Hillel

Growing up as a religious Jew, a big worry within the community is that once you go away to college, you will stop following the laws and traditions of the Jewish religion. This is because it is usually very difficult to continue following many of the laws, especially when surrounded for the first time by so many people who don’t follow the same laws and traditions as you. One solution that many Jews use is to go Yeshiva University, which is 100% Jewish, and so for them it is easy to follow laws, since everyone around them is Jewish. However, it is very expensive, so instead I chose to go to Baruch. I chose Baruch over other CUNYs mainly because it has a lot of Jews. With Judaism being such a big part of my life, I of course went to the Hillel on the first day, to see what they offered. I have went just about every single day since then, usually to eat lunch or to just hang out and use their unique Wi-Fi. The specific event that I took this picture at was Parsha Wednesday. In Judaism there is basically a chapter from the bible for every week, which is called the Parsha. At Parsha Wednesday, a volunteer speaker speaks about a few thoughts from the Parsha of the Week. It starts at 12:15 every wednesday, and in the middle they serve pizza. I will keep on attending Hillel probably for the rest of my time at college, as it is a good base for me to have fellow Jews around me, and is also a good way to meet new friends. It is also a good place to visit every day, as they have a free lunch every single day of the week except friday. This is good because it is difficult to find kosher food, and even when I can, it is usually very expensive. It is also good because as a Jew, the stereotype that we love things that are free is very true. Usually the food that they serve is pizza, but every once in a while we have something different, like sushi or chinese.