<p>Wow! Can you say anti-semitism? Or maybe the message is if you're Jewish go somewhere else.
P.S. Any other time this week would be fine. But the nights of the first two sedars?! Come on!</p>
<p>Seder is the correct spelling. Well college students often can’t be home for Passover, so maybe it’s a way of getting used to the future to come.</p>
<p>Attending previews is not a requirement for enrollment, and there are other times you can spend a hosted night at Williams.</p>
<p>As the mother of a current Jewish Williams student, I can assure you he (and I ) have never felt any anti-Semitism from Williams.</p>
<p>I am truly sorry the preview dates are so inconvenient for you.</p>
<p>The year my son was admitted he couldn’t attend because there are a huge storm.</p>
<p>My daughter enjoys many meals at the Jewish Religious Center which is a very active group on campus.</p>
<p>Seems very telling when they could have scheduled the preview days for this past weekend, Wed. and Thursday this week or any other possible dates (as all the other schools did), they would schedule preview days on the nights when Jewish people do gather as families. Yes, next year the students will probably be away for the seders, but why schedule previews for those two days? Doesn’t make sense. Or maybe it does. Does Williams want to send a message and keep the Jewish enrollment at 10% or lower.</p>
<p>Gonzo while I feel for your situation I beleive you might be reading a lot into the situation that isn’t there. First, I seriously doubt Williams is insensitive to their Jewish new admits … and second, I believe there is much less useful flexibility to moving their accepted student days around then one would first think. Most northeast schools hold at least one during the common public school vacation week … fair enough, then you mentioned they could have switched the day within the week … however that is trckier than it sounds … a lot schools with a lot of cross admits have developed regular days for their admitted student days so prospective students can visit a lot of their target schools without conflicts. So yes Williams could have moved their event to avoid Passover and in the process have created a different conflict for a what is likely a larger set of prospective students. (3ToGo who is missing the in-laws Seder to attend an accepted students event with SecondToGo at a different school)</p>
<p>As a Jewish alum, I am shocked and dismayed by this. It’s ironic that the Williams Jewish Group is having a big anniversary and trying to raise money. Well, the Jewish life is far beyond what it was when I went there. … and everything was in a basement room. But, it is really off-putting to schedule this event on Passover.</p>
<p>Thank you SDonCC.
I am not reading more into this situation 3togo. For any Jewish kid who wants to go to preview days at Williams, they must miss or cancel their seder. Just a very important holiday in the Jewish religion going back thousands of years (the Last Supper was a Seder). So the choice for Williams is conflicting with another college or with the Jewish religion. The Jews lost in this case.
Let my people go…just not to Williams.</p>
<p>While my experience is over 20 years old, my impression of Williams was less explicit anti-semitism, more a particular lack of sensitivity, and ignorance, that represents a failure to follow up on the oft-touted multicultural ideals of Williams. I could choose kosher meals at my house during a summer program at Cornell – needing to go to the Jewish Center is not acceptable and certainly means that anyone who wants to remain Kosher would be socially isolated at best.</p>
<p>In reality, I don’t know of anyone who did, and found Williams’ lack of accommodations a barrier to exploring Judaism at a point in my life that would have been ideal. </p>
<p>Scheduling previews? It would be nice if previews were not scheduled in conflict, and sensitive to reach out to Jewish prospectives if a conflict cannot be practically avoided, offering alternatives.
Seder, sedar? No need to be pedantic. It’s a transliteration, after all.</p>
<p>Bevakkasha,</p>
<p>Ken</p>
<p>I agree with 3togo. Williams has made an error of omission, rather than one of malice. For example, my son’s school is 2/3rd’s Jewish, yet I was unaware of when Passover is this year as we have a long Spring Break here in the UK. (We are Catholic.). However, it appears that this situation has given you a bad impression of Williams and your child will probably go elsewhere. </p>
<p>Why don’t you call Williams Admissions today and ask them to provide alternative preview days for those who can’t make the other ones?</p>
<p>I can’t speak to Judaism but Williams bends over backwards so that my D can attend her religious services in which she needs to go to Bennington, VT. She is provided the use of a car, free of charge. Any student can have a meal specially prepared.</p>
<p>WIlliams has a seder on campus, but that’s not the point. These are not students who are already on campus; Williams is asking these kids to forego what might be their last chance at celebrating this ritual in their own way with their own family. This is gross insensitivity, not only to Jews, but to the importance of family.</p>
<p>The irony is that Williams’ most recent president was Jewish; this probably wouldn’t have happened under his watch.</p>
<p>I agree that scheduling preview days on the first nights of Passover is surprisingly insensitive. I don’t think it rises to the level of “antisemitism,” or that Williams is trying to send a message to Jews that they should go elsewhere. In that way, I agree that gonzo may be making more of this than there really is. On the other hand, gonzo, I completely agree that Williams has done something it shouldn’t have, and if my kid were a prospective freshman at Williams, I’d be mad as hell over this.</p>
<p>I think SDonCC has this one exactly right.</p>
<p>I just emailed a complaint to admissions. Gonzo, I hope you will, too. </p>
<p>If a prospective student / parent is seeing this as “antisemitic,” then it’s wrong for the school to have scheduled it this way, even if no malicious intent was involved. New admits shouldn’t be given this kind of impression.</p>
<p>I recall that when D’s were looking at colleges, the Hilllel site data indicated Williams had a relatively low % of jewish students for a selective school in the Northeast. FWIW.</p>
<p>I don’t know how Hillel gets that data at all for any school. My kids, for example, did not indicate religious affiliation on their college applications. </p>
<p>Williams actually has a wonderful building smack in the center of campus that was built twenty years ago as the Jewish Center. I attended a Shabbat service reunion weekend, and we used a Siddur (prayerbook) that had been produced by students and it was really impressive!!</p>
<p>It doesn’t get nearly the numbers of Jewish students as Wesleyan and Swarthmore, that’s for sure, but there definitely is Jewish life and a community at Williams.</p>
<p>When I attended Lo those many years ago, I mainly just went to the brunches to eat lox and bagels… I probably attended some High Holiday services and Passover seder, but I can’t even remember! But, there was a core group of kids back then who persisted despite the crummy basement surroundings. So, it was really wonderful that the College had this building constructed.</p>
<p>The current president is Jewish as well. And from family that left Europe due to the Holocaust, I believe.</p>
<p>I am a current Williams student, and I am Jewish. I understand your frustration, as I was very excited to attend Previews as a high school senior, but would not have missed my family seder if it had conflicted, but I can assure you that the scheduling does not result from anti-semitism. </p>
<p>Williams follows a calendar that does not depend on religious holidays. this can cause problems, but is fair. Previews is always on a Monday and Tuesday, and always a specific amount of time after Spring Break. Spring break itself does not depend on religious holidays - I know that this year, classes started the day after Easter, so Christian students had to choose between celebrating at home with their families and missing class to travel back the next day, or coming back early to observe the holiday on campus.</p>
<p>In fact, the only exception Williams has ever made to this rule was for Jews. Williams has ALWAYS started class on a Thursday, so all classes could meet once on either Thursday or Friday, before beginning for real the next Monday. This year, that Thursday and Friday were the two days of Rosh Hashanah. Williams moved the first day of class to Wednesday and gave us Thursday off so Jewish students would only miss one day of class.</p>
<p>We know the timing of Previews this year was unfortunate, but we are dealing with it as best we can. Every Jewish student we could contact was invited, along with their families, to our seders, and students who wanted to be home for the holiday can visit any time. For those of you who did not want to miss any part of Previews, Williams Catholic has generously volunteered to run a table for the Jewish Association at the Purple Key Fair, which will take place during the seder. That does not sound like anti-semitism to me…</p>
<p>Thanks Matilda! Best explanation yet. It seems that conflict is unfortunate. That all said, while my first statement was a bit much, it still can be taken as insensitive to Jewish students. Not meant to be that way and unavoidable, but a lot of the college search/choice is about perception.
Little known fact: Williams College used to be Williamsberg College. JUST KIDDING!
Happy Preview Days and Happy Pesach and Easter to all!</p>
<p>“I don’t know how Hillel gets that data at all for any school.”
My guess is, they do it by who contacts the hilllel there, and.or responds to their initiatives & mailings, & participates in high holidays & other activities on campus, etc.</p>
<p>I also agree that the Preview dates unfortunately coincide with Seder. Many other colleges also have their preview days on the same days. Our Jewish friends are attending UPenn preview days today and tomorrow, as we are attending Williams. I don’t think there was any ill-will towards any particular group.</p>