In an imagined conversation with his great-great grandfather, Rabbi David Wolpe shares “We’re having a tough time at Harvard.” His ancestor, flabbergasted, interrupts him to blurt out, “There are Jews at Harvard?” Rabbi Wolpe continues, “Yeah, but there’s a lot of hatred of Israel.” Rabbi Wolpe’s great-great grandfather again interjects to exclaim, “There’s an Israel?!”
Not to minimize in any way what the Jewish people are going through at the moment but our problems aren’t exactly analogous to those our forebears endured over a century ago.
While Jewish students once clamored for coveted spaces at the most selective institutions of higher learning, the events of last year brought on a reversal in the form of the Biblical sounding ‘Ivy League Exodus’. Jewish students are choosing to eschew applying to arguably the greatest known schools in the world out of a fear that the mezuzah on their door serves as more of a target than an amulet.
If this would all be unfathomable to Rabbi Wolpe’s great-great grandfather, it would have been even stranger to Rabbi Wolpe’s grandfather. 100 years ago, Jews were so prevalent on Ivy League campuses that deans, presidents and provosts colluded to institute quotas in the name of ‘diversity’ that restricted the Jewish student population from rising above a certain percentage.
That Jews would now be heading to the mahogany exit doors of these historic universities would shock somebody of a generation who saw students rejected solely and openly because of their Jewish identity.
All of this makes our upcoming Scholars-in-Residence series even more remarkable. Both upcoming speakers are Ivy League educated multiple times over in very different generations including one who is currently studying at that bastion of love for Israel and the Jewish people, Columbia University.
This Friday night’s lecture will feature an incredible depth of Torah study rarely seen in the Jewish wilderness of Asia Pacific. Next Friday night’s lecture will combine secular and Judaic studies learned at the highest levels possible on a topic all of us can relate to, gossip.
For your own spiritual fulfillment and educational enrichment do not miss out on what, if current trendlines hold, will be rarer and rarer opportunities in future to learn from the Jews of the Ivy League.
Shabbat Parshat Vayishlach
Candle Lighting: 4:10pm
Havdala: 5:11pm