Oracle Online

Kyle Foley, president of Mishpha (or the Jewish Student Organization), said that “mishpha” is the Hebrew word for family, which represents the organization and the Jewish culture as a whole.

Mishpha is an all-inclusive group, open to all those involved in the Jewish faith and those who are also simply interested in learning about the Jewish faith and Jewish culture.

The group is meant to have a warm, welcoming atmosphere, said Mishpha secretary Rebekah Orensten. Here, Jews of all types, whether religious or secular, can come together and learn and ultimately teach othersčeven non-Jews who may only want to learn about the culturečwhat it means to be Jewish.

Mishpha began educating the student body by holding events celebrating the Sukkot, a harvest festival.

A week ago Sunday, the group built a sukkah, which was placed adjacent to the Blue Garden. A sukkah is type of hut with three walls and a ceiling made up of objects that once were living (as in branches, corn stalks and other items).

Traditionally, donations of the harvest are brought to the sukkah for charity, after which a party is thrown and everyone ends up sleeping in the hut-like structure. The organization members then watched the movie School Ties, which is about a prep-school student who has to hide his Jewish background in 1950s New England.

No HUSC dollars were used in this first celebration.

Foley said the organization filed too late last semester for a HUSC budget, and HUSC’s contingency plan was not able to be set into play. The members gladly donated personal money to set the event up, but they are still looking forward to having a HUSC budget.

The turnout for the Sukkot celebration was rather smallča handful of peoplečbut no one in Mishpha was overly worried, considering that there are more Jewish professors at Hamline than there are Jewish students.

This tiny community is representational of this region of the country, Foley said. There simply are not many Jewish people in the Midwest. She added that part of the hope of having a tight-knit student org is to attract more Jewish students to Hamline.

Of the people attending the first celebrations, three or four of them were non-Jewish.

Foley said that this generally shows how accepting the atmosphere at Hamline is and how cool it is that non-Jewish students want to learn about Jewish life.

Despite the overall positive nature of Hamline, the need for education and acceptance is present, as is made clear by recent events in Drew Residence Hall.

Marni Rutman, vice president of Mishpha, cited a statement released by Safety and Security, which reported that someone drew crosses all over the residence hall and tore down and vandalized non-Christian student organization announcements.

This is exactly the type of prejudice that the group would like to end by having celebrations and simply educating the student body, she said.

Beyond education, Mishpha is also committed to community service. They hope to get involved in the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program. Mishpha also hopes to make a difference in the community by holding functions with other student organizations.

In the near future, the organization will be showing the film Trembling Before G-D with Spectrum.

Anyone interested in Mishpha can contact president Kyle Foley at x4021.