— JennïeØSullivân (@OSullivanJennie)
March 9, 2016
This hasn’t stopped Ainsely McGowan-Rucker, the JSoc president, from building “such a tight-knit community”. “Reaching out to everyone [in JSoc] with the same love you might reach out to a sister with is really important,” they tell me. In a community with so few Jews (the Cork Jewish Community registers only 100 members), “the big thing we have in common is that we have each other in common”.
Community building is something that small JSocs arguably do better than larger ones. “Jewish students come together despite the hurdles that they may face, and create something greater than the sum of its parts,” a spokesperson from the Union of Jewish Students explains.
Rheannon Platman, president of the Jewish Society at Queen’s University, Belfast, admits this isn’t always easy. “When I took it over, we had two full members,” she says. “Me and the secretary''. At Queen’s, you need to have 15 members to be a registered society. Over the course of her term as president, Rheannon upped the JSoc membership to 30. When I ask her how she managed it, she rattles off a seemingly endless list.
“I tried to increase our social media presence…I reached out to the one synagogue in the entirety of Northern Ireland…I connected with other Jsocs,” she explains. “From the leadership side of it, it is a bit difficult,” she concedes. But it’s worth it. “I feel proud that I’ve built domwhting which is such an integral part of people’s time at University,” Rheannon tells me. “I think it’s really special”.
Cork Jsoc at the "bring a friend" Friday night
Her “home away from home,” JSoc is a place where she doesn’t have to be the token Jew. It’s her support system, and more than that, “a family and foundation”. “If I can do something that's going to help someone feel less homesick or make lifelong friendships,” she tells me, “I will”.
But building that community isn’t the only hurdle smaller JSocs have to overcome. “Getting Kosher food has been a pretty big issue,” Ainsley tells me, and Sacha Brozel, president of the JSoc at York, has a similar issue. “You can’t get Kosher food in York,” he says. Unless you want to schlep to Leeds, vegetarian options are the only ones available. It’s the same in Lancaster, Rabbi Fagleman, the chaplain there, tells me. “We’ve looked into stocking some Kosher,” he says. “But I think the level of demand wouldn’t make it feasible”.
“Economies of scale,” as Sacha puts it, isn’t just an issue food-wise – although it sounds like for many JSocs, and in good Jewish tradition, that’s a priority. “Grander things just aren’t really possible,” Sacha says, and “it sometimes can be a bit depressing when you've done all the shopping and then only seven people turn up”.
Events are smaller, then, but no less enjoyable. Students bring non-Jewish friends to their Shabbat dinners, “It’s one of the best nights of term, and really, really fun” says Sacha. They also put on a few low-key events at York, including movie and board game nights. At Cork, there are themed Friday night dinners, with the Bob Ross painting night a favourite.
JSocs aren’t just for community building, though, but for education. “We had a Holocaust memorial ceremony,” says Ainsley, which made up the educational event they make sure to stage each semester. “We do a lot of outreach,” they tell me, “just trying to increase the understanding of Judaism in Ireland as a whole”.
Are Jews misunderstood in Ireland, and Northern Ireland? Ainsley and Rheannon both think so. “A lot of people are very anti-Israel, because they align themselves to Palestine,” Rheannon explains, and Ainsley agrees. A lot of Irish people understand the conflict as “the exact same as what existed between the UK and Ireland,” they say. According to Ainsley, a lot of the “outright examples of antisemitism” that the members of Cork Jewish Society have experienced are linked to that understanding.
JSocs, no matter their size, are invaluable in dealing with this. As Ainsley puts it: “We aren’t alone”. “There's a little hub,” Rheannon says of the Shabbat dinners in her kitchen in Belfast. “We can come together and not have to just be Jewish Google for once, which is really lovely”.
Everyone brings something to Rheannon’s dinner. “We wouldn’t get that at a big JSoc,” she says. Sacha agrees. The 12 attendees at York’s Friday nights take it in turns to cook, and rotate the challah baking responsibilities.
“Just because it’s not a Jewni doesn’t mean that there isn’t a Jewish community at the University,” says Sacha. He’s right. It might be a different one – and you might be crammed into a Quaker meeting room or a kitchen rather than a shul – but in some ways, it’s even better. As Rheannon puts it, “being part of the community here has strengthened how important.. It is to have that”. She didn’t expect to be president – she just wanted some people to spend a Friday night with.
But you can’t share Shabbat without sharing something more, and it’s not just the wine that the members bring. It’s a sense of belonging, of family, and of support. And while the wine and challah might run out, that’s not going anywhere. Even if your shul gets sold to Catholics.
