LETTERS: Extend the definition of Penn Jew

To the Editor: To start off, the Jewish community at Hillel is definitely comprised of a lot of Orthodox Jews, and this can be overwhelming to non-Orthodox Jews who walk into Hillel for the first time. However, I feel it is unfair to expect to walk into Kosher Dining and expect everyone to say hello. Much like in any other dining hall, people are rushed, distracted and interested in eating and moving on. This applies to anyone who walks in -- Orthodox or Reform, kippah or no kippah. Perhaps this is wrong and perhaps we should be more friendly, even though it is hard as the community keeps growing exponentially. But to take this lack of a friendly hello and turn it into a personal affront, is unfair. I venture to say people were not staring at the missing kippah. I eat at Kosher Dining everyday, and I frequently see many people who do not choose to wear a kippah. The second issue Silver raised was an insulting remark from an Orthodox rabbi who was a guest speaker at Penn. I do not know who this was, and I cannot speak about what was said, but I can say it is unfair to judge the Orthodox community at Penn based on what one Orthodox rabbi from an outside community said. In closing, I'd like to say I agree with Silver that there are problems for the Jewish community. The Reform community is not the only one that has to deal with frustration. As an Orthodox Jew, I have seen professors who won't schedule class on Yom kippur or other well-known Jewish holidays, yet trying to explain to them there are other Jewish holidays that Orthodox Jews celebrate is sometimes an arduous effort, as other Jews in the class do not celebrate these holidays. The bottom line is we are different groups, and we do have to work together, yet some things are difficult to change. If someone is looking to live on a campus where Reform Jews are the strongest faction, then Penn is not necessarily the place for them. In much the same way Silver said he chose Penn for "the allure of the city and my visit during Spring Fling," there are those of us who chose Penn for its vibrant Orthodox community. What the column comes down to is the question, "At Penn, was I really Jewish?" Silver certainly is, and I think there are many different kinds of Jews on this campus that can work together to create a strong vibrant community. The column seemed to say what used to create a sense of Jewish identity for the author was being one of the few active members within his Jewish community. It's time to extend that definition and to realize everyone can find their niche and play an important role, even in a community where a lot of people are actively involved. Rachel Durwitz College '99 True bragging rights To the Editor: I was reading the column entitled "The Missing Element of a No.7 Ranking" by Troy Madres (DP, 9/4/97), and it got me thinking. I know the race issue has been beaten with a stick and then some, but I believe it is important to speak out while the topic is still fresh. I am sure the vast majority of students who saw the blaring headline in the DP that Penn had skyrocketed into seventh place was extremely proud, as bragging rights had finally fallen into the hands of our fine Philadelphia institution. Admittedly, when I first heard the news, I chortled to myself, as I knew that good ol' Columbia and Brown -- tied for ninth -- must have been kicking themselves for forgetting to take me, a No.7-caliber student, off their respective wait-lists. Ha, I got them! But what of it? Am I suddenly a smarter person than I was last year? Has my IQ risen shapely because someone donated a few million dollars to the alumni fund? Are people going to look more favorably on me, now that I am in the elite top 10? I will go a little farther than Madres and say that the standings don't mean anything more than a bunch of random, haphazard numbers. Penn -- an institution that for years has downplayed the importance of these standings -- is probably as you are reading this figuring out how to incorporate the top-10 standing in the application books and campus tours. I think this ranking may actually have a true downside. I am not going to sugar-coat the race relations at Penn. They are terrible. Being of both Korean and Jewish descent, I have been brought up pretty open-minded about racial interactions. I always try to be as non-judgmental as possible. But when I walk down Locust Walk, and see the same blobs of blacks, Asians, Indians, sorority chicks, etc., I am forced to believe that although we have gone up in the rankings, we have made no progress at all. I hope the University will not use the "top 10" ranking to further distract students' and prospective applicants' minds from the real problem at Penn. Let's really be a university ahead of our time and do something to hit the race issue head on and turn this college into the melting pot it is supposed to be. Then we'll have true bragging rights that even Harvard, Yale and Princeton can't compare with. Alan Lowinger College '00