Oracle Online

The Jewish Student Organization is an inclusive group, which welcomes those who are practicing and non-practicing Jews, as well as those who simply want to understand Judaism better.

Earlier in the year the Jewish Student Organization celebrated Sukkot, the traditional Jewish harvest festival by putting up a sukkah, a small covered building which was traditionally made up of three walls and usually covered with branches and stalks.

Jewish farmers would usually stay in their sukkah while they harvested from the field and then gave their excess produce to the sukkah in charity.

The sukkah, which was on display in front of Sorin Dining Hall, was filled with information on Sukkot and what a sukkah is.

Turnout was higher than expected and more than a dozen students braved the cold fall wind for pizza, tea and coffee. In addition, many students were intrigued by the building and many stopped by the sukkah and asked various questions on Judaism and what the building was.

The handful of Jewish students at the university is typical of the area. “There simply are not a lot of Jews in the Midwest,” senior Kylee Foley said. Jewish centers of population tend to be more toward the east and west coasts.

Despite the pluralistic nature of religious communities at the university, educating students about the social ill of anti-Semitism is among the organization’s main goals.

In the near future, the Jewish Student Organization will be showing Liberty Heights, a semi-biography of film director Barry Levinson’s experiences as a young man in Baltimore and the rampant anti-Semitism he faced.

The organization is also holding the third annual Hanukkah Latke Cook-Off on Dec. 14 during convocation hour in the Manor Main Lounge. A latke is a potato pancake. The cook-off will exhibit Jewish professors’ family recipes of latke making.

In addition to special Hanukah events, Torah study with the Jewish Student Organization meets every Thursday in the Religious and Spiritual Life Office Chapel at 4 p.m.