<p>My daughter is interested in attending school in the south. How would a Jewish (nonreligious) girl from the suburban northeast fit in at Furman?</p>
<p>My d also would like to attend a small liberal arts school in the South, but the paucity of such schools with Jewish populations in definitely an obstacle.</p>
<p>If you don't know about hillel.org, this is a website where you can click on "Jewish Life on Campus" and it will give you the total school population, the Jewish population, and info about the school's Hillel or JSU.</p>
<p>Furman does not even have an entry on this website.</p>
<p>Have you looked at College of Charleston? Beautiful city and many Jewish kids.</p>
<p>yes, Charleston is a very nice city, and C of C is a good school. I don't know about wheter you could really say "many Jewish kids", however - they do have a Hillel club on campus, whcih is always a good sign, but the Jewish population, if I recall, was under 5%.</p>
<p>U of Miami, Emory, Tulane, and U Florida all have a substantially larger Jewish population in the south. </p>
<p>I'm not familiar with Furman on this issue.</p>
<p>According to the Hillel site, there are 700 Jewish students out of 9800 undergraduates. For the south, that's excellent. Also, since the OP mentioned Furman (less than 3000 undergrads), I assumed she was interested in smaller schools. I know that CofC is larger, but we have been told it has a much smaller school "feel". We will be visiting.</p>
<p>We're Jewish and my son just completed his freshman year at Furman. The previous posters are right - there's no Hillel on campus and very few Jewish students. He met a few of them at a small seder held by one of the professors.</p>
<p>He loves the school and had a great first year - he was home for Hanukkah and one seder night.</p>
<p>I know that Furman is actively recruiting students from the northeast (we're from CT) - the campus is lovely and the academics are first-rate. My son is enjoying the change in culture.</p>
<p>Yes, C of C has a smaller feel - its a fairly compact campus for 9800 students and being in the heart of Charleston, it mixed in with the urban setting. </p>
<p>700 Jewish Students (7%) is respectable. When I visited two years ago, I believe it was less.</p>
<p>DG - good luck on your visit.</p>
<p>This wasn't really what I was getting at. My daughter is not religious at all, is not interested in Hillel or necessarily hanging out with kids just because they are Jewish. My concern is how she would be treated/viewed by other students at Furman. Would she be accepted or treated as an outsider. </p>
<p>College of Charleston looks lovely but is not really of the same academic caliber as Furman.</p>
<p>"The Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program at the College of Charleston is the result of the vision and generosity of Henry and Sylvia Vlosky Yaschik who began the program in 1984 to honor their parents. The matching endowment from Norman and Gerry Sue Arnold has enabled the Program to significantly expand its offerings. </p>
<p>With a wide range of courses in such fields as philosophy, religious studies, and political science, as well as a regular curriculum in Hebrew that fulfills the Colleges language requirement, Jewish Studies now qualifies as a minor course of study for all students who complete eighteen credit hours in the Program. </p>
<pre><code> The Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program benefits from having a strong and active Jewish Student Union/ Hillel affiliate. The College of Charleston currently has nearly eight hundred Jewish students and the JSU/Hillel is very active in arranging weekly Shabbat services, dinners, and other events and celebrations to keep those interested in Judaism engaged and interacting with one another.
The Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program also emphasizes community outreach as a hallmark of its Program. By sponsoring numerous events, lectures, discussions, and Sunday Morning brunches that are open to the public, the Program serves as a bridge between town and gown, between the academic and broader South Carolina community.
In October 2002 the The Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program moved into its new home, the Sylvia Vlosky Yaschik Jewish Studies Center at the corner of Glebe and Wentworth Street. The Center houses the Jewish Student Union/ Hillel, faculty members of the Jewish Studies Program, the newly established School of Languages, Cultures, and World Affairs, a Judaica library, and the Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina. It also offers Arnold Hall, a state-of-the-art meeting and conference room where educational and cultural programs are conducted, benefiting both students and the community at-large."
</code></pre>
<p>Minoafrau,
My son says that Furman students are very friendly and accepting - he has had no problems being accepted as both a northerner or as Jewish (or as a Yankees fan or as anything else).</p>
<p>... and I would bet being a Yankees fan would actually be more apt to bring about problems than being Jewish (lots of Atlanta kids at Furman!).</p>