Volume 67, Issue 4  

Panim, Unmasking College Campuses

by Elliot Fruchter

Next stop: Phoenix.

Panim, the college outreach program of the Max Stern Division of Communal Services, has gone all over the country to inspire and educate Jewish communities about Orthodox Judaism.  This year’s inaugural event was a weekend seminar on October 24th-26th in the previously uncharted territories of Arizona State University.

Rabbi Ari Rockoff, Coordinator of Youth and Outreach Services for MSDCS, enthusiastically noted that the upcoming program confirms the tremendous growth the program over the years, and points at the potential for continuing growth.  A signal of the group’s popularity is that Arizona State contacted them and not vice versa.

The overflowing influx of volunteers for the program has given its organizers the feeling that potential for growth is high. However, each Stern or Yeshiva student interested in joining the club has to go through a sifting process that Panim takes quite seriously. Every applicant fills out a questionnaire, noting their credentials, and is interviewed by three Panim group leaders simultaneously.  Therefore, Panim is careful to choose only those that they deem fit for the job.  Hiring an unprepared or inexperienced member can result in a botched, unsuccessful program on the campuses visited.

Panim will send a team of three young men and two young women to Arizona State over the coming year.  The university has somewhere between forty and fifty active Hillel members, none of whom are Orthodox.  Arizona received a special grant for traditional programming, such as Panim, allowing the Panim team to be housed in a nearby Marriott Hotel.

Panim Coordinator Jason Finkelstein described the two-fold goal of each program.  First, the program attempts to create achdus, a feeling of togetherness, and bridge the gap of understanding between the Orthodox and non-Orthodox communities.  Stereotypes coming from both sides have to be dismissed and students from Yeshiva and Stern need to show the colleges that they are open-minded, he said.

Secondly, the group wants to create a Shabbos atmosphere that will leave a positive impression and lead to Jewish activism on the respective campuses.  An added bonus would be to form friendships with the college students and keep in touch with them after the program has ended.

The program wishes to teach the college students that halacha is very alive, practical, and meaningful, said Finkelstein.

In order to accomplish these goals, Finkelstein explained, members of the team need certain qualities.  The members have to be bright, open-minded, and non-judgmental in order to comfortably hold discussions with highly intelligent college students on their own turf and who often arrive with negative perceptions of Orthodoxy.  Therefore, Finkelstein said, “Panim is not for everybody and requires a high level of mesiras nefesh (devotion).”

Chaim Hirsch, Panim’s Educational Coordinator and a Sy Syms senior, described the attraction of the program to the Jews in the various colleges.  “The topics, such as sexual ethics, relate to issues in their lives,” he said. “Panim also makes other college people proud of their Jewish heritage and allows them to learn more about their culture and Jewish perspectives on religious issues.”

Panim will continue its journeys in the months ahead with stops at the University of Rochester and the University of Delaware.

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