Campus Updates: McGill, University of Florida, Gainsville

McGill University KOACH Update

By Ariella Zbar
KOACH Intern

After an amazing and inspiring KOACH Internship orientation weekend, I returned to my campus energized and full of ideas for the school year. KOACH at McGill started off with a successful inter-holiday ceramic painting session. The idea for this event was based on verses from "Ki Hine Kaḥomer" (a piyyut read on Yom Kippur) relating how our lives are placed in the hands of God to clay in the hands of a potter. The next activity came at Sukkot, which took place around Canadian Thanksgiving. Both holidays remind us to be thankful for what we have and remember that there are those who are not so fortunate. To address the latter issue, a food drop-off box was set up on campus to be donated to Dans la Rue, a charity group that provides for Montreal’s street kids. Once high holidays (and midterms) had ended, the next event was KOACH Shabbat. The highlight of this shabbaton was a panel discussion on this year’s theme of "Who Wrote the Torah?" On the panel were two Jewish Studies students, one from McGill and the other from Concordia, a neighbouring Montreal university. The third panelist was JTS rabbinical student, Dan Dorsch. These three students led an intriguing discussion that involved the audience to a point where no one noticed that two hours had passed by the time we ended with a tisch. With the success of this term’s events, I am very much looking forward to the remainder of my KOACH Internship. Hope to see you all in February at the Kallah.