Program Description: After regular services were held at Hillel, there was an additional dinner held in the Knight Room of Brower for all Jewish fraternity and sorority members to join together for their own Shabbat dinner.
Date: Friday, November 16, 2001
Goals of Program: To bring the Jewish Greek students together in the hopes of them forming their own community.
Meet Goals? Why or why not? Yes. Once the ice was broken, everyone had a great time mingling with each other and sharing in the prayers. They appreciated the attention to the Greek community.
Type of Program: Social and Religious
Program planned for: Jewish Greek students
Why planned: Need for a connection to the Greek community and to the Jewish students in the Greek community to each other.
Receive grants: No
How far ahead start planning? 1 month. You need enough time to reserve a room, meet with students to get them involved in the planning, and plenty of time for publicity.
People who help plan: 3; JCSC Fellow and two Greek students
People who help implement: 3
Expected attendance: 20-25
Budget:
Forms of publicitly: Classified ad in Targum�s Greek Forum, word of mouth, calendar, e-mail, personalized invitations in the mailboxes at the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, tabling
Location of event: Knight Room of Brower Commons
Suggestions for someone else: Involve a lot of students in the planning of this event. Give yourself plenty of time to meet with the students. Word of mouth is key in an event like this so try to connect with as many individuals as possible so that they can spread the word. Also, to create good buzz about the event, create a very fun tabling program to do in the student centers the week before the event. Pick a theme for the Shabbat dinner that can be used in decorations, favors and invitations.
Why or why not successful? This program was very successful. There was great energy in the room and the students left asking when the next Greek Shabbat would be. A lot of the students were people who had never come to many events before. Many offered to help in planning future events.
Impact of program. Students enriched? All of the attendees were very excited about the attention being paid to the Greek community. Many were interested in getting involved in planning and hopefully will stay engaged. Additionally, many of the students do not regularly attend services or celebrate Shabbat so they were definitely enriched.
Step by Step Process for Greek Shabbat
Choose a date well in advance and find a location. Once a date and place are chosen contact students immediately.
Meet with students to get their idea on food, decorations, invitations, and publicity. Also, try to meet with as many students from different chapters so that they can spread the word throughout their houses.
Organize with Andrew and Millie about increasing the food order for that week, including the dinner, dessert, challahs and wine/grape juice.
Place a classified ad in the Targum the three days before the Shabbat in the Greek Forum section.
Print up invitations for each fraternity/sorority. I made up an individual invitation for each chapter. Place them in the mailboxes at the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs. Also, contact the Dean of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs and have her include the Greek Shabbat in her weekly e-mail.
Find a creative table idea and go into the student centers the week before. One JCSC had the idea to name the table �It�s all Greek to Me� and have a raffle to see who can name all of the houses. If they can name all of them they can put their name in the raffle for some prize. I also had a sheet of the Hebrew and Greek alphabet comparing the letters and names.
At the start of the event or in advance find four students to lead prayers, Shalom Aleichem, Kiddish, Motzi and Birkat Hamazon. Start off by welcoming all of the students and explaining the purpose behind having a separate Shabbat just for Greek students.
Buy some decorations like decorative glitter for the tables. I also made a banner welcoming everyone to Greek Shabbat.
Relax and Have Fun!