Diversity Event!

In my time at Ohio State I have actually attended 2 diversity events! The first one I attended was not really for the purpose of this post, because I wasn’t really extending myself into a new diverse group because the first program I attended was for explaining the Jewish tradition of “Shabbat”, and as a Jew, I am already pretty well versed in what the traditions of Shabbat are and what is done.

The reason I attended this event to being with was because I saw the poster in on my floor and saw that it was in my building, on the second floor. It interested me to go to this event as I was Jewish and I wanted to see how accurate or real the presentation/education on Shabbat would be. I wondered who would be running the event, and what parts of Shabbat they would cover. I wondered if the presenter would be Jewish person, maybe someone I knew (because a lot of Jews know each other or at least know someone they know, we call it Jewish geography).

I also kind of wanted to go to see if I would be able to add anything from the perspective of another student who was probably going to be closer to the age of the attendees then whoever the presenter would be.

When I went, it was pretty much what I expected, they talked about the food we ate and some of the traditions that a lot of people do on Shabbat. If you didn’t know, Shabbat is a weekly holiday that is celebrated starting Friday night at sundown and ends Saturday night a sundown. Many families celebrate weekly, and have different levels of observances. The overall theme of Shabbat is that it is supposed to be a day of rest because it symbolizes the last day that god took when he created the world he took 7 days, and took the last one as rest. Some people, who are more conservative aren’t allowed to use electricity, drive a car or do really any work because it is supposed to be the day of rest.

For me, I don’t typically celebrate Shabbat on a regular basis. I do celebrate more often in college than I did at home, as now I sometimes go to Hillel or Chabad on campus. I also celebrate Shabbat every week in the summer as I work at a Jewish overnight summer camp.

I was happy with my attendance of this event, although looking back at it I feel like a lot of my motivation to go was not for the right reasons. I imagine that the person who planned this event intended for it to be people who did not know much or anything about Shabbat. I went in with a more pessimistic mindset thinking the person teaching wouldn’t be very good but I was disproven and am actually very glad that these kind of events exist on campus so people are aware of my culture and traditions and can be respectful of them!

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