Since I was 12 years old, I’ve known that I want to be a rabbi.
Never has that desire been stronger than it was this weekend.
This weekend I attended an undergraduate conference at
Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion. HUC offers this conference
both as a recruiting opportunity as well as a chance for learning and community
building for all Jewish college students. 21 students from 11
different schools came together to discuss what it means to build community and
how to accomplish it.
The most amazing part of this gathering was the intensity of
the conversations we held. Topics included all different facets of what it
means to be Jewish and what it means to be college students. We were sharing
our opinions, our experiences, and our hopes for the future. It was an
incredible opportunity to come together and learn from one another.
It was like nothing that we see in the rest of the world.
There was openness; a willingness to participate that was something totally
new. Everyone there was there for the right reasons, and the conversations
flowed freely.
Some of the participants this weekend were rabbinic
hopefuls, but there were those who were there just for the opportunity to
experience their Judaism in a new way. To have a variety of different individuals
with very different goals made the conversation all the more interesting. From
the engineer to the musician, everyone brought their best to the table and were
part of what made the community whole.
The theme of the weekend was focused on creating community.
We analyzed what aspects of community are important to us and how we can best facilitate
the construction of them. Not only did we talk about communities, but we
developed one of our own. We had the opportunity to understand how a collection
of individuals comes together, and seeing it in action allowed each of us to
take our experiences back to our schools, our homes, and our congregations to
use what we have learned to help develop our own communities.
We also had the opportunity to hear from several different
HUC students about their own trajectory that sent them to study to be rabbis.
It was so interesting to hear from each of these individuals, and it truly gave
perspective on the multitude of very different routes that got them to this
point. From those who are freshly out of their undergraduate experience to
those who are seeking a second career, it gave an interesting insight into the
different kinds of classmates that I, as a hopeful student, might encounter.
One comment that a certain HUC student made that really
stuck with me was when she was discussing her rationale for making Judaism a
career. She said that, as she grew up, she loved all of the pieces of what
Judaism had to offer. She said that, by becoming a rabbi, she would get to
experience all of the thing she loved about her religion as a job.
I was taught growing up to never work hard. I was taught
that, if you enjoy what you’re doing, you won’t have to “work,” so much as get
paid to do what you love. Hearing this student, just a few years older than I am, talking about her
passion in a way that was so reflective of my own, really set me in the right
direction. It is my dream to be able to take my passion for people,
scholarship, and leadership and create a truly meaningful career out of it.
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