The thing I attended for this diversity post was the Schottenstein Chabad House. This house is owned and kept up by the Rabbis and their families. The organization is Chabad. The main event I attend is the weekly shabbat dinner. I go with some of my friends, and we sometimes also bring our non-jewish friends. Overall, this is one event I look forward to every week. My family growing up was not super religious. We celebrated the main jewish holidays but we almost never went to services or anything. Joining chased has allowed me to really get more exposed to Judaism and different types of traditions. When I first attended this event, I felt very uncomfortable. I felt like I didn’t belong. Pretty much the entire first dinner I went to I just felt like an outsider. But, as I started going to more of the dinners, I started to meet more people and understand the traditions. I learned the rules and started to help out there. I think that the fact that I felt uncomfortable was mostly just because I felt out of place. But, I have brought several of my non-jewish friends who absolutely loved going. We get a 4 course meal, sing songs, and get lots and lots of challah. The whole experience is very comfortable. I think that Rabbi Zalman, who is in charge, does a great job of making sure people that aren’t jewish feel included. Every time I have brought someone to Chabad, he welcomed them, talked to them, and introduced them to people so they didn’t feel out of place. A big thing in Judaism is the idea of family. Whether you are friends, acquaintances, or actually related, being a part of a large group of people who you care about and treating them the way you want to be treated is so important. In fact, for my birthday this past weekend, they brought me a cake. When I asked the Rabbi why they would spend money on a cake for me when they barely know me, he said that “We don’t need to be related to be family. You come here all the time and participate respectfully. You treat my family with kindness. Chabad is a family. We care about each other, celebrate each other, and are there for each other. You are family”. It is something that really warmed my heart. I think that diversity effects STEM a lot. As you look deeper and deeper into people of color or of different religions in STEM, the numbers get smaller and smaller. I did robotics all of high school. Our team had 40+ members. I was one of two girls on the team. Honestly, it was really hard. The guys would team up against us and make it hard for our ideas to be heard. I ended up becoming very inactive my senior year because of how toxic the team became. Overall, my experience with Chabad, which was something very different than what I grew up with, was really incredible. Every time I go there I learn something new.
Here is a video from one of the dinners: