It wasn’t that long ago when Jill Herskovits (MSB ’08) was nervous to attend Jewish prayer services on campus.

Herskovits said recently that after a menorah was stolen from Red Square in December 2004 by two freshmen, she worried for the next three or four months that the Jewish community may be the target of a violent attack.

“When that happened, it was the first time I realized there was hate on this campus,” Herskovits, now the president of the Jewish Student Alliance, said.

So after dozens of students, faculty and administrators gathered in the Intercultural Center Galleria on Tuesday night to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah by eating latkes and donuts and lighting a nine-foot-tall Menorah — the first time that the giant-sized Menorah has made an appearance on campus since 2004 — Herskovits said that she was pleased to see the community unite in support.

“So many people were so adamant about this ceremony making a statement,” she said of the numerous people who attended the event. “I did not expect the line for food to be that long.”

In addition to the prayer and cuisine, the ceremony featured a performance by Harmony of “Rock of Ages,” in English and Hebrew, brief remarks from Senior Jewish Chaplain Rabbi Harold White and Director of Campus Ministry Fr. Timothy Godfrey, S.J., as well as a booth run by the Georgetown Israel Alliance raising money for charity. JSA and the Office of Campus Ministry organized candle lighting ceremonies in the ICC over the next two evenings, inviting groups of freshmen to light the Menorah each night.

“It’s an easy way to expose students to a little bit of Judaism … in an accurate way,” said Deborah Reichmann, Jewish outreach coordinator in the Office of Campus Ministry.
Lightings will continue over the next five nights at the JSA House.

The ceremony was the first of its type at Georgetown since 2004, the same year that Sean Bailey (MSB ’08) and Patty Carroll, who was a freshman in the College at the time, took the Menorah early on a Saturday morning in what they called at the time a “prank” that went wrong. Witnesses said that the two students were intoxicated at the time.

The incident was the fourth involving removal or vandalism of Jewish religious symbols at Georgetown in the past six years.

Bailey called the incident a “foolish mistake” that was “not intended to harm anyone” in an e-mail earlier this week but declined further comment. Carroll transferred to the University of Wisconsin at Madison after her freshman year.

The three-year hiatus was unrelated to the vandalism incident; rather, the candle-lighting ceremony did not occur either of the past two years because Hanukkah fell toward the end of finals. Yet some said that the incident has not been forgotten — making this year’s ceremony both a festive occasion and a further reminder of more jostling times.

Or Skolnik (COL ’08), JSA’s vice president for campus ministry, did not arrive at Georgetown until eight months after the theft as a sophomore transfer, but he said that the incident has come up numerous times in conversation in his five semesters on the Hilltop. Skolnik said that it has not been “a huge thing,” adding that he had no bittersweet feelings during the Menorah lighting on Tuesday.

“It’s sad to me,” he said about the 2004 vandalism incident. “That kind of blatant … disregard for other people’s faith is beneath being talked to and explained.”

Scott Weinstein (COL ’06), who was president of JSA during his senior year, said at the ceremony that Hanukkah has not lost any of its flair since the theft.

“It really is a time of togetherness for the Jewish community on campus,” she said.
Herskovits said that she doesn’t think very often about the vandalism incident anymore but that it “definitely comes up around Hanukkah every year.”

She also said that participation in JSA rose dramatically as a result of the Menorah theft three years ago but has stagnated since.

“People don’t have religion at the forefront of their minds when it’s not blasted at them,” she said. “People are finding their own outlets.”

Ilan Weinberger, JSA program coordinator in the Office of Campus Ministry, said that the Jewish community has moved on from the incident, as people’s initial concern subsidized once they realized that the theft was not a direct attack on the Jewish community.

“I don’t think there’s any ill will harbored by our community,” he said.

And White called it “pretty amazing” that there have only been a handful of attacks directed at the Jewish community since he arrived at Georgetown in 1968, adding that many Jewish students at Georgetown express their faith in different ways. White added that that he is working to raise money to sculpt a large Menorah that will be housed permanently on campus, which he hopes to unveil by Hanukkah 2009.

Many said that Jewish organizations have made a stronger effort since the Menorah theft to reach out to others on campus, holding numerous annual interfaith Shabbat services, as well as other service and social initiatives with other clubs. They also said that they are pleased that many students who are not Jewish have become exposed to Jewish culture.

Fred Moore (COL ’09), a resident advisor in Darnall Hall, organized a contingent of his residents to attend the Menorah-lighting ceremony on Tuesday night after one of his residents proposed the idea about an hour before the event.

He said that he had little exposure to Jewish culture growing up in Louisville, Ky. “There are literally a handful of Jewish people there,” he said.

And Moore — who had not heard of the 2004 Menorah theft — seemed to enjoy his first taste of latkes.

“These things are good,” he said.