OH! The Choices: Hillel vs. Chabad at college

The following is a comment I made in reply to a post on a new favorite blog of mine: ethicalredemption. It starts to sound anti-feminist, well, my point is clear and I was writing in the heat of the moment. I thought I'd share it since I wasn't in a bloggalating mood tonight.


Hillel vs. Chabad: Well, even for me that was confusing. Granted I didn't go to college at the same age as most kids (not a university anyway, I was in junior college a long time). But, I understand the conflict. For me, the Hillel here has a woman rabbi, and that's still odd for me. She is actually great, but it's still weird.

Chabad on the other hand can be very religious. I have gone to many of the grad student shabbats which were actually pretty nice. Here Chabad attracts mostly young people who want that connection and find Hillel too liberal. I think you should try chabad. My experience is that it attracts a very diverse student body.

Main reason the Hillel at SDSU weirded me out:
(long story to follow -- sorry)
I went to a seder there one year. The director and some students led the seder. When it came time to point to the symbols on the plate, there was an extra item. Immediately I thought, @@#@$!@!#$, what is this? There was an orange on the plate! The director explained that there was some man (I forget his name now but someone known in the Jewish world). This man made a comment about the role of women in Judaism. Basically he said something to the effect that women don't belong (I think it was studying Torah), just like an orange does not belong on a seder plate.

So, after that, many women started putting an orange on the plate in a sense to prove him wrong. What do I think of this? I think it's freaking ridiculous! I mean, I am a liberated modern independent woman, and yet I don't ever want to be considered a feminist. I'm not. The feminist movement has made femininity an ugly thing, it's made being a woman something that is defined or proven by what men say. This being the exact thing it didn't want. Really, who cares what this guy said about a women, Judaism and an orange! Adding the orange to the plate not only validified this man, it was an act against strongheld traditions (one held amongst myriads of denominations)

:) Just thought I'd share since the thoughts flowed, thanks for letting me.