the winter break of my sophomore year at Michigan State University. I had been grazing the alternative spring break opportunities on MSU Hillel's website, longing for warmer months and the golden northern California sunshine. The program that grabbed my atten- tion was run by the Jewish Farm School (JFS); it offered students a chance to spend spring break at Oz Farm, an organic farm in Mendocino County. Students would spend the week doing general farm labor — plant- ing and composting detail — as well as cooking, singing, eating, practicing yoga and learning about the relationship between Judaism and agriculture. We would be affirming our Jewish roots and digging for new ones. At the time, I was growing disillusioned with my major — social relations and policy — and food was an afterthought. I ate when I was hungry, of course, and I ate what was palatable. Moreover, farming was foreign to a kid who grew up in Metro Detroit. IVIEU student Sam Plotkin of Huntington Woods Yet my week at Oz that spring changed works in the corcirn.unity gardern in Lansing. my worldview and prompted me to become involved in community farming and food education in East Lansing. world with sustainable agriculture and by demanding social At Oz, two extraordinary IFS staff members led our justice in our food system. I left Oz enlightened and eager group of Jewish students from schools across the country. to put my knowledge to use on campus. During that week, my understanding of food, farming and Judaism transformed. I came to see food and agriculture Green Thumb as fundamental elements that connect humans to nature, to Since my time at Oz, I have volunteered at MSU's Student our ancestors and to our Jewish forbearers. Organic Farm and at the Gardenhouse, a greenhouse oper- I learned of the vast industrial food production system ated by Lansing's Allen Neighborhood Center (ANC), a that decimates the environment and plagues our world nonprofit that services low-income residents on Lansing's today. I came to understand the intricate physical and spiii- eastside. This spring, I began working actively with ANC's Mal connection between Judaism and the natural world. farmers market, organizing a booth called Food Chatter, a We ruminated on the meaning of tzedekah as well as food education initiative. I also have worked on an exer- tikkun olam, and talked of how we can work to repair our AGRICULTURE AND JUDAISM on page 28 Team Israel Programming Committee, Israel Fest's goal was education. Attendees enjoyed Israeli food and visited educational and cultural booths showcas- ing Israel's diversity. Students visited information booths from MSU's study- abroad program in Israel, the David Project and MASA, a program enabling young Jews worldwide to spend a semes- ter or year in Israel. "We wanted to inform stu- dents of the cultural diversity in Israel, while also showcas- ing the many contributions Israel offers," said Sam Appel, JSU president and a junior in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities. Israel Fest also featured giveaways, including T-shirts and Dead Sea products from Jericho. Each attendee got a free raffle ticket and received more by visiting booths. Prizes included a flat-screen TV, Dead Sea products, an iPod and a Nintendo Wii. The raffle was generously sponsored by ZOA, StandWithUs and Jericho. For information on upcom- ing Israel programs at MSU, contact Nimrod Kozo!, MSU Hillel Israel Fellow, at israelfel- low@msuhillel.org . Casey Weiss of West Bloomfield is a senior at MSU in East Lansing. Look for an Israel Fest photo on page 29. 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