University of Pennsylvania Jewish Campus Service Corps (JCSC)
Holidays

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HOLIDAY PROGRAMS

 

 

ROSH HASHANAH

 

Rosh Hashanah is the first holiday of the school year, and luckily, can focus on festivities and food!  In addition to helping at Reform services and student dinners, my programming for Rosh Hashanah focused on tabling on Locust Walk and in the Quad, because the weather was still beautiful.  Having apples and honey, candy and Spin Art Rosh Hashanah cards for a few days brought people over, often to have a friend try or talk about what they were doing for the holiday.  I would also recommend you send New Years cards to all of the freshmen for whom you have met!

  

 

SUKKOT

 

I co-sponsored Fondue in the Hut with the First Year Activities Council, which was a lot of fun, and attracted a lot of students! We also made decorations in the JLL meeting for the Sukkahbeautiful links!

 

HANUKKAH

 

During Hanukkah I worked with the Greek Jewish Activities Council (GJAC) to make Hanukkah baskets for Greek Houses.  These included Hanukkah notes, dreidels, gelt, bazookah, menorah, candles and card. I also worked with First Year Activities Council in planning the Freshman Hanukkah Bash in McClelland, which was a huge success!

 

In addtion we participated in the University sponsored WinterFest in Houston Hall. We set up a table with hundreds of hot potato latkes and Hanukkah kits that we sold. Winterfest is a great university program - tons of students, staff, and faculty float through Houston Hall and join in on the festivities!

 

 

PURIM

 

All of the JLLs and G-JLLs did Purim events, either Hamantashen baking, mask-making, or putting together Mishloach Manot (baskets of goodeis some gave to their friends or dontated to charity, as is the Purim tradition).

 

 

PASSOVER 

 
I led the Reform Seder with Kate the first night of Passover, which was a good experience my first time leading a seder, especially with over fifty people in attendance! Several JLLs also hosted seders in their lounges or apartments which was really fabulous. I helped them organize and prepare for their seders. One thing I would advise in helping JLLs and G-JLLs prepare for seders is to remember it is time-consuming and tedious, and make sure they are familiar with the haggadah and have all the necessary foods so plan early! In addition, I worked with two other students in planning the womens seder, which we held two days before Passover. 

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  SHABBAT ACROSS PENN
(SHAP)
 

 

 

What is SHAP?

 

Shabbat Across Penn aims to sponsor Shabbat dinners across campus on one night. Part of a national Shabbat Across America campaign, Shamir and I worked on the project for weeks. Shabbat Across Penn this year was held on the Friday night of November 16th.

 

The Process

 

The first step involved finding two co-chairs and we were so lucky to be bale to work with two wonderful students Rachel and Ali.. We met with them for two straight weeks to plan out strategy and try to empower them with the great task of creating ShAP. The four of us came up with names for our ShAP committee. We were looking for students that represented the large gamut of Jewish life on campus, from all the religious groups to Greek life to Civic House to the JLLs.

 

The Result

 

Ultimately we had over eighty meals all over campus. Every JLL hosted a meal, Tzedek Hillel, Half-Shekel, AU, and JRP were among the other groups that hosted them, along with quite a few individual meals. The religious communities also organized together and hosted meals that had equal number of Reform, Conservative and Orthodox students attending, along with a host from each of the communities. These were extremely successful. The days before ShAP, we put a banner up on the walk to advertise. Many students said this helped create a sense of community and legitimacy to the meals. Shamir and I also spent MUCH time organizing the food and pick-up for Friday. We ordered from a caterer and used Irvs. The Irvs staff was wonderful and because of all the preparation ahead of time, the pick-ups went extremely well.

 

Goals for the Future

 

We got great feedback from Shabbat Across Penn. Students commented on the all campus feel that generated excitement and a sense of community. The organization that went into the planning was also noted, as was the comfort that many felt at the religious community dinners.

 

For the future, we talked about doing it earlier in the year, so that we can better use the names and excitement that stemmed from ShAP. More publicity can be used in terms of attracting a larger variety of students. We also need to carefully monitor out relationship with JHP in this process and make sure they fully understand what our partnership means. ShAP was a great success this year and it can only get better!

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