"The service is a culmination of the things Hillel has been working on and striving for on campus," Kupchik said. "It's very symbolic that we're celebrating a new year, new hope, new start with a new tradition. The High Holidays haven't been celebrated on campus before. This is a very big first."
The Rev. James Fleming, S.J., said he wasn't surprised by the services held Monday on BC's campus. "As best I can tell, BC is the only Catholic university in New England that has a Hillel, and that surprised me," Fleming said. "It doesn't surprise me that BC did. There's a tradition here of interfaith dialogue."
Fleming said he saw the services coming to BC's campus as a natural progression, growing out of the diversification of the student body and growing access to information about how students pray on campus. "If I sit back and think about the changing student body, the ongoing dialogue, the establishment of the center, Hillel being here for so many years, these being the first Rosh Hashanah services celebrated here doesn't surprise me," he said.
Fleming also credited the advent of the services on campus to BC's changing demographic. "For the last 20 years, the student body of BC has become more competitive as measured by standardized national assessments. There's been a change in the student body," he said. "We have a more diverse student body, ethnically and religiously, that there would be a growing need for ministry to those students, including retreats and worship students."
The interfaith initiative has been ongoing at BC. Recently it took the form of the BC Interfaith Initiative, a collection of people from the BC community, including faculty from the theology department, a representative from ResLife, members of the BC administration, graduate students, and Rev. Joseph Appleyard, S.J., the vice president for University Mission and Ministry. The committee is striving to improve interfaith relations on campus.
James Bernauer, the director of the Center for Christian Jewish Learning, saw ties between recent interfaith initiatives and the Jesuit tradition. "I think the interfaith initiative is a very good thing and will make us all much more aware of the spiritual abundance that other faiths have for us," he said. "And Jesuit religious identity is increasingly being spoken of as an inter-religious identity, namely, a religious person is always in dialogue with other faiths. And the Rosh Hashanah is a particularly wonderful reminder to us to embrace the practice of forgiving and repentance."
Ratz agreed. "I think there's no better place to have interfaith dialogue than at a Jesuit institution, and especially BC," he said. "The Jesuit values are all about expanding your horizons, and part of that is expanding your understanding of other faiths.
"As a Jewish student at BC, I feel really proud knowing this campus not only permits Jewish services, but embraces and promotes them. I feel really proud," Ratz said.
Spring Break
