About 40 Northwestern students piled into Yuna Rapoport’s apartment Friday night for Shabbat dinner and a chance to meet fellow Jews. But this wasn’t any ordinary gathering: most of the students had never met each other. Sophomores Lexie Komisar and Shauna Perlman organized the event “Schmooz n Shabbat with 18 Strangers,” and were more than pleased with the large turnout. “We started off wanting 18 (people), and it ended up being 40. But we are Jewish, so the more the merrier,” Perlman said.
The students gathered in the living room and introduced themselves by stating their names, majors and embarrassing bar or bat mitzvah stories.
Before eating, the students made sure to read the blessings for wine, bread and candles.
Alexandra Ilyashov, a freshman, told CampusJ she was really happy she came because she was able to speak with students she normally doesn’t hang out with.
Perlman, pleased with the event, told CampusJ it “was a testament to those people who are ambitious, and are going to college not to live their life in a clique, but to explore the possibilities of college.”
The two organizers stressed that Shabbat does not necessarily have to solely be about religion, but is also important to be a meaningful event.
“It meant throwing an awkward bunch of people in a room and not embracing the awkward, but pushing to find the fun and beauty of the not knowing what’s to come,” Perlman said. “We call this delicious ambiguity — and everyone should reach for it in their lives.”