Madison — Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison usually look forward to Thursday nights. The end of the week means a time to kick back; a time to take advantage of the drink-specials at the bars; a time to catch up on work.
However, this past semester, Thursday nights were especially meaningful for an entirely different reason to me and a group of Jewish students who participated in the Maimonides Jewish Leaders Fellowship Program.
The program, run by the Milwaukee Kollel Center for Jewish Studies, recently concluded after a successful semester of wonderful experiences.
Rabbis Avi Zaitschek and Rocky Anton of the kollel led the program, which was held each Thursday night 7:30-10 p.m. “The fellowship,” said Zaitschek, “was established to enable Jewish students to use their free time to experience, explore, and learn about their heritage.”
Participants said they found the program unforgettable. “It did not make me any more or less religious but acted as a comforting reminder of the community I am a part of here,” said UW freshman Jordy Stein.
The program was first started in 1999 at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, but has expanded to schools in Wisconsin, Arizona, Maryland, and West Virginia. According to the program’s Web site, it “is sponsored by various independent and private philanthropists across the United States who support various Jewish educational and leadership development programs.”
Zaitschek said that he had heard about the program and last November attended a session in Ann Arbor. “The students were really enjoying it” and “I thought it was a very exciting program,” he said.
He asked the organizer, Rabbi Avraham Jacobovitz, if he could start one in Wisconsin, and he found money for it partly from private donations and partly from the Milwaukee Kollel’s outreach budget, Zaitschek said.
Achieving happiness?
Speakers like Rabbis Benzion Twerski, Mendel Senderovic and Dr. Janet Snider were brought in to speak on topics ranging from truth to spirituality to Torah and mitzvot.
Zaitschek said the biggest reward of the program was watching the students engage in discussion with the presenters, so that, he said, “they could achieve a more profound connection with God, the mitzvot, and their own spirituality.”
Zaitschek hopes to continue the program next year and may even incorporate a second year of learning for those who participated this past semester.
“These are the years in which students start to think of the most important things in their lives. We just want to make sure Judaism is one of those things,” he said.
For UW sophomore Benjy Herman, the program “made me reconsider what the best way for me would be to achieve happiness. It’s made me want to expand my Jewish learning.”
And as for me? I joined the program not knowing what to expect. However, the warmth with which I was greeted by Rabbis Avi and Rocky at the first session was a wonderful sign of things to come.
Each Thursday evening this semester presented me with new and exciting facts and relationships. The group of students and speakers that attended each week was a vibrant and intelligent collection of souls. I made new friends, experienced Shabbat dinners, and learned much about my faith.
On a campus as big as Madison’s, it’s very easy to get lost in the crowd and forget about your Jewish heritage. However, the fellowship served as a constant and astonishing reminder of the beauty and knowledge that Judaism holds.
In addition to making a new set of Jewish friends, I learned of aspects of the Torah and of the religion I had never even begun to imagine. As part of the program, we were also invited to the Orthodox communities in Chicago and Milwaukee to experience traditional Shabbat weekends.
These weekends, along with the weekly classes, provided me with the knowledge and support I need to focus on what is important in life. The program was unique because it offered such close and immediate contact with students. The opportunity to learn more was always available; and yet, ideologies weren’t pushed on students.
The program paid each student a $500 stipend for the time that may have otherwise been dedicated to a part-time job. The program is a part of my undergraduate experience I will never forget and has affected how I view the world and how I view myself as a Jew.
Adam Edelman is a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin and a former Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle intern.
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