By Tamara Yeshurun, Staff Writer
I am an out-of-towner. (I’m not like other girls.) I have the privilege to stay on the Beren campus for many Shabbatot throughout the year and to forge relationships with the campus couples and with the wonderful cohort of women who often stay in for Shabbat.
On the week of Parshat Noach, however, we did not have a minyan. To Beren students of recent years it may seem bizarre that the “flagship Jewish University” would ever fail to offer Shabbat services for half of its student body. But this was not always the case. In the past, a Beren campus student who wished to daven with a minyan on Shabbat would have to fend for herself, trekking to a shul blocks away, often without the guaranteed presence of many of her other fellow students. Therefore, to amend this issue, the ‘Minyan Man’ initiative was born: bringing a quorum of men from the Wilf campus each Shabbat as a way for the women to be able to daven with a minyan.
This is the perfect solution, right? Problem solved.
Well, not entirely. On the Wilf campus, there is an overwhelming lack of interest in the initiative, and it is not unheard of for Beren students to go without a minyan for a number of weeks throughout the year. To my understanding, the reluctance to volunteer for the Beren minyan is a matter of simple convenience, the social comfortability of remaining Uptown and, perhaps principally, a virulent distaste for participating in “co-ed” activities.
Enlisting men every week therefore remains a constant struggle, something deeply dispiriting to many out-of-towners who feel that the university is not prioritizing their needs. It is already unfortunate to see in-towners & Co. sprint for the exits on Thursdays like their life depends on it. The very least that can be done is ensure a consistent minyan on campus, free from the uncertainty afforded by volunteership.
Of course, the atmosphere on campus does not and ought not depend on the men who choose to contribute to the davening. In that vein, the innovation which began last year of having an all-women’s Kabbalat Shabbat has been hugely inspiring to me and my fellow Shabbat attendees. But the importance of a minyan to the Shabbat experience cannot be overstated.
Leah Reichlin (SCW ‘26) put it this way: “Girls in Stern want to feel like they are more part of a community, a college community. By having to go to a shul that’s a few blocks down,” she said, “you almost feel like you’re not even supposed to be there, and that you’re just a visitor.”
“It does bring more of a sense of community when we’re all together davening in Stern, which can only happen when we have minyan men.”
Ultimately, it comes down to this: the Beren campus should never have to scrounge for a minyan on Shabbat. So, I have a proposal. Make being a minyan man a once-a-year requirement for Rabbinical students.
Masmidim, RIETS (Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary) bochrim – if you’re even there – just hear me out.
At YU, prospective semicha students are specially mandated and encouraged to enhance religious life on campus. For example, they are expected to stay on the Wilf campus for a certain number of Shabbatot throughout the year. They also participate in extra learning programming, in addition to preparing shiurim themselves. I suggest that a modest addition be made to this list: each Rabbinical student would select a single Shabbat over the course of the year to contribute their presence to the Beren campus minyan.
I know this may affront some of you. But I believe that diffusing the responsibility among the very demographic who plan to dedicate their lives to sustaining the religious needs of Jewish communities is a fairly intuitive solution. Picture an enormous spreadsheet where friends could coordinate which Shabbat they’d choose to make the courageous trip down to midtown together, and never have to think about it again. The freedom to coordinate the crowd for that week would make the endeavor less daunting on a social level.
“But how can the Flagship Jewish University demand that I participate in a co-ed activity?” I hear some of you protest. Never fear, it is not co-ed. The meals are eaten totally separately. In fact, given that Kabbalat Shabbat is not conducted together, it is strikingly less “co-ed” than the typical synagogue, where participating in the minyan wouldn’t even be a question. If you happen to see a Beren student in her natural habitat, I promise she will not chase you down (We may travel in packs, but we are generally harmless.) All we want is a minyan. That’s it.
Second of all, it’s one Shabbat. One little Shabbat, praying behind a mechitza, and nothing more. Think of it this way: it is somewhat unjust to expect the same self-selecting collection of Wilf students to bear the duties of being a minyan man most of the year, condemned to shlep not only themselves but a curious social weight with them all the while. In contrast, with this solution, the men would be different each week, hardly a blink in the individual lives of the participants.
An inter-campus collaboration like this would simply become yet another extraordinary feature of YU as a home for young Jews anywhere. And regardless of whether such a requirement indeed materializes, I think it important to remember that volunteering for the Beren minyan is a simple act of chesed. It is an opportunity to provide a complete Shabbat atmosphere to people who, as much as you, deliberately elected to attend an Orthodox Jewish university. It is more than fair for Beren students to request that our tefillah be taken seriously. All it takes is a single Shabbat per year.
Photo Caption: Beren campus students at havdalah after Shabbat
Photo Credit: Yeshiva University