Student Looks to Form Jewish Athlete Group

Dina Schorr's first fencing meet was on a Saturday at Harvard. She told family she was going to Cambridge to watch Columbia fence. During the second touch of her bout, Schorr, a saber fencer, slipped on the strip and injured her ankle. Her first thought? “Godsmack.”

Schorr was raised in an Orthodox Jewish household. Joining the Columbia fencing team was more than making a time commitment to a sport. It was an examination of the role of faith in her life. The Jewish religion makes few more serious time demands than the period from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. College athletics tend to demand the same timeslot.

Seven of the 10 events on Columbia’s schedule this year called for Saturday competitions, including the NCAA championships.

Schorr now describes herself as a “non-observant Orthodox Jew.” She is also Vice President for Initiatives of Communities and Strategies at Hillel.

She believes that there are no places on campus for Jewish athletes and few places to turn for advice from people who have faced similar issues.

Schorr is looking to change that. She wants to start an organization for Jewish athletes through Hillel. The mission, as she sees it, would be two-pronged: first, to provide a support network for Jewish athletes and second, to use the avenue of athletics to help break down barriers between players on different teams as well those between the Jewish community and the rest of campus.

“Lots of Jews play sports. It’s kind of overlooked,” she said. “No one thinks of Jews as athletes.”

And Jewish athletes are often faced with questions of whether or not to play or practice during some holidays. On Yom Kippur last year, sophomore quarterback Roy Altman chose to sit out of practice. “The tradition of being Jewish is most important to me,” he told Spectator. Two years ago, Columbia’s game against Princeton fell on Rosh Hashana, and no one sat out.

Boomer Murray, president of Columbia Catholic Athletes, said that his group proved a sense of belonging on campus when he arrived on campus.

“It’s a sense of community for athletes on campus. So even if they didn’t come form a Catholic background, they know what you go though,” he said.

“It was something I didn’t necessarily expect to be here,” he said.

Some might say that in starting this group, Schorr traded one insular community (the Jewish community) for another (the athletic community). But in that way, the very act of forming a group makes it exclusive. People organize around common interests and shared experience.

Faith-based groups meld traditions that people grow up with and the new experience of being a Division One athlete.

Shorr also acknowledges that many on campus see Columbia’s Jewish community as insular and sometimes inaccessible to both non-Jews and less-observant Jews. But trying to be a more open community was at the center of Schorr’s platform when she ran for the Hillel Executive Board last winter. Bringing more diverse groups into the Jewish community is at the center of that vision.

“Hillel has never targeted [athletes],” Schorr said. “[I am] trying to get athletes to meet each other.” She believes that this would be one way to break down the religious-only way that people see Hillel. “We’re regular people, we do campus activites.”

Schorr wants to build a more diverse community.

“It’s about a bond, a connection,” she said. “The Athletic department isn’t good about getting people together.”

The question, of course, is what is to be done with the sense of community. Columbia Catholic Athletes organizes charity drives and puts on events like the sports clinic at Baker Field. There is also a social aspect—group-centered dinners. CCA and the Columbia Catholic Undergraduates organize post-mass dinners on Sunday nights in St. Paul’s.

Schorr sees an organization for Jewish athletes as a way not only to perform community service but also to bridge the gap between the Jewish community and the campus. Athletics have always been a good way to bring people together.

She also hopes that once the organization is officially propose, a Jewish athletes group would run a couple of test events to see if there was enough interest. If there were, it would be funded by Hillel.

“It’s part of breaking down barriers,” she said.