The Shabbos Project at Rutgers University: Keeping it Together
This Shabbat, October 24-25, Rutgers Hillel is participating in a special world-wide event called The Shabbos Project. The Shabbos Project is a unique, international grassroots Jewish identity movement that unites all Jews to keep one full Shabbat together. The idea originated last year in South Africa, where the majority of the country’s diverse Jewish community joined together to observe a single Shabbat, most for the first time in their lives. Read on to hear how the students of Rutgers Hillel are bringing this project to campus.
At Rutgers many students are Jewish but are unaware of their Jewish identity. We hope to unite all the Jews together for one amazing Shabbos here at Rutgers University. Just one Shabbos is achievable by all. No matter what one’s affiliation may be, we are going to put that all aside. And #KeepItTogether
Eli Shulman, Class of 2017
Eli and I decided that we had to do something here at Rutgers for The Shabbos Project because it was so successful in South Africa. We wanted to continue the trend and expand it here. We realized that at Rutgers there are thousands of Jews on campus, the majority of which are unaffiliated. We felt that it was a perfect place to bring The Shabbos Project. We knew we couldn’t reach everyone, so for this year we are hosting a Friday night dinner and Shabbos lunch in our house for a number of invited guests. Hopefully with more time to plan and prepare we could expand and reach many more people. I also hope that we can make this an annual event at Rutgers.
Ariel Schabes, Class of 2017
This Shabbat is going to be different than the norm. In honor of it being Shabbat Parshat Noach, dinner will be Mix-It Up Shabbat, meaning that people will be encouraged to sit with people who they would not ordinarily sit with at dinner. The four center tables will be labeled with broad categories of majors, so that there will be guaranteed common ground for students to talk about. After dinner, there will be Tisch and Destress – A place where people can reconvene for some snacks and to relax. There will be yoga and board games, things needed to take a break from all of the Midterms.
Laura Leichtman, Class of 2016
Visit The Shabbos Project at Rutgers University Facebook page and event for more information.
We hope you can join us for this very special Shabbat at Rutgers Hillel! Shabbat Shalom!
