Dear Editor,

At the risk of legitimizing a baseless and ill-spirited letter, we as leaders and students of all stripes in the Jewish community here at Wash. U., feel compelled to raise our voices in support of our two rabbis on this campus, Rabbi Hershey Novack and Rabbi Andy Kastner, who were attacked in a letter to Student Life on the eve of Rosh Hashanah.

While Mr. Pressman brings attention to some of the alleged beliefs within Chabad as an organization, he omits the facts on the ground about Chabad on Campus. [The Directors of the Rohr Center for Jewish Life] Chana Novack and Rabbi Hershey have created a warm and welcoming space where students of all denominations, who are each observing Shabbat and holidays in their own personal ways, can gather together and share a delicious meal as a community. None of us, in the hundreds of collective hours we have spent at Chabad on Campus, have ever felt any pressure to do something we were not comfortable doing.

Rabbi Andy, who has been on campus a mere three months, has already made a positive impression on us as a leader who is open and understanding to students of all backgrounds. We have every reason to trust that he is sincere in his and Hillel’s mission to meet all Jewish students where they are. We believe from Rabbi Andy’s actions that he is committed to pluralism; he has helped make egalitarian minyanim and has prayed at both Reform and Conservative services.

We are dismayed that Mr. Pressman uses the labels of ‘Chabad’ and ‘Orthodox’ as an attempt to scare students. We do not judge our rabbis by their ‘covers.’ Instead, we have gotten to know them as people. The actions of our rabbis define them, as it is absurd to judge someone by the actions of another.

The Jewish community on our campus is strong, vibrant and diverse, thanks in no small part to Rabbi Hershey and Rabbi Andy, something for which they do not get enough praise. We look forward to spending many more meals with both rabbis in the future. We also look forward to our rabbis teaching Torah (after all, rabbis are teachers), especially on the subjects of lashon hara (gossip) and mechila (forgiveness), central Jewish concepts that we all could meditate on before Yom Kippur.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Rose, Chair of Conservative Minyan

Elliot Rosenthal, President, Jewish Student Union

Max Arad, Vice President of Religious Programming, JSU

Justin Eisenberg, Weekday Morning Minyan Coordinator

Daniel Fishman, Wash. U. Students for Israel

Jaclyn French, Co-Chair of Reform Services

Philip Gibbs, Vice President of Social Justice Programming, JSU

Deborah Goldberg, Vice President of Cultural and Educational Programming, JSU Co-Chair of Reform Services

Maia Lamdany, Egalitarian Services Coordinator

Gideon Palte, JSU Treasurer

Seth Berkman

Sarah Ebstein

Rachel Braun

Emily Feder

Marc David Hendel

Sara Fischman-Klein

David Goldfinger

Hannah Rabinowitz

Ally Resnik

Paula Sass

Aron Soleiman