Campus Update

Duke - Harvard

Making KOACH’s Debut Happen on the Duke Campus

Melissa Berman
Duke University

A championship-winning basketball team, an outstanding academic program and now the KOACH program. Duke’s come a long way, baby.

That’s right. KOACH is completely new to Duke, and I, Melissa Berman, am seeing it through its infancy this year.

For a surprisingly large Jewish population, comprising 10-15% of the undergraduate student body, the Jewish community at Duke is relatively active. We hold both Conservative and Reform services on Friday night and have about 50 people come to services on the average week.

As KOACH intern, I am working to channel the momentum of Friday night’s Conservative services into more tangible, frequent and varied programs. This past semester I held a number of learning sessions. One of my favorites was titled "Renegade Women in the Bible." The program included acting out Yael’s murder of Sisera in the Book of Judges, as well as comparing modern artistic portrayals of the apocryphal Judith.

For second semester I am organizing a committee to assist in program planning. This committee is comprised of interested Conservative Jews at Duke. Together, we will work to increase Conservative programming on campus, attend the Kallah in Toronto, and establish KOACH’s name on the Duke campus. I hope to continue with my educational programs, but also branch out and include more social events.

And that’s the wrap on Duke. Wish us luck!

Heard at Harvard: An Intern Update

By Arie Hasit
Harvard

These past few months have had non-stop KOACH excitement here at Harvard.

After opening the year with an onslaught of hagim, we welcomed back KOACH in a big way, inviting Rabbi Charles Savenor of the Jewish Theological Seminary to teach for us and learn with us.

As they say, had Rabbi Savenor come to speak for us, but we had not had a great Shabbat dinner with Rabbi Cheryl Peretz of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies for KOACH Shabbat, Dayenu (it would have been enough!).

And had we had a wonderful KOACH Shabbat, but hadn't hosted the Regional KOACH Shabbaton, Dayenu.

And had we hosted the Shabbaton, but didn't have the opportunity to sing and learn with Rabbi Menachem Creditor and our own Rabbi Elyse Winick, Dayenu.

All of these great experiences allowed us to welcome guests into our community, learn from fantastic scholars, and learn the meaning of "Kol Hashem B'KOACH," the voice of God is in KOACH.

[Posted 12/29/04]