for college • students by college students
Far Yet Familiar
WashU freshman finds plenty to do Jewishly.
By Rachel Margolin
At the St. Louis Hillel retreat: Louisa Kornblatt of
Madison, Wis., Avital Mintz-Morgenthau of New
York City, Rachel Margolin of Orchard Lake and
Rachel Schindler of Mountain Lakes, N.J.
St. Louis
I
t wasn't until the day I stepped
on campus for move-in day at
Washington University in St.
Louis that realized I would no
longer attend school with my clos-
est friends, let alone a small close-
knit group of Jews.
Of course, I was nervous. I had
said goodbye to the Frankel Jewish
Academy in West Bloomfield, leav-
ing the majority of my friends close
to home at University of Michigan
in Ann Arbor or Michigan State
in East Lansing. I knew very few
people at WashU. Although there
are not many Detroiters, I knew I
would still feel comfortable outside
of my usual surroundings because
there are many Jewish students
here. In fact, WashU is almost 30
percent Jewish.
I was immediately immersed in
WashU's culture — secular and
Jewish. Luckily for me, my transi-
tion wasn't too difficult, as pieces
of home were sprinkled into my
many new experiences.
I spent my first Shabbat at the
Chabad House of St. Louis. Rabbi
Hershey Novack and his wife,
Chana, welcome an average of 50
people at their home for Shabbat
each week. St. Louis Hillel also
hosts an even larger weekly Shabbat
dinner, but I must admit I am partial
to Chana's apple-cinnamon challah.
Over Labor Day weekend, I went
on a Hillel retreat, "Into the Wild,"
to a camp an hour from St. Louis
with about 100 other Jewish fresh-
men and 20 sophomore facilitators.
We spent time getting to know other
people and doing fun camp activi-
ties like kayaking and crafts.
Although the activities were
great, the highlight was having free
time to meet all the freshmen just
starting to get settled in school who
were equally as excited (and ner-
vous) to make new friends.
Jewish students here also can
get involved in WashU Students
for Israel (WSI), which is split into
a political activism group and a
social and cultural group. I attend
WSI meetings every Tuesday night,
along with a strong group of 20-30
other students looking to enhance
Jewish experiences on campus as
well as working with our local con-
gressman and senator on strengthen-
ing the U.S.-Israel relationship.
This month, we are bringing
Israeli comedian Benji Lovitt to
perform on campus for the entire
student body. On the political side,
we sent representatives from WSI
to canvas and make phone calls for
Democratic and Republican can-
didates for Congress in the recent
election to show our support for
their positive positions on Israel.
At the reunion for the Hillel
retreat, we were given bright blue
T-shirts that read "Wash Jew." This
school is not entirely Jewish by any
means, nor do I only involve myself
in Jewish activities, but I know I
can feel comfortable wearing that
shirt here because enough people
are similar to me — and many more
I know I can learn from and are
interested in learning about my cul-
ture and customs, too.
I came to WashU ready to discov-
er all that it had in store; and while
I was initially sad leaving home and
all of the comforts I knew well, I
couldn't be happier with my deci-
sion to attend school here. @
Rachel Margolin of Orchard Lake is a
freshman at Washington University in St.
Louis, Mo.
111E THOMAS M.
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November 11 • 2010
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