It’s no secret that both Northwestern and Evanston have strong Jewish communities, but they rarely interact, writes Grace Johnson in The Daily Northwestern.
Many Jewish students said they have their spiritual needs met at Fiedler Hillel, 629 Foster St., or the Tannenbaum Chabad House, 2014 Orrington, but some expressed interest in building a greater relationship with Evanston synagogues.
“It’s weird to not have contact with people who are older or younger than you,” Jason Gutstein said.
The reason some students don’t reach out to community synagogues may be that they feel too strong of a connection with their hometown congregation, the Weinberg senior added.
“When you are part of a synagogue, you participate throughout the year, and you really have a strong relationship with it,” Gutstein said. “But the problem is, in my case, I’m 2000 miles away and if I went to a new synagogue, it would be hard to break away from my old one.”
Chabad is unique in that it encompasses both adult and student members, said the director, Rabbi Dov Hillel Klein.
“Within our own center, we have our community as well,” he said. “There has always been a good relationship between all of our members.”
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