Rabbi Jessica Lott, Hillel’s Jewish life and learning associate director, and sophomore hearing and speech major Jane Rose will launch the Elazar Project, a Jewish faith and culture group.
On a campus with about 6,500 Jewish students of different backgrounds, sophomore Jane Rose realized there wasn’t a specific space for all of them — religious and nonreligious — to converge and discuss their faiths.
This realization inspired the hearing and speech sciences major to partner with Rabbi Jessica Lott, Hillel’s Jewish life and learning associate director, to launch Project Elazar, a project that seeks to bring these groups together to learn more about Judaism and its impact on daily life.
Students in the program will discuss how Judaism works — and how one can understand Jewish principles without being religious — across generations, Rose said.
“There is a lot of Jewish learning [on the campus], but most of it has to do with Orthodox ideas, for someone who went to Jewish day school or for those who had a strong knowledge on it,” she said. “There weren’t really any great ways for students who didn’t have the academic background.”
The eight-week program, which begins March 5, will provide a space open to all students once a week. Lott will answer questions and open up discussions about Jewish faith and culture, said Rose, who anticipates it to be most valuable for students who don’t regularly attend Hillel events or did not attend Hebrew school.
Lott expects about 15 people to participate, and six have already signed up for the pilot semester, including sophomore Mike Osher, who said he hopes to learn more about his religious background from a day-to-day perspective.
“I wanted to know how I could be Jewish and uphold Jewish principles and values during the week,” said Osher, a criminology and criminal justice and economics major. “You don’t need to be very observant to have a strong connection, to learn about your identity.”
Lott developed an idea for a similar program in spring 2013 and initiated a “basics of Judaism class,” she said.
“People aren’t necessarily looking for something called a class. They’re looking for a conversation,” Lott said. “People have a lot to learn but also have a lot to contribute.”
At a young age, Osher said, truly understanding religious concepts and what religion means on a personal level can be difficult. But college often changes people’s perspectives, he said.
“You grow older,” he said. “What I’ve found is that, like, a lot of students want to come back and explore their roots.”
When students start making more decisions on their own in college, they may choose to seek out a better understanding of their faith, Lott said.
Project Elazar is named after Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, a first-century Jewish scholar chosen to lead the Jewish community at 18 years old. His predecessor ruled that only “elite” students could enter the school, but Elazar “opened the doors and allowed anyone who wanted to learn to come in,” Lott said.
The university has several Jewish learning programs, but many focus on specific aspects of the faith, Rose said. The project’s “ask the rabbi” period could provide a valuable opportunity for students to ask anything about the faith or history of the religion, Lott said.
“Since it’s coming from Hillel, part of our mission is to provide a nonjudgmental, pluralistic Jewish space,” Lott said. “We’re being welcoming and teaching from lots of different perspectives.”
Some students have trouble deciding how the religion applies to their lives, Rose said, and this program is set to provide an outlet to do so with one another.
“It’s more about the individual participants than anything else,” Rose said.
