AMY LARSON
Staff Writer
With a 4,000-year history, Judaism is one of the oldest monotheistic faiths. Within the span of such a lengthy history, Judaism has greatly evolved. Just as Christianity has various denominations, Judaism is also a diverse religious and cultural community, with a wide array of schools of belief and a unique spectrum of ideas branching from Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist and Reformed Jewish circles.
Although each group believes and practices in slightly different ways, all groups base their spirituality on the Torah, the Jewish holy book. It is from the Torah that the first five books of the Christian Old Testament come.
Pepperdine has almost 200 Jewish students in both undergraduate and graduate programs, although there are 33 declared Jewish students enrolled in Seaver College.
One such student, junior theater major Jesse DuBois, admits that she was slightly hesitant coming to a Christian school. Although she says many of the Jews she knows at Pepperdine are not practicing, there are still instances when she and others feel excluded.
“There are many times when I wish people would just entertain the idea that maybe not everyone in the room is Christian,” DuBois said. “I don’t feel comfortable praying with everyone. However, I chose to go to a Christian school, so I can’t really complain about anything.”
Freshman philosophy major Adam Satnick, who said he did not know of the university’s strong tie to the Churches of Christ before attending, is not as relenting as DuBois.
“[Pepperdine] is so narrow-minded,” Satnick said. “Pepperdine in no way presents itself as being a super-religious school. I had no idea about the ridiculous, oppressive and overbearing rules that the establishment had. I feel pressured and forced into things here at Pepperdine.
“Why are people of other faiths forced, upon threat of grade, to go to Convocation? Why can’t we have Hindu or Buddhist speakers at Convo? Why not a Jew?”
The United States has 5.1 million Jews, and America’s Jewish population is second only to the nation of Israel. Malibu has one of the largest Jewish Synagogues in Southern California called The Malibu Jewish Center.
A Christian attendee, Janet Krabbenhoft said that the differences between Jews and Christians are not as large as many believe.
“The stereotypes people have are wrong,” Krabbenhoft said. “Simply, Christians have accepted Jesus as a Messiah; Jews have not. To most Jews, Jesus was a man and not a god. Some Jews are still anticipating a Messiah in the form of a person, but other Jews simply await a peaceful Messianic age.
“A lot of Christians don’t realize the first five books of the Bible are the Jewish Torah. There’s nothing in the Jewish Torah I don’t believe,” Krabbenhoft said.
There are many other aspects of the Jewish faith other religious groups might not be aware of. Each one of the three daily prayer services in the Jewish faith, Shacharit, Mincha and Maariv or Arvit, contains a statement of faith called the Shema as well as blessings from the rabbi, a religious teacher or cantor, a professional singer, who leads the service. A completely different service is held for the Jewish Sabbath day, which begins on Friday evening and ends on Saturday evening. During the special holidays of Passover, an eight-day spring holiday commemorating the exodus of the Israelites from oppressive bondage in Egypt, synagogue services are much more elaborate and focused on rituals of celebration. The same is true during Hannukah, a holiday in late November or early December, for remembrance of the miracle of the oil at the rededication of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.
Many of the Jewish students on campus have Christian friends and encourage others to learn about their own faith and the connection to Judaism that they have. Laura Colvin, a freshman television production major, suggests that college is a time for open-mindedness and that peoples’ differences should be embraced and appreciated. Although Colvin is Jewish, she is glad to be around other types of people, including Christians.
“There are dangers in only being exposed to one type of person,” Colvin said.
Although students say they don’t feel like a part of the Christian majority, they don’t seek a drastic change in convocation or a reconstruction of the entire doctrine of the university. Instead, each seeks simple tolerance from the non-Jewish students and faculty around campus.
“We’re in college. We’re here to open our minds and hearts,” Colvin said. “Don’t let preconceived notions keep your mind closed to new experiences and new friendships.”
04-06-2006
