The TAC board members sat down with The Observer and reflected on their experiences staffing TAC this year. They shared their successes, their failures, and their hopes for the future of TAC. The Observer has the exclusive:
President Margot Reinstein recalls the first TAC meeting back in August vividly: “We came to our first meeting and spoke about our mission of enhancing religious life and filling the niches of every single student on campus.”
“TAC decided to be led by purpose in everything we do,” explains Yehudit Goldberg, TAC Vice President. “We outlined a number of broader goals [at our first meeting] that needed to be addressed for the improvement of the Stern Community, and [from then on,] with every big event, every meeting discussion, we tried to keep those goals in mind.”
The TAC goals were driven by the student body: “Every student should find Stern to be a positive and growth-filled religious experience,” explains Yehudit. “We did our best to accommodate the different needs of different students to make this place work for their religious growth.”
Despite their clear goals, TAC faced a challenge at the outset of this year though: Diversity—or lack thereof. Margot highlights, “Our board consisted of 4 Ma’ayanot Alumnae, 4 from Teaneck, 3 from Midreshet Lindenbaum. We knew this was a weakness of ours. But because it was our weakness, it ended up becoming our greatest strength.”
“This challenge is why we spent so many hours in ‘focus groups’ (a concept in which TAC met with several students and their friends to learn about their religious experience at Stern.) A lot of what we were doing in these focus groups wasn’t necessarily creating new programs or events to address those students’ needs. Rather, we were often just pointing out to those students that Stern already has exactly what they are asking for.”
According to some students, there is often a sense that the Stern community is too fragmented, without enough bringing together the diversity. The TAC goal attempts to bridge that fragmentation by creating events that brings different students together.
Margot passionately exclaims: “If a student wants to enhance their religious experience and find for themselves a more vibrant Judaism, I promise you, you can find it here. In fact, what you can find here you can find no where else. But you need to open your eyes.
“You’re looking for more chessed? You want all women’s environments to have fun? You’re looking to improve your gemarah skills? Gain perspective on important issues facing the Jewish communities? It’s all here!”
Via the TAC focus groups and speaking to more members of the student body, TAC was able to modify its goals to better serve the student body as the year progressed.
As Margot explains, “At the opening event of ‘Out and About Camp Out,’ we played only Jewish music. Over 30 students wrote to student council members telling us how much they appreciated it. 30 Students showing their appreciation! For something as small as Jewish music. This is one example of small and easy changes which have great ramifications for students.
“To enhance the presence of Roshei Yeshiva on campus, we brought them in every other week through TSLS and during club hour. Yehudit Goldberg spearheaded this initiative.” Yehudit expressed the feelings of TAC: “We felt that the Stern student body needs to be exposed to the Torah giants of our generation, and to religious role models, in a more frequent and concretized manner. So we turned our focus to bringing in the Roshei Yeshiva and many other Torah figures to enhance the spiritual life on our campus.”
“For those who wanted to join in on the festivities, but not necessarily in the co-ed environment, we had an all women’s Seudat Hodaah on Yom Ha’atzmatut. Spearheaded by Elana Raskas, Shacharis in the Beis addressed the needs of students across the spectrum struggling with tefillah. It wasn’t the most innovative idea, but it had never happened before: students coming together, as a community, to pray.”
Find it bothersome that so many great events are uptown? Why should we travel up so often; can’t the men come down here? TAC agreed. “We pushed this year to have major events happen downtown – they were, to say the least, a overwhelming success. The Yachad Carnival had over 350 attendees this year in Koch, rather than Furst 501. The Latke Hamatash Debate as well, took place in a jam-packed 101-102 classroom. It was impressive the way those club heads, Rebecca Tessler, Chana Weinstock (iGive) Gabrielle Hiller and Chesky Kopel (Kol Hamevaser) took the leap of faith that major events can be successful downtown.”
Quality Over Quantity:
The TAC members explain:
An average night at Stern last year had 8 events going on, 3 of which you wanted to go to. The fan-base for events were split and there were lower numbers at events. This year we knew that needed to change. The first step was the joint SCWSC-SYMS-TAC calendar that hung next to the elevators in 245 Lex. Ari Geller, Adina Minkowitz and I recognized that from the student bodies perspective, they don’t care which council is running which event. If it’s a good event, they want to go to it. We wanted to ensure that each night there were 2 good events for students to choose from – but not more. When it comes to events, we realize, “less is more”.
Through this system, we had a plethora of shiurim which happened this year, boasting over 100 students. It was really incredible to watch. It says a lot about a student body which already works so hard because of Stern’s demanding curriculum and yet takes the time for a little more Torah or chessed, night after night.
Additionally, while we certainly had food at events, we limited the food to either kick-off events, university-wide events or events whose nature required food. This was difficult for club heads at first, who were used to having food at every event. When club heads would tell us, “People won’t come if there’s not food”, our response was, “If you need food to make your event good, we don’t want that event.” This was all part of our effort of enhancing the quality of events on campus and giving students what they want.
Addressing Communal Needs:
While TAC focused on the individuals, we recognized that it was our role as student leaders to ensure that communal needs were addressed.
At the beginning of the year there were rockets being thrown more than ever in countries in the south. Together with other colleges and spearheaded by Blanche Haddad, TAC ran a “Rally for Israel” which, thank God, had over 300 students come together to sing and pray for Israel.
When Hurricane Sandy hit, TAC led the mission to the Lower East side, and ran clothing, food and flashlight drives through iGive. We helped Housing find hosts for students for Shabbat in the Heights and led an incredible off-campus tisch with over 200 attendees.
When the Newtown Massacre occurred, TAC saw this as another time we needed to step up and mourn together. TEIQU’s Presidents, Rachel Weber, Josh Botwinick and Hillel Gross stepped up to make it happen and led a powerful ceremony. It made a powerful impact to feel the encouragement of the administration, REITS, and Office of Student Life as Rabbi Brander, Rav Blau, Rabbi Reiss and President Joel spoke and showed their support.
An unfortunate too many rallies were run through TAC’s impassioned club Agunah Advocacy. Going to a Rally and publically embarrassing someone is not an easy task. But for something so important as freeing an agunah and stopping the abuse, Stern and YU students joined together, led by Agunah Advocacy President Kimberly Hay.
Yehudit Goldberg spearheaded a 2-part series on Women and Orthodoxy, in which we spoke about important topics for an Orthodox Jewish Women which aren’t formally discussed enough: Modesty and Intimacy.
Sexual Abuse is such a delicate, sensitive–and to be quite honest, scary–topic in Jewish communities right now. TAC saw that students were looking for perspective. Led by Leah Gottfried and the Film Club, TAC showed the film “Standing Silent,” with a panel discussion with Rav Blau and the film maker afterwards.
I don’t think the importance of YUPAC needs to be stated. Led by Judith Frankiel and Ben Scheiner, it brought 70 students to DC to advocate for better Israel-US relations. It was a huge success.
When Rabbi Lamm’s Daughter, Sara Lamm Dratch, passed away, through the guidance of Rabbi Saul Berman, TAC realized what an impact Sara had on Stern College’s growth and advancement of women’s learning. Tammie Senders and Rivka Herzfeld worked together with Dr. Shatz to plan a beautiful commemorative shiur in her memory, attended by Rabbi Lamm and his family.
Shabbat on Campus:
Hearing that Tuvia and Rahel were leaving was a big blow to Stern moral. What would Shabbat on campus look like without these two powerhouse role models? This was another situation of a crisis turning into an opportunity. With the help of OSL, TAC worked to find the perfect Campus Couple and of course, we did. Every student who stays in for Shabbos realizes all that Esty and Jonathan Schwab bring to the table.
TAC realized that if we wanted Shabbat on Campus to improve, we needed to show we were dedicated to it as well. Each week we ensured there was at least one of us from each council staying in, making the announcement and showing that this is something student leaders are excited about.
Must the epitome of Jewish Life on campus be a co-ed TAC/SOY Shabbaton? Certainly not! This year, Stern had its first-ever TAC Shabbaton entitled “Women of Vision”. It was a Shabbat with Rebetzin Rosensweig, which focused on student visions, leadership and overcoming struggles. It was an extraordinary success and hopefully will become now an “annual” TAC Shabbaton.
Both TAC-SOY Shabbaton were, to say the least, epic. But as a student who stayed in every week (except 2!) this year, I can tell you it wasn’t just TAC/SOY. Al Pi Darko/Kol Hamevaser Shabbaton, Athletics and Drama Society Shabbaton’s, Israel Club and Medical Ethics – the list goes on – the Shabbatonim this year were amazing. Anyone who’s been to any of those will recognize that. “The direction we are moving in terms of enhancing Shabbat on campus is really exciting,” explains TAC member Atara Clark.
Next Year’s Board:
There is definitely a long way to go for these goals to be fully accomplished, but we hope we have built on the accomplishments of last year’s TAC and that our purpose will only be strengthened in the coming years.
It was an incredible year. But none of this year’s accomplishments were because of TAC Board alone. It was only through the passions, ideas, motivations and different perspectives our diverse student body brings to the table that we were able to have such a successful year. It was because of our 50 dedicated and impassioned club heads, the office of Student Life, President Joel, the Deans, and the rest of the student body’s encouragement, support, and of course criticism, which made the year as successful as it was.
Margot expresses her desire for the student body to recognize the leaps and bound that TAC has made this year: “I want students to recognize how much thought student leaders put into everything. Student leaders aren’t just continuing what has been done in the past. They’re in constant discussion with the student body and working to address their needs. Stern is looking forward to a brighter future.”
While this year was great, if the accomplishments are not continued and if we don’t learn from our shortcomings, we can expect change and improvement. It was part of our mission to ensure that those running for TAC next year were in line with TAC’s vision and qualified for the Job. Sarah Alt, Amanda Esraelian, Ariella Rothschild, Shira Tuchman and Chaya Kanarfogel couldn’t be a more diverse board, representing from the get-go the needs of so many students. They’re so capable, passionate, empowering and each have their own inspiring story. They can’t wait to hear from you to keep Torah activities on this campus thriving.
This article was composed in a collaborative effort between the members of TAC and The Observer staff.