The board of the Conservative Jewish Community, or CJC, has created an innovative project to excite incoming freshme: “CJC Rush.”
Thus far, the project has involved such events as “Unlimited Hookah Night,” and a night of speed dating that awarded two lucky couples free coffee dates. The freshmen received “rush cards,” on which they can accumulate points by participating in events, which they can redeem to enter a raffle to win $50 to any Steven Starr restaurant, of which there are over 50 in Philadelphia.
“Our goal is to revitalize the Conservative community,” explained CJC co-Chair Eliot Gordon in a phone interview. “The majority are not involved in services at home, so they won’t come to services here… especially without friends,” he asserted.
Therefore, “We want Conservative kids to establish relationships with each-other early on in the semester, so they can get to know each other and feel comfortable in services,” he explained, adding “We also want to create more social events for students not comfortable in services.”
Whereas the Orthodox Community in Penn, or OCP, tends to achieve social unity through common attendance at services and meals at the kosher cafeteria, Gordon said that getting Conservative students together has been more difficult. “We hope that if they make more Jewish friends they will become more oriented towards Jewish life,” he explained.
The CJC Rush coordinators have embraced this project with vim, creating Facebook groups, selling t-shirts, and making a video spoof of SNL skit “Lazy Sunday.” Their efforts have proven remarkably successful, as each event has had showings of 65 or more students. Interestingly, although all activities were free to freshmen (upperclassmen had to pay $5 for Hookah) and only freshmen were given rush cards for the raffle, more upperclassmen showed up to the events, Gordon said.
Tonight marks the final event of CJC Rush: it is an invitation-only dinner for the freshmen who participated. Free kosher Chinese food will be served on the third floor of Hillel. During dinner, the CJC board will explain to the freshmen the different ways to get involved in Hillel, and potentially breed another enthusiastic crop of CJC members.