Campus Update: New York University

One of Judaism's many strong suits is the way in which it provides frequent opportunities for community interaction and social engagement. This year, NYU KOACH has capitalized on this potential by using our KOACH Enrichment Grant to increase schmoozing time before services.

Say what? you ask. Don't Jews schmooze enough without external prompting?

Well, yes, but not as much as we could. And more importantly, not as much as we could in a religious context, which is why, at NYU, we added built-in schmooze time to the times right before Shabbat services on Friday nights and Saturday mornings. This served two purposes: it encouraged people to show up early for services so they could talk to their friends (which meant that we could start services on time), and it generated a warm feeling of community before our services even started.

We co-sponsored each week's Friday night schmoozes with Kesher (Reform Judaism at NYU), which doubled the attendance by combining both communities, and gave us a fantastic opportunity to interact. These 30-minute schmoozes always had plenty of food, people, and Shabbat energy. One week, we held the schmooze in a beautiful townhouse next door to the Jewish center, which added a classy touch to our hummus and pita chips.

On Saturday mornings, before either our Shaharit service or Torah study (it differs from week to week) we offer a light breakfast 15 minutes before services start. Again, this helps to encourage everyone to come on time, and it refreshes us for the service. After the service, we always hold our weekly KOACH lunch, which has become somewhat of a hit this semester, as people start to find out about it and come looking for excellent food.

Another exciting new element to NYU KOACH this semester was 70 new transliterated Kabbalat Shabbat siddurim from the USCJ, which were acquired thanks to our KOACH Enrichment Grant. These new siddurim have allowed everyone in the room to participate fully, since there is no longer the barrier of having to know Hebrew to follow along. We've received a lot of positive feedback about the siddurim, and we're grateful to KOACH and the USCJ for making them and providing them to us.

Looking back, it's clear that pre-service schmoozing and transliterated siddurim were two major elements which helped give our community a welcoming atmosphere this semester, and we look forward to using them to keep KOACH strong next year!

Interested in KOACH's transliterated siddurim made just for campuses? They are $8/copy and can be ordered by sending an email to koach@uscj.org. Include contact information, a shipping address and the number of copies requested.

[Posted 1/6/11]