My Campus Roots

Sarah Meister is an Ada Comstock scholar at Smith College, class of 2015, majoring in Gender Studies. Raised in Berkeley, CA, she began her studies in Fall 2000 at Mount Holyoke College before taking leave for a number of years.

Experience at Mount Holyoke College

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Q: Tell me about your Jewish background.

A: When I came to Mt Holyoke, I came with a confused religious identity. My mother is Jewish and my father is German Lutheran. When I came to college it was really my first time to get as involved as I wanted to religiously. I spent a lot of time with the Jewish community and with the Muslim community. My roommate and great friend was Muslim, from Pakistan. Both of us were discovering our religious faiths at the same time.

 

Q: What was the Jewish community like at Mt Holyoke when you got here?

A: The Jewish community at Mt Holyoke was in transition. We did not yet have a Torah or kosher/halal dining room. We had a Jewish chaplain who was not a rabbi. He was a hippy Jew named Efraim from Eugene, Oregon, who was previously Jewish chaplain at Vassar, where students loved him. He was not a good fit for most of the students who were more conservative in their practices, though he tried very hard. Many of the students who were looking for a more traditional rabbi went to Rabbi Perlmutter at UMass Hillel.

But I loved Efraim. It was an amazing opportunity for me because the Jewish community I had been exposed to growing up was Renewal. In my first year here I went with him and his wife Rosalie and their child to an event where they would channel the voices of prophets. His wife channeled Miriam with a tambourine in hand. It was probably not a literal claim to prophecy but a sort of embodied theater. I would go to Jewish events with him constantly, though I was the only student from Mt Holyoke who would go. Efraim introduced me to Abraham Joshua Heschel’s writings, which I absolutely love.

I met a bunch of Jewish students who were really active on campus and we got together and came up with a list of what we needed to be supported: a rabbi on staff, a Torah, and a way to eat. There was a kosher kitchen in Eliot House that was constantly in need of being re-kashered (made kosher); it was not reliably kosher. We spent so many hours kashering the kitchen our first year; it happened at least twice a month. We tried keeping the kitchen locked but it was uncomfortable because it seemed to other students that the Jews were locking them out of their kitchen.

 

Q: What was the make-up of the Jewish student body?

A: The largest bulk of students were Reform. I was the only Renewal Jew anyone had ever heard of except Efraim. There were a couple of Modern Orthodox and Conservative Jews as well. There was one student who was very halakhically observant, even shomer negiah. I always thought she was going to be a rabbi, or do something in Jewish education. Melissa Simon was another student who was really involved in JSU with me. She later became a rabbi. There were probably twenty of us who were consistently active. There weren’t necessarily twenty at each service, but a good core of us was. At least seventy-five percent of us would be at any JSU event.

 

Q: Did you get along with each other?

A: People worked together. This was clearly expected by the general environment at Eliot House. We had very little tolerance for infighting and being mean to each other. This definitely determines your experience in an organization and how much you want to contribute to it. This was part of Andrea’s legacy.

There was, however, a lot of discord in the group about Israel/ Palestine politics. We decided not to touch it as a group. Some people strongly identified with Israel, and felt it couldn’t be separated from their faith practice. Others felt their identity as Jews mandated that they speak out for Palestinians. A few didn’t know enough about the situation to care. The topic was super divisive and never led to any productive conversation ever. We decided to just not go there. I don’t know how I feel about that now. I don’t know the right way to handle that conversation in the context of a religious group on a college campus. It’s important to have fellowship that’s not focused on the most divisive issue. In retrospect, I wish we had reached out for help, either to the ombudsperson or someone else. It was a really risky thing to do and we couldn’t handle it on our own.

 

Q: What were services like?

A: We almost always used The Gates of Prayer siddur, which was Reform. We also had a set of Reconstructionist books donated. Someone tried to use them for a service once but we couldn’t figure it out. For Passover, I photocopied from The Feminist Haggadah and I made a collage for the front. Our services were essentially Reform.

We spent a lot of time planning services. This was where arguments peaked- first about which songs we would sing and then about which melody we would use.

 

Q: Did you have study groups together?

A: No, but there were adult faith formation groups where we talked about our spiritual practices. Efraim offered study sessions, but only I attended. We mostly organized around things we wanted for the community: activities and intergroup dialogues, which were usually discussion forums linked with food. We also talked about the role of women in our religious traditions.

 

Q: How did the community change during your second year at Mt Holyoke?

A: I got really excited about Judaism and became president of the Jewish Student Union (JSU) my second year. My second year, we got a kosher kitchen. Efraim was replaced with Rabbi Lisa. She taught two sections of Hebrew in addition to being a chaplain so that she could be here full time. At that point Jewish life started taking off in a different way. Attendance at services grew from about six or seven of us to always having a minyan (quorum of ten Jews needed for complete prayer services). A few Orthodox students went elsewhere for services. We had a few kids come from Hampshire. Our services were at Abbey in the small chapel. There was no ark and no Torah in there yet, so it didn’t feel very Jewish. It was a room with lots of Buddhas and Hindu images. Later, we were so excited to even have the ark before we got the Torah, to feel like our prayer room was in some way Jewish.

Because I was JSU president my second year, I got to go to a general assembly for college JSU’s. It met in Washington, D.C. that year. Mt Holyoke paid for us to stay in a hotel. We got to learn cool Jewish stuff and there were many liturgical opportunities.

 

Q: What was your favorite memory?

A: My favorite memory was the beautiful relationship that grew between Jewish and Muslim students at Eliot House right before, during and after 9/11. We helped prepare food for them in the mornings and to end their fasts during Ramadan. They did the same for us for our fast days and helped us prepare for Passover. We each had problems with our chaplains so we went together with our gripes to the deans.

 

Q: How did you and your fellow Jewish students fit in to the larger campus community?

A: At the time the Jewish community was still establishing its right to be here. We were shocked at how little Jewish literacy was here. People knew Jews existed but there was not much knowledge about the specificities of Jewish observance. Mt Holyoke was a place of overwhelmingly non-Jewish people who hadn’t been in contact with Jews to know anything about observance or facts of Jewish life. I had a distinct feeling that people hadn’t had to think about certain issues before. People would complain out of environmental consciousness that lights had been left turned on on Friday night. It became clear that it was because some observant folks had closed up shop for the night but couldn’t turn the lights off on Shabbat. Students didn’t understand why they couldn’t turn lights off, and the Shabbat observant folks didn’t understand why it was so difficult for them to understand.

There was an Eliot House event during parents’ weekend and the meal served meat and milk together. Nothing was ill intentioned but we hadn’t been thought of when things were set up. There was probably not a large enough number of Jewish students for it to make sense for them to create a framework for us. Jewish practice seemed a mystery to folks.

 

Q: How much did you know about Orthodox Jewish observance?

A: I have cousins who are Modern Orthodox, which had been an issue of contention in my larger family. I had read a lot about Judaism before I came here.  By the time I got here I was interested in mystical Judaism, Jewish history, German Jewish history. At Mt Holyoke I started becoming more observant.

 

Q: How did the Jewish community support you personally?

A: My mother died my second year and I dealt with that in my Jewish community at Mt Holyoke. Religious community here was most important for me.

I felt like the woman in the movie Fight Club at Mt Holyoke for religions. I went to every group. I met people here who were practicing religions I had never heard of. There was a Jain woman, and a Zoroastrian student who was from Indiana. There was an incredible amount of mixing among faiths; in this was the heart of the community. I went to prayer and Jumm’a lunch on Fridays. Interfaith Lunch was slammed- packed. We had wonderful discussion, and we would announce what was happening during the week for each faith group. Students were always so incredibly generous about teaching. Everyone was welcome at every event. They were made accessible for everyone; members would tell you what to do.

 

Q: How was the Jewish community supported by the College?

A: We were supported in organizing the things that we wanted. We had an incredible Dean of Religious Life, Andrea Ayvazian. She was a great activist and best friend of the Dean of the College, Beverly Daniel Tatum. They had run an anti-racism institute before they came to Mt Holyoke. The two of them got up to a whole bunch of trouble together. Andrea had the pews torn out of the Interfaith Sanctuary in Abbey Chapel to make it more welcoming for different faiths. Andrea’s partner is culturally Jewish, and Andrea herself was especially knowledgeable about Judaism; we didn’t need to explain anything to her. She worked really hard to get a Torah and to get Rabbi Lisa.

The College supported us so much financially. We had people in positions of power who were there for us, who realized that Jewish students had been compromised and wanted this to be a place that Jewish students felt they could come to. They had dealt in the past with far fewer religious Jews and now that we had more they tried to make sure we had what we needed.

 They brought catered food for all of Passover every year I was here. We would sign up beforehand for no additional cost. Usually Passover is the culinary low point of the year, but here it was the major high. Every morning huge trays would come in to Eliot House, which became the home feeding base for Jews and friends. There was always extra and everyone who passed through Eliot House ate very well. Back then the food in the dining halls was way worse; it was all fried diner food (fried hot dogs, fried potatoes, maybe a teeny bit of iceberg lettuce); the health movement came here much later. (Though of course once Wilder opened, the kosher food was so good.) So it was amazing to get this beautiful healthy food, and it was a huge deal to have food catered for us for that long. We also koshered our side of the kitchen in Eliot House, and were able to cook there during Passover. It was important for Jews who had dietary restrictions, back before institutions started accommodating them.

We had JSU field trips to delis and Hebrew Brewery. The College paid lots. We stockpiled Hebrew beer, probably 200 dollars worth, in the kosher kitchen. We came up with some excuse, that we needed it for our Passover Seder or something like that. [MF: But beer’s not even kosher for Passover! SM: I know!] We were given a lot of funding to support our religious life.

 

 

Q: Tell me more about the kosher kitchen.

A: In instituting the kosher dining hall, the halal piece was key. It was important for Mt Holyoke’s recruiting efforts. The school recruited many students from South Asia, but needed a way to feed them. We needed to have a dining hall that met their needs to be truly inclusive. The Wilder Kosher Kitchen was beneficial to everyone: it was kosher for Jews and it worked for Muslim students because kosher was considered halal for them. Rabbi David Aminia, who currently inspects the kitchen, has held this job since the kitchen was opened in 2001.

 

Q: What's your relationship to Jewish ethics?

A: While my Judaism was deepening I became very concerned with ethics. Ethics had been the part of Judaism I was raised with. I was touched by a rabbi who had declared non-union grapes as non-kosher during the Delano Grape Strike. I wanted everything I was doing to be related to Jewish ethics. I was always coming from or going to Eliot House. I even did my work-study there.

Slowly I got to know Jane [Crosthwaite] as well and to learn about religion in another, academic way.

 

Q: Did Jewish students organize for social justice?

A: Shockingly, no. Our main focus was on just growing, finding the Jews, keeping events going. There was not enough political cohesion to come together for service.  Politically we ran from the Left to the Right. We had all different kind of folks, not enough of a unit to organize for anything.

 

Q: What other changes did the community experience in your time here?

A: Andrea left in the year 2003-2004 when the College announced they were eliminating the Dean of Religious life and M & C’s and centralizing dining. Students got together and protested strongly. We called the campaign “For Our Daughters.” Some student activist org protested that it wasn’t trans-inclusive (there was only one out trans student at the time and this didn’t come from him) and so we changed the name to “For Our Daughters Who May Well Graduate as Our Sons or Genderqueer Progeny.” We convinced alumni to withhold funding and threatened to take over administrative buildings. It was the largest campus mobilization since the 70s. We won clear out on M & C’s. We preserved the Office and Dean of Religious Life. Dining shifted down, but this was a partial victory because we were going to completely centralize. For our time we felt like we were getting what wanted, though the school is now heading toward centralized dining and paring down Religious Life.

The campaign was so important to us because they were threatening to shut down every the three main spaces that built community. At the time, we had dining halls in every residence hall. We built community by eating and worshipping together. That’s what makes Mt Holyoke what it is: relationships and learning across difference. Sure we would do our learning in classes, but we would digest and process in community over dinner, and relationships were created for that in dining halls. You didn’t have to make dinner plans with anyone, you would just go and sit with whomever was there; it was so welcoming. People would make announcements all the time. They would clink on their glasses to get everyone’s attention and then announce that there was an a cappella jam etc.

 

Q: Did all kosher and halal observant students then live in Wilder?

A: No, Wilder was the one exception. People would generally go to the closest dorm for lunch but we ate breakfast and dinner in our houses. Folks who kept kosher and halal just went to Wilder for meals. I was worried this would isolate them. I myself never understood why all the dining halls couldn’t be kosher- the food was better anyway- but then the vegans were starting their uprising. But in the end it felt very significant for Jews and Muslims to have that safe space together, especially after 9/11, even though the planning was in the works before then.

 

 

Meister, Sarah. Personal Interview. 12 December 2014.