<p>momonthehill: I recently helped a student evaluate Jewish life at Grinnell. While Grinnell has an active Jewish student organization, called Chalutzim, the Jewish student population is quite small: 100-150 kids. I think Grinnell is a really neat school. But in terms of Jewish communities among midwestern LACs, Oberlin is the largest and most vibrant. I'm talking about LACs only -- not research universities like U of C and Northwestern and Wash U.</p>
<p>Well yes, that's only about 10% of the student body. Guess that's not so high. But it is a wonderful college.</p>
<p>I knew a set of CA identical twins and one went to Williams and the other to Oberlin and both thrived. One is a doctor and the other a professional violinist (and I think you can guess which is which.)</p>
<p>I think paying3 makes an excellent point. I know that finances played a part in not venturing into the midwest to explore these gems. I wish we had, but all's well that ends well, and kids can only go to one school. </p>
<p>I think things are changing. It seems to me that a lot of people knew about Oberlin, but Grinnell is just starting to get the national rep it deserves. In the next ten years I think it will soar (not as a school -- it already is, but in eastern kids who are willing to think outside the box and go.)</p>
<p>Among Jewish community professionals, the advice is that l0 percent Jewish campus population is about the beginning point of viability for a searching Jewish kid to find "community." 20% is about where other kids (not Jewish) might notice the presence on campus, or refer to it as dynamic, intense, and so on.</p>
<p>Think about it: it means that at a fine place like Grinnell, where people do find each other and know each other well, there are 25-40 Jewish freshmen, and the same number in the soph, jr. and sr. classes. New turnover each year.</p>
<p>That's MORE Jewish age-mates than a lot of kids know by name in their suburban hometowns, even if they already belong to a synagogue. It doesn't feel like 40% of the neighborhood is Jewish, unlike some suburbs of NY, NJ, and so on...so it's hard for parents to imagine sometimes. But the affiliation rate with synagogues in metropolitan areas is only 50% or less today, so really; we're expecting our kids to do more than we ourselves do at home? Not so fair.</p>
<p>As well, if that 10% is well-organized they can do a lot of compelling, fun activities to attract others.</p>
<p>Just realize at a l0% place, you have to put in more effort, but you also have a good shot at becoming an officer at Hillel, too, and make a big difference that way. </p>
<p>Oberlin's running about 30% Jewish these days. (It was 20% when I attended 30 years ago). </p>
<p>But if my kid preferred Grinnell, that's where he'd go and I'd count on him to seek out all the Jewish opportunities and even add to them.</p>
<p>Actually, my youngest IS at a place with a l0% Jewish population, chosen for a specialty academic major. At first he and I were concerned about the Jewish opportunity, but when he got there he found a Hillel, a Holocaust Studies program, a Jewish fraternity, and had been assigned a Jewish roommate as well as a Christian roommate (tripled double, and they all get along, thankfully! nice kids all). </p>
<p>Really look at each situation, evaluate the program, look at the personality of the kid. If yours is someone who is a social butterfly, s/he will find all the Jewish kids who self-identify without any problem. If they go off a bit chip-on-the-shoulder about their Jewish identity, they might land in a place with 30% Jewish population and NEVER make contact in 4 years; dodge it, in fact.</p>
<p>Consider that in both kinds of settings, it's now the norm for Jewish event to be wide open to people of all faiths. So it can be dynamic to have a weekly Shabbat at Oberlin (typically I hear: l00 attend, and folkdance all night) but half of those present aren't Jewish, they just want to feel the warmth! Whether a campus has 10%, 20% or 30% identifying themselves as Jewish, the actual Jewish-sponsored events might attract many more individuals than that, so be a well-attended event and plenty good. </p>
<p>Also encouraging to keep these percentages in perspective, after all. We're only 2.5% of the nation's population in the first place. So to live where l0 percent of the population is Jewish and of same age is kind of a nice gig, IMHO. Especially if you're also feeling "right fit" with the other 90% :)</p>
<p>I don't know the exact percentage of Jewish students at Williams; probably under 20%, but Jewish center and Jewish activities are very visible. The prez, who is Jewish, asked Jewish students to break fast at his house after Yom Kippur. I'm sure gentile students could go, too.</p>
<p>I'm sure it's hard to tell by numbers what is happening on a campus.</p>
<p>And this is interesting. My D, is London, is just discovering how "American" she really is. Sometimes it takes getting away from one's community to find out how much a member of it one is. Sometimes the opposite.</p>
<p>D went to Barnard/Columbia and said she'd never met so many Jews in her life (even though all her relatives are.) Really funny. She also took a human rights course on the impact of religion on women's rights, worldwide, and came out impressed with Judaism, so now she's more Jewish than I am. Sort of.</p>
<p>Wise words, paying3.</p>
<p>Now here's coming at the question from the perspective of Jewish kids raised not in secular or public schools, but more traditional Jewish Day schools, who want to go to universities or LAC's and not Yeshivas for higher education.</p>
<p>I was VERY moved by my niece's husband, from the NY Metropolitan area, raised all the way through h.s. only in all-Jewish day schools. He wanted to become a doctor, and told me that Columbia was the right place for his undergraduate work. He's a family dr. today, really wonderful and a "mensche" (a decent, caring individual).</p>
<p>He said, "For me, Columbia was the only place that could take who I was and broaden it, without destroying me." As he told the story, his hand gestures were concentric, widening circles outward from his head. </p>
<p>He needed to widen his intellectual scope without ever losing all that he had learned thus far.</p>
<p>Also, he met my niece at Columbia/Barnard Hillel. So I guess they're a classic couple, but I put that into this thread for those who are reading from more traditional backgrounds.</p>
<p>It might be important to send a kid raised in a Jewish Day School to a place with many more Jewish kids and programs, so that s/he can evolve intellectually without losing that central core.</p>
<p>Just thinking, on a frosty night here in Buffalo...</p>
<p>Here's my take on the issue of Jewish life on small campuses. My perspective is that of a parent whose child transferred from a well-respected LAC with a Jewish population of 15% to a mid-sized U with a larger population of Jewish students. So we learned our lessons the hard way. </p>
<p>In assessing the Jewish community at a college with a small Jewish population, it’s so important to think beyond percentages and look closely at the character of the community. My D thought that at 15% of the population, the raw numbers would be enough for her. But she was wrong. She found that the Jewish community just was not big enough for her. It's not that she's terribly observant. She is not. She just felt like a fish out of water without a bigger Jewish population. A very large part of the problem was that her LAC had a strong, dominant social culture that did not suit her, and she is a kid who enjoys being right in the mainstream. Not a quirky bone in her body. </p>
<p>So on the Jewish front, I would urge a student who is evaluating Jewish life at a small school to evaluate at three things in making her decision: 1) the raw numbers of Jews at each school; 2) the overriding culture of the majority of students -- is she reasonably comfortable with the dominant culture, or is she someone who enjoys being part of a subculture that is outside of the mainstream; and 3) if it is important to the student, the vibrancy of the HIllel. With respect to No. 3, I would urge her to make direct contact with the Hillel student directors. At small schools, often the information on the website portrays an overly optimistic picture of Jewish life on campus.</p>
<p>I have to agree with wjb. Have spent some time pondering these issues with D's college process in mind and have to admit to having had some mixed feelings. From my own experience at both a 10% LAC versus a 30% plus university for graduate school, I agree that 10% at an LAC is going to result in a far smaller critical mass of students than 10% at a larger place and be a much different experience than you may envision. Unless you are coming from an area where you are already a minority, it's going to feel like you are one of the very few. In terms of a "dating pool" it's even less if that's a consideration.</p>
<p>But I think much is also going to depend on the student, their personality and background, and the expectations for his or her social life. For a student who has grown up in a homogenous community, maybe it feels like time to become more well rounded. For someone who has grown up in an area where they are in the extreme minority, wanting a school with a good sized Jewish population can be a big factor - where they can still meet a large and diverse group of people. Believe me, I am not saying not to consider a small school - I really loved my own experience. On the other hand, I also had the advantage of being within an easy commute of major universities with very large Jewish populations - so it was really the best of both worlds.</p>
<p>Re: Midwest - Driving past Loyola of Chicago last October, saw huge sukkah at the entrance to the U 'courtesy of Loyola Hillel'. Go know, as my grandmother would have said.</p>
<p>Re: Jews on campus - I grew up on Long Island where, believe it or not, I was one of 6 Jews in my HS graduating class of 144. Experienced terrible anti-Semitism (which has marked me for life), some of it quite physical. Subsequently went to U of Penn where I managed to join a fraternity with only one Jew in each class (not on purpose) and had very few Jewish friends notwithstanding the overwhelmingly Jewish population. I guess this was due to my childhood among the gentiles. But am VERY conscious of my Jewish identity because of the difficulties I had as a child. I worry about my S applying to Wake Forest because he hasn't had to suffer to be Jewish. Will he find it to have importance when he starts to date? After all, as I explain, without Jewish babies, there are no more Jews. He's not super religious, though he's had good training, nor are we as a family all that observant compared to some. I guess that all this worrying comes with the genetic material....</p>
<p>My youngest son and I just returned from a visit to middle son at the University of Denver. There's a brand new, beautiful Hillel about one block from his dorm (it claims to serve 1000 students--which is the Jewish population at the University of Denver) and an active Chabad also one block from his dorm. He goes to both. </p>
<p>He went through a phase in junior/senior year of high school where he was quite observantly religious and these were important things for him in choosing his college. He has backed off on his level of obervance somewhat although he still keeps kosher. He loves studying one-on-one with the rabbi at the Chabad.</p>
<p>Frenchlaw, I'm sorry you had such a time of it growing up! You might want to update your message to your college-bound son, however. Lots of Jewish kids on campuses today are happy and proud to be Jewish, and that warmth is a magnet to others from many backgrounds. "Jewish babies" can be born from Jews-By-Choice, and the statistics on conversion into Judaism counterbalance somewhat the assimilation outward. </p>
<p>If you want to give him a restriction on dating outside of the faith, he may or may not pay attention; but if you do, it's only fair to send him to a place with a very high proportion of Jewish students already. Rather than restrict dating, I tend to focus on transmitting pride and curiosity about Jewish practice, and do it myself because they watch us much more than they listen. I'm saying your kid will be more in synch with his contemporaries if he is positive and upbeat about his background, despite your own experiences which I deeply regret.</p>
<p>If he's up for it, let him go to his freshman orientation wearing an identifying symbol or T-shirt, and see how many friends he makes, both Jewish and not Jewish. I was amazed to see kids identifying themselves publicly on 3 campuses; unlike our quieter experiences "back in the day." Also, explore Taglit Birthright for a trip to Israel for your son.</p>
<p>I do believe that Jewish percentages should be put in perspective. They should also be taken in context. For example, College of Charleston is a mid-size LAC that is 8% Jewish. However, Jewish student life on campus is as active if not more than other larger institutions with larger percentages. There is also a relatively large Jewish community in Charleston. At the end of the day, I don't believe it is purely about numbers, but about how vibrant Jewish life is on campus.</p>
<p>One further bit of thought to mull over -- based on reports from a virtual niece at a somewhat-more-than-10% small LAC, the character and feel of the Hillel today is not necessarily the character and feel of the Hillel next semester. If there are only 300 Jews on campus, and 30%+ of them turn over each year (not just graduations, but transfers, study abroad, gap years), their institutions are pretty dynamic, and the effect of random variation in who's there can be large. </p>
<p>This is one of the consequences of p3t's "you can be an officer of Hillel". You sure can. And Hillel will be what you want it to be. And if you don't go be an officer of Hillel, someone else will, and you may like their Hillel or not.</p>