The one term utilized ad nauseam more than any other throughout freshman orientation at Dartmouth is "diversity." The College preaches "diversity" almost to a point of overcompensation while trying its darndest to use this diluted word as a grand sales pitch for prospective students. Lectures throughout orientation and beyond carry almost identical themes of growth and maturity through an acceptance and appreciation of differences. While the sheer quantity of activities centered on "diversity" may, in the long run, cheapen the term, it is difficult not to respect this attempt at encouraging a fully-tolerant student body. Yet as my third Yom Kippur in Hanover approaches, Dartmouth's heavily loaded emphasis on "diversity" seems nothing more than empty rhetoric.
This past weekend, Dartmouth featured a front page article on its website entitled "To honor and preserve," detailing Project Preservation, a two-week, Hillel-sponsored community service program where students travel to Eastern Europe "to honor and memorialize the European Jews lost to the Holocaust." But while the College unashamedly advertises to the public its contribution to "honoring and preserving" Jewish culture abroad, it has continuously rejected and refused to recognize the holiest day in all of Judaism here at Dartmouth. If students are given a day off for Winter Carnival, does it not logically follow that Yom Kippur would be granted the same tribute?
According to Hillel, there are about 450 undergraduates at Dartmouth who identify as Jewish. This essentially means that approximately one out of nine freshmen who sat through endless sermons on Dartmouth's unequivocal embrace of "diversity" will experience no recognition of their own identity. Endorsement of programs like Project Preservation or even organizations like Hillel which support Jewish students on campus only carries so much weight once it is made clear that the most important annual event in the Jewish religion does not merit a day off.
For those who observe Yom Kippur, the most defining aspect of the tradition is, of course, fasting. Jews believe that fasting will help them atone for their sins, and from sundown on the eve of Yom Kippur to the following evening, a significant portion of the student body will not be eating or drinking. From experience I can tell you that the last thing one wants to do during the fast is listen to a philosophy lecture or participate in a chemistry lab. Furthermore, the scheduling of Dartmouth classes directly conflicts with the morning and afternoon synagogue services of Yom Kippur.
With ten-week terms, missing even a single class can be detrimental to one's academic performance in that course. Dartmouth is forcing Jewish students to choose between faith and scholastic success. Such religious insensitivity does not speak highly of an institution which has the least favorable reputation for ethnic multiplicity in the Ivy League.
Some will argue that the Jewish population at Dartmouth is not large enough to warrant a day off. Others will make the case that Dartmouth simply follows official federal holidays as to not offend any minority groups on campus and to avoid having to cancel classes for every holiday of every religious sect represented on campus. But what if Dartmouth, for once, transcended the mold and made a real effort to promote diversity above and beyond the programming directed at freshmen? Who can blame prospective students for not viewing Dartmouth, a school that has twice rejected AEPi's request for official sponsorship (and remains the only college in the Ivy League to not have at least a colony for the Jewish fraternity), as a Jewish-friendly place? Perhaps if the College went beyond the norm and gave a day off for Yom Kippur, it could legitimize its claim to being a leader in the advancement of true diversity. Indeed, actions always speak louder then words.
I will not accuse Dartmouth administrators of being anti-Semitic. After all, they admitted me -- a white Jewish kid from New York City. However, the College can learn from the same lesson of acceptance it tries to teach incoming students. Canceling classes for Yom Kippur would be a grand and long overdue leap in the right direction for a school which claims to cherish its diverse student body.
