Different branches of Judaism converge at Penn

Students new to Hillel receive an introduction to other branches of their own religion, often for the first time.

According to Hillel Director Rabbi Mike Uram, Jews come frequently to Penn without much interaction with the other main denominations — Orthodox, Conservative and Reform. Since students only interact with Jews from their own communities before college, they often carry predispositions about students from different denominations.

One of the greatest initial divides exists between Orthodox and the other denominations.

According to Nursing sophomore and Orthodox Jew Rachel Bernard, Penn Orthodox Jews are a very close-knit group since they have to spend most of their time together.

As they keep strictly kosher, meaning they don’t eat milk and meat together, they eat most of their meals in Hillel. Penn Orthodox Jews are also Shabbat observant, meaning they don’t use electricity from Friday to Saturday nights and attend services together on Friday nights and Saturday mornings.

There can still be division between the denominations because the more religious denominations are united around observing religious traditions, while less religious Jews at Penn largely go to Hillel for social reasons, College sophomore and Reform Jew Michael Berke said.

“I feel like most people go for the social aspect,” Berke said. “[I] have friends who are Conservative and they go more, but even then it’s mostly social.”

Although they are more observant, Penn Orthodox Jews actively work to be inclusive with other denominations of Judaism at Penn, said Uram. Most Orthodox Jews in Hillel are modern Orthodox.

Modern Orthodoxy differs from its counterparts in its mission to synthesize Jewish laws and customs with the secular world. Hasidic and Haredi Judaism — the other two branches of Orthodoxy — encourage a division from non-Jewish culture.

“As an Orthodox Jew, growing up I wasn’t aware of the plurality of the different types of Jewish experiences and was somewhat jaded,” Orthodox Jew and College sophomore Doniel Sherman said.

While he attended Orthodox schools before attending Penn, he now has friends from all denominations of Judaism, he added.

“They’re on the cutting edge of figuring out of how the modern orthodox community can figure out issues of inclusivity,” Uram said. “[They’re] really figuring out how to be open and inclusive yet Orthodox.”

Modern Orthodox Jews at Penn also make efforts to encourage openness with LGBT Jews, feminism and Jews from different denominational backgrounds, he said.

However, these misconceptions aren’t one-sided.

“Many Jews who grew up in non-Orthodox contexts know a sense of Jewish denominational identity but had not had the opportunity to meet Orthodox Jews,” Rabbi Joshua Bolton said. “Each community forms assumptions that create separateness,” added Bolton, who is also a Senior Jewish Educator at Penn Hillel.

Although each denomination attends separate Shabbat services, they do come together for larger events, Sherman explained.

According to Bolton, Hillel provides an opportunity for “mifgash,” or an encounter between Jews of different backgrounds.

“Hopefully the end result is that individually we can walk away from this mifgash more confident in who we are,” Bolton said.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.