When her professor thought she spoke some Yiddish, Sara Ehrmann, a third year music education major said, “he came up to me and asked me to teach him something because as he said, the only Yiddish word he knew was “schmuck.”
This was one of the issues raised by the students this past Tuesday, at the weekly meeting of USM’s Hillel organization in the Woodbury Campus Center.
“Things have changed. We are not an immigrant population any more,” said Samuel Mendales, executive director of Hillel’s regional center at BU in Boston, MA. “My children’s issues are different now than my parents’ issues, who were referred to as children of immigrants. My children consider themselves as Americans so it is very difficult for them to go to college and find out that they are in minority because of being Jews.”
“Ignorance is one of the biggest problems we are facing and that is why we try to raise awareness in the community,” said Southern Maine Community College student Ezra Kaufman. “Though the Jewish population is growing in Maine, we are still in the minority despite the fact that we are Caucasians. And people are not familiar with any minority groups here.”
Hillel, which is the largest Jewish campus organization in the world, has been the central address for Jewish students on college campuses since it was founded at the University of Illinois in 1923. It provides opportunities for Jewish students to explore and celebrate their Jewish identity through its global network of over 500 regional centers. “Its mission is to maximize the number of Jews doing Jewish with other Jews,” said Michael Miller, fourth year business major.
Hillel at USM was recently formed with the help of Andrea Thompson-McCall, USM’s Interfaith Chaplain and has only about 35 registered members. About ten of them are active and on Tuesday’s group meeting, only three out of ten showed up. There is diversity inside the group itself: Ehrmann is a Reform Jew, Miller is a Conservative Jew and Kaufman is an Orthodox Jew.
“Because of such diversity within our group there are different political views,” said Kaufman. “When it comes to politics, we try to keep the group name Hillel out of our activities.”
The three spoke about their experience as a minority on campus.
“It is not that I feel scared or something,” said Miller. “I do not think there is a hostile environment at USM, but sometimes I do feel afraid to speak up.”
“Hillel is different on small campuses. It is difficult to sustain a full time staff there,” said Mendales.
“We as a group are trying to foster Jewish community, if you are a Jewish student on campus and want to meet some other Jews then this is your primary opportunity,” said Ehrmann.
“Hillel actively seeks to engage uninvolved Jewish students, encourages them to take responsibility for their Jewish identity,” said Mendales. “As no membership is required, any student may participate in Hillel. It is committed to a pluralistic vision of Judaism that embraces all movements.”
“Everyone is welcome to our meetings, no matter if you are a Jew or not”, said Miller. “If people want to find out more about Judaism, we will be more than glad to give insights about our way of life”.
Nino Kemoklidze can be contacted at: [email protected]