Campus Updates: Rutgers, UCLA

Rutgers KOACH Update

By Avi Smolen
KOACH Intern

This semester, KOACH at Rutgers began the year with a bang with our opening Meet N’ Eat, with lots of free kosher pizza and ice breakers! We got in touch with our Asian roots for East Meets West: KOACH Make Your Own Sushi Night! Members of all religious communities came out to make sushi with KOACH.

Our JTS Rabbinic Intern, Noah Arnow, has been spending one Shabbat per month with our community and we have enjoyed the enhanced Shabbat experienced with his beautiful davening and enlightening Divrei Torah. In October we got our Sukkot on with Shake It Like a Lulav with KOACH. We set up a game of Twister and made our own Sukkot out of candy! We decided to explore the Rutgers campus in late October by joining up with a Rutgers Ghost Tour to explore all of the other-worldly happenings at the university. In November we met with Zev Forman, a Ramah alumnus, who made aliyah to Israel and was able to share his experiences with us, as well as what he is doing now in his involvement with Mercaz, the Conservative Movement’s Zionist arm.

KOACH Shabbat was a fantastic experience at Rutgers and we had one of our best turn-outs ever! JTS Rabbinical Student Jesse Olitzky joined us for Shabbat services, a Hillel-wide dinner, and a KOACH oneg on Friday night. On Saturday, Jesse led us in a beautiful Shaharit, as part of our weekly Shabbat morning services. We had a KOACH lunch with more than 20 people, at which Jesse led us in a discussion of "Who Wrote the Torah and Does it Matter?" and we concluded Shabbat with KOACH Ma’ariv and Havdalah, where we learned more about the essence of transitioning from kodesh l’hol, from holy to everyday.

This past week, Rabbi Amy Roth of Camp Ramah in the Berkshires came to Rutgers for some Jewish learning, free deli and to talk about employment opportunities at Camp Ramah. KOACH’s next event is Deal Me In: KOACH Poker Night! We will be charging a $1 entrance fee to go to tzedakah and attendees can try their hand at poker while watching the real high rollers of Ocean’s Eleven on screen. Our last event of the semester will be a Relax-Fest on the last day of classes, with tons of Dunkin Donuts goodies, massages, video games, making stress balls, and more relaxing goodness before finals! KOACH at Rutgers is thriving and we are already pumping up for the KOACH Kallah in February! See all of you there!

UCLA Campus Update

By Julie Pinchak
KOACH Intern

Here’s what’s going on with KOACH at UCLA!!

KOACH Big Sibs is a new mentorship program which pairs older members of the Conservative Community at UCLA with new students. Each "Big Sib" checks up on his or her "Little Sib" via phone calls, emails and even coffee breaks! To keep the bonds constant, we have monthly Big Sib Programs. This month was Bowling with Big Sibs, where Big and Little Sibs all went bowling together. We played with Gematria, and anyone whose score corresponded to a significant number (chai, anyone?) won a prize!!

In an effort to expand the Conservative Community and strengthen the bonds of its members, KOACH at UCLA is now holding once-monthly Shabbat morning minyan. This brings in new faces and gives Conservative students the opportunity to read from the Torah. KOACH Shabbat was also a success, with completely student-run services, a women’s study group and reflection on Who Wrote the Torah!

Coming up, we have Learn To Lead, a program that will teach others how to lead services and we will be having a multi-denominational women’s panel come together to give their spin on Judaism.

(Read the report from Rutgers...)

[Posted 11/19/06]