Shapiro Discusses Jewish Identity at Hillel Event

At a Wednesday night discussion hosted by Hillel’s Orthodox student organization Yavneh, Barnard President Judith Shapiro engaged students in conversation on Jewish identity in the academic realm as the audience sounded off about attending college as observant students.

“Academia is a natural home for American Jews,” the outgoing president said to an intimate gathering on the fifth floor of the Kraft Center.

In an audience made up largely of Orthodox students, Shapiro touched on questions of how to best embody feminism, pursue careers and families, and participate in activism and leadership, as well as the role of the college in accommodating observant students.

While she said she believes that Barnard should strive to serve students of all religions, she also stressed that student calls for special accommodations sometimes become matter of an overdeveloped sense of entitlement. “We always have aspects of our identity that we connect with,” Shapiro said. “At the same time, I feel I represent all the students. ... It’s a secular institution.”

“What is the glory of being religiously observant if the world makes it easy for you all the time?” she said.
Discussion also turned to the role of feminism in observant cultures, and how to properly balance a life of family and one of work.

“We are still citizens,” Shapiro said, and urged students to utilize their education in giving back to their communities.
For Ben Stern, SEAS ’08, it was an important theme.
“I’m concerned with women’s roles in society, and especially Jewish women’s roles,” Stern said. “I’ve been active in the feminist cause, Orthodox Jewish feminist cause especially.”

Shapiro, he said, was an authority he could trust.
“A former girlfriend of mine holds President Shapiro in very high regard ... as a model of what a woman can accomplish,” he said.

When asked how she felt her Jewish identity had defined her academic career, Shapiro said that ultimately, it hadn’t, but that she thought it had been helpful in connecting with Jewish students, community members­—and potential alumnae donors.

“Barnard really would not exist without a history of Jewish philanthropy,” Shapiro said.
She also spoke of what she thought her Jewish identity had given her on a personal level.

“I think there is probably some relationship between my being Jewish and the particular sense of humor I have,” she said. “I am a strong believer in humor!”

Students said they felt the intimate chat and spiritual discussion allowed them to connect with Shapiro on a more personal level—one star-struck student described it as being close to a “celebrity sighting.”

“It was really cool to see a different side of President Shapiro,” said Elisheva Bellin, BC ’10 and vice president of education at Yavneh. Bellin said she appreciated that Shapiro shared her personal and spiritual life with the students, and that she found the president’s conversation to be “inspiring.”

“I’m proud to be at a college where she is in charge,” Adinah Katz, BC ’09, said. As Katz is soon to graduate, she said she feels a connection with the outgoing president, and was excited to have one more opportunity to hear Shapiro speak.

“She is the embodiment of the strong, beautiful Barnard woman,” Bellin said.

alix.pianin@columbiaspectator.com