February 15, 2002
The second time around...
I started planning this Greek Shabbat further in advance and set up weekly committee meetings with students. Once a week we met in the student centers to plan the program together. I encouraged the students involved to bring their friends to the meetings and included it in Hillel�s weekly e-mail. We had about five students actively planning the dinner. Their involvement especially helped with publicity. I would encourage a really large planning committee with as much representation from different chapters as possible. We had a larger turnout at the second Greek Shabbat than the first. There were students from AEPi, DG, ZBT, AXO, Sammy, Sigma Phi Delta. Additionally, we ordered favors for this Greek Shabbat, which the students really enjoyed. They were 22 oz. Insulated mugs with the new Jewish Greek Logo on them and "Rutgers Hillel Greek Shabbat". I also made Greek and Hebrew chocolate letters to decorate the tables with. The program was a great success but it did not last very long. I would suggest creating some kind of program in addition to just the meal. Something where the students could interact more with each other or some sort of social program (i.e: comedian!!).
A note on the chocolate letters:
I have left the chocolate letter molds in the building. This project was a huge disaster but ended up looking great on the tables for decoration. Some chocolate making words of advice...
I bought chocolate chips and experimented with every different way possible for melting them. The process which I found easiest was to put them into a glass dish, cover it with cellophane, and microwave it for about a minute. This will melt most of the chips. Then, let the chocolate sit for another few minutes which will melt the rest. Once all of the chocolate is melted, mix it all up and pour it into the molds as quickly as possible. Make sure that the molds are completely filled, becuase if they are not, the chocolates will break easily. Place them in the freezer and wait for them to harden. The biggest problem with these letters is that they melted so easily when touched. Try experimenting with different chocolates to see if there are certain ones out there that won't melt as easily. And Good Luck...you'll need it :-)