"You Can't Register Now"

At the JCSC training seminar in Pittsburgh, the highlight for me was a speech by the outgoing Hillel President, Avraham Infeld. In response to a question about the most important lessons he learned while working at Hillel, he said that the number one problem in America is how we think about Judaism. According to him, "Judaism is not a religion."

I agree with Avraham that Judaism is not a religion, and I think Hillel sometimes errs in the way it handles the diversity within the Jewish community. It has been my observation that Hillels often operate under the most restrictive applicable Jewish law. By that, I mean that in many circumstances, a Hillel will use Orthodox rules when holding an event or entertaining people at Hillel.

In St. Louis, when we have an event at Hillel, we do it so that it doesn't conflict with any Orthodox laws. So, after the candles are lit for Shabbat, we do our best to adhere to rules of Shomer Shabbas. At the first dinner, we were trying to get freshmen to sign up to go on the freshmen retreat that we were having. We had left sign up forms and pencils on the tables so that people could fill out applications early in the day before services began and then we would remove the pencils before Shabbat officially began.

Some of the more observant people who were in attendance were uncomfortable to see people writing (even before Shabbat officialy started), so we picked up the pencils soon after we had placed them on the tables. Another staff member was talking with an interested freshman about the retreat, and he said he wanted to sign up. She told him, "You can't register now." He seemed surprised, and asked, "Oh, is it full already?" The staffer replied that "we don't allow people to write on Shabbat" and told the student he would have to come back and fill out the form next week.

Just as our goal should be to make observant people feel comfortable and welcome, we should have the same concern for secular and cultural Jews. I question whether we make people who are less observant feel welcome at Hillel by forcing them to abide by Orthodox rules. Thinking back, I'm almost certain that if on my first visit, I was put in a situation where I felt pressure to immediately conform to Orthodox standards, I would have felt alienated.

This creates a tension between accommodating everyone's personal beliefs without coercing anyone or making anyone feel uncomfortable. I think Hillel could do more to give students some individual leeway in the way they behave in Hillel. All food served at Hillel should be kosher, so everyone can participate. There should never be a movie screening on a Friday night or Saturday morning, because not all students could participate.

But just as those steps should be taken to accommodate more observant students, we should work on making sure that Hillel is a place where less observant students also feel comfortable.