Surge in enrollment makes UMass a choice school for yeshiva graduates
A new program for Orthodox Jewish students is set to appear at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in August, making the school – which has seen a rapid growth in applications from Orthodox students – increasingly attractive to yeshiva day school graduates.
Top Stories
* Here we go again, yet again
* Tips from the roots
subscribe to The Jewish Advocate email this page to a friend print this page email the editor
Only three years ago, the entire Orthodox population comprised no more than four students. Today it is nearing 30, according to Orthodox student leaders. While a program targeted to the small community was unnecessary only a few years ago, it is a necessity today, said Meir Dashevsky, a recent Orthodox graduate.
“It came to a point where we needed a rabbi who could lead the community and set the tone, which was something that students [alone] cannot provide,” said Dashevsky.
Orthodox students worked with the UMass Hillel to invite the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus, a program co-sponsored by the Orthodox Union and Hillel, in time for the upcoming school year. JLIC sends rabbi-and-wife teams to campuses across the country to work with Orthodox students, and provides them with the educational and social resources necessary to build an Orthodox community.
The addition of JLIC is significant for Orthodox students in general, but specifically for Jewish students in Massachusetts who want to take advantage of the low cost of college education provided by the state school.
Jay Berkovitz, a Judaic studies professor at UMass and a mentor to the Orthodox community, said that the growth of Orthodox Jewry on campus opens the school to yeshiva graduates who would never have considered it an option.
“The whole idea is to create conditions at UMass that would be attractive to day school graduates across the country, the assumption being that Amherst and the five-college area is an extraordinarily attractive place and a natural draw for students of all kinds,” said Berkovitz.
According to Dashevsky, the recent graduate who also works part-time as a recruiter for UMass, applications from Orthodox day schools have increased by 500 percent over the past three years. Maimonides, which typically sends three applications per year, sent 20 for the 2006-2007 school year. Dashevsky added that Orthodox students from New York yeshivot like Frisch, Ramaz and Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway are sending in applications as well.
“There is a lot of interest in UMass and [JLIC] closes the deal,” said Dashevsky.
JLIC, which differs both philosophically and practically from Chabad and Hillel, is only available on 13 college campuses across the country. While it is popular on some campuses with large Orthodox communities like the University of Pennsylvania and Brandeis University, they also target schools with small Orthodox populations in need of guidance to help build the community.
JLIC is open to all Jewish students but its primary audience is Orthodox students for whom the rabbi-and-wife team create religious and social programming. JLIC is not an outreach organization like Chabad, nor is it non-denominational like Hillel.
“Our goal is to provide religious Torah leadership on campus ... and to help those who are already observant maintain their observance and advance it,” said Rabbi Menachem Schrader, a teacher at an Israeli yeshiva for American college students who founded the program with the OU six years ago.
Both Schrader and Rabbi Ilan Haber, the national director of the program, explained that prior to the founding of JLIC, Orthodox college students have been neglected by the larger Orthodox community.
Traditionally, students who were not attending Orthodox universities like Yeshiva University or Touro College were commuting to local colleges. However, as it became popular for Orthodox students to attend secular campuses far from home, it was clear that the Orthodox community had to step in to provide proper resources.
“In previous generations, the home environment was dominant and strong,” said Schrader. “Today, the average Orthodox student is going to school far from home, which simply creates a different reality. As the Orthodox community expects their education provided by the best America has to offer, the need has arisen to provide them with a religious framework within that context.”
Haber agreed. “The future of Modern Orthodoxy is on these campuses and our goal is to help provide and nurture that future,” he said. “If this is where the students are we want to help them realize their potential both Jewishly and secularly.”
A new program for Orthodox Jewish students is set to appear at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in August, making the school – which has seen a rapid growth in applications from Orthodox students – increasingly attractive to yeshiva day school graduates.
Top Stories
* Here we go again, yet again
* Tips from the roots
subscribe to The Jewish Advocate email this page to a friend print this page email the editor
Only three years ago, the entire Orthodox population comprised no more than four students. Today it is nearing 30, according to Orthodox student leaders. While a program targeted to the small community was unnecessary only a few years ago, it is a necessity today, said Meir Dashevsky, a recent Orthodox graduate.
“It came to a point where we needed a rabbi who could lead the community and set the tone, which was something that students [alone] cannot provide,” said Dashevsky.
Orthodox students worked with the UMass Hillel to invite the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus, a program co-sponsored by the Orthodox Union and Hillel, in time for the upcoming school year. JLIC sends rabbi-and-wife teams to campuses across the country to work with Orthodox students, and provides them with the educational and social resources necessary to build an Orthodox community.
The addition of JLIC is significant for Orthodox students in general, but specifically for Jewish students in Massachusetts who want to take advantage of the low cost of college education provided by the state school.
Jay Berkovitz, a Judaic studies professor at UMass and a mentor to the Orthodox community, said that the growth of Orthodox Jewry on campus opens the school to yeshiva graduates who would never have considered it an option.
“The whole idea is to create conditions at UMass that would be attractive to day school graduates across the country, the assumption being that Amherst and the five-college area is an extraordinarily attractive place and a natural draw for students of all kinds,” said Berkovitz.
According to Dashevsky, the recent graduate who also works part-time as a recruiter for UMass, applications from Orthodox day schools have increased by 500 percent over the past three years. Maimonides, which typically sends three applications per year, sent 20 for the 2006-2007 school year. Dashevsky added that Orthodox students from New York yeshivot like Frisch, Ramaz and Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway are sending in applications as well.
“There is a lot of interest in UMass and [JLIC] closes the deal,” said Dashevsky.
JLIC, which differs both philosophically and practically from Chabad and Hillel, is only available on 13 college campuses across the country. While it is popular on some campuses with large Orthodox communities like the University of Pennsylvania and Brandeis University, they also target schools with small Orthodox populations in need of guidance to help build the community.
JLIC is open to all Jewish students but its primary audience is Orthodox students for whom the rabbi-and-wife team create religious and social programming. JLIC is not an outreach organization like Chabad, nor is it non-denominational like Hillel.
“Our goal is to provide religious Torah leadership on campus ... and to help those who are already observant maintain their observance and advance it,” said Rabbi Menachem Schrader, a teacher at an Israeli yeshiva for American college students who founded the program with the OU six years ago.
Both Schrader and Rabbi Ilan Haber, the national director of the program, explained that prior to the founding of JLIC, Orthodox college students have been neglected by the larger Orthodox community.
Traditionally, students who were not attending Orthodox universities like Yeshiva University or Touro College were commuting to local colleges. However, as it became popular for Orthodox students to attend secular campuses far from home, it was clear that the Orthodox community had to step in to provide proper resources.
“In previous generations, the home environment was dominant and strong,” said Schrader. “Today, the average Orthodox student is going to school far from home, which simply creates a different reality. As the Orthodox community expects their education provided by the best America has to offer, the need has arisen to provide them with a religious framework within that context.”
Haber agreed. “The future of Modern Orthodoxy is on these campuses and our goal is to help provide and nurture that future,” he said. “If this is where the students are we want to help them realize their potential both Jewishly and secularly.”
No comments:
Post a Comment