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RJC rebuids with new name
By
Karen Salerni
Special to The Mitzpeh
The campus branch of Kesher, a national college organization for Reform
Jews, has changed its name to the Reform Jewish Community in an attempt
to revitalize a once-strong organization on campus.
To restore and maintain a strong Reform presence at the university, the
group hopes to reach out to students through a variety of programs and
religious services, RJC members said.
“The vibrancy of the Jewish community should reach as many people as
possible,” said Josh Fixler, a sophomore letters and sciences major
active in RJC. “This is one place we’ve been missing out on for the past
couple of years.”
Four years ago, a vibrant Reform community on campus thrived while other
Jewish communities struggled, Fixler said. At the time, the Hillel staff
decided to focus on helping the other groups, but soon afterward the
graduations of Reform leaders began to erode the community until it
started to fall apart, Fixler said.
“No one was there to pick up the pieces,” he said.
So last spring those involved in Kesher decided to change the its name
because many Reform students on the campus were unsure of what Kesher
meant, leading the group to conclude RJC “was a better name to call the
community here at Maryland,” said Sara Newman, a junior history and
psychology major.
Although Fixler said the immediate impact of the name change was minor,
it has given the group a fresh start, and with new support, RJC has been
able to work hard for the Reform community.
“We’ve been really lucky this past year to have five or six people
committed to coming in and making a change,” he said. “The people who
have been saying ‘Let’s do this’ have really made a difference.”
The group has been working to attract Reform students at the university
that traditionally do not attend Hillel regularly, Newman said. For
example, the group has made its Friday night Shabbat services at Hillel
more fun and accessible by leading them with guitars and having themes
which students can more easily relate to than traditional services, she
said.
A
recent Friday night service was entitled “New Beginnings” to help
welcome the new school year, and the service concluded with Semisonic’s
late-‘90s rock song, “Closing Time,” she said.
Recognizing that many underclassmen live on North Campus and find it
difficult to travel to events at Hillel, RJC is bringing the Jewish
community directly to students.
“We’re having Shabbat on North Campus the weekend after Yom Kippur,”
Fixler said. “That’s going to be really fun and really hip and draw a
big crowd.”
RJC also plans to get active in social issues. The group wants to become
involved with the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, a lobbying
group on Capitol Hill. Newman acknowledges that while not all students
are religious, “people are still passionate about political issues,” she
said.
Although RJC’s programs have been met with varying success, the group is
working hard to appeal to Reform students at the university.
“If people let us know what they want, we’re going to do it,” Newman
said.
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