Jewish Life

An inclusive community for students, faculty, and staff that enables each of us to forge our own path to a meaningful Jewish life, whether through cultural or spiritual connections, religious observance, social action, or other avenues. Fordham Jewish life also seeks to create connections between all faith-based communities at Fordham, following the Jesuit core principles of caring for others and fighting for justice. 

At Fordham Jewish Life, we affirm that we were all created betzelem elokim, in the image of the divine (Genesis 1:27). This means that all belong, regardless of origin, level of observance, ethnicity, gender, class, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, neurodiversity, age, or political views. 

Welcome to Fordham!

Would you like to meet other students? Or are you looking for a Friday night meal or High Holiday programming? Jewish Life is here to help ease your transition to life at Fordham and in the Big Apple! Please make sure to join us for a Welcome Dinner!

At Fordham Jewish Life, students come from many backgrounds and all, no matter how you are Jewish, how observant you are or not, are welcome and belong. 

Sign up for emails from Fordham Jewish Life here.

Would you like to meet Rabbi Katja? Find a time to connect here.

Please tell us more about yourself and we will get back to you! 

Jewish learning is a spiritual practice that empowers each of us to make Judaism our own. This is not just academic learning: whether we turn to the Mishnah or the Talmud, to poetry, art, or music, we are called to draw this material into today's world to begin to heal ourselves, and the world we live in. In fact, learning was considered so central and life-giving, that the Talmud imagined that the world was sustained by the sheer breath of small school children (Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 119a). 

But it's not always easy or straight forward. Sometimes, our texts are problematic, infuriating; they were, after all, written when many voices were silenced, voices that we today strive to amplify, for example those of queer or disabled people, or women or children. At Fordham, we come to these stories with our full selves, we acknowledge these difficulties, and we continue to embrace this material on our way to creating a more just and equitable world. 

For Jewish learning at Fordham, all you need to bring is your curiosity, and your openness to be transformed! No prior knowledge is necessary, and all texts will be available in translation. All our events are free and open to all!

Weekly Learning: Ram ve-nisa

Ready to dip your toes in some Jewish learning? Every Tuesday (Lincoln Center) or Wednesday (Rose Hill), students, faculty and staff get together for an hour and talk about various topics. We will kick off our learning with a series on tshuva, the return to ourselves as we prepare our hearts for the Days of Awe and the new year. Other possible topics: the weekly Torah portion, the liturgy, poetry, art... 

Tshuva: Drawing closer to yourself for 5785

No prior knowledge necessary and all are welcome! This series of conversations is free and open to all - students, faculty and staff, Jewish or not. Please come to any or all meetings that work for you!

As we approach the Jewish new year, we invite you on a journey to explore your life and your relationships through a Jewish lens.

Who was I in the last year? Where did I show up? Where did I bring joy or harm to my loved ones, those around me, or society at large? And also: what nourishes me? How can I bring healing to this world and, crucially, how can I experience healing for myself and open my heart to loving kindness?

We will explore the concept of tshuva, a word that is often translated as repentance but that literally means return, or taking a turn to who we may become as we discern our truest and holiest selves. Our guides will range from the great medieval Moses Maimonides to present-day Danya Ruttenberg and yourself. Please join us for one or all of these sessions!

1. Becoming Present: Introduction to Tshuva (August 13 LC / 14 RH) 
2. Foundation: Relationships, Risks & Apologies (August 20 LC / 21 RH) 
3. Splendor: Collective Identity, Rebuke, Public Harm (August 27 LC /  28 RH) 
4. Resilience: Collective Tshuva, Restitution, Consequences (September 3 LC, 4 RH) 
5. National Tshuva: Restoring Balance (September 20 LC / 11 RH) 
6. Strength: Justice Systems, Transcendence (September 17 LC / 18 RH) 
7. Love: Forgiveness (September 24 LC / 25 RH) 
8. Atonement: Yom Kippur (October 2 LC / 3 RH) 

Check our full schedule for Fall 2024 here!

Multifaith learning is an opportunity for genuine learning and creates community across faith traditions so we can learn more about the traditions of others - and our own faiths. This is open for students of all and no faiths! All you need is openness, honesty, and humility. Co-taught with Imam Ammar Abdel Rahman and various representatives of other traditions. Examples: 

• Building the Rose Hill sukkah and learning together
• Ties that bind - a mini course on Abraham in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
• Jewish at Fordham - what does that mean? A mini series of conversations

Learn to Read Hebrew

As part of our B-Mitzavah group (see below), we will have brief weekly meetings in person or on zoom to learn how to read Hebrew. 

Would you like to have a B'Mitzvah (pronounced Ba-Mitzvah)? 

Did you only recently become interested in your Judaism? Maybe the time was not right when you reached the age of mitzvot (at 12 or 13 years) or you lived in a place where this was simply not an option? No matter the reason, if you would like to deepen your connection to Judaism and be called up to the Torah for the first time, please join us! 

Why B'Mitzvah (pronounced: Ba-Mitzvah)? 

Historically, this moment of transition was called a Bar Mitzvah (for boys) or a Bat Mitzvah (for girls). The terms literally mean "son/daughter of the commandment" and indicate that a person now took on full responsibilities for their religious life and their conduct vis-à-vis the divine. These terms work well for people who identified as male or female but less so for those who do not. As a community that strives to be inclusive, we choose to use a term that emphasizes the same idea of being "in the commandment," ba-mitzvah or B'Mitzvah, indicating the celebratory nature of the event in a gender-neutral or gender-expansive way. For more information see here: 

https://www.keshetonline.org/resources/celebrating-the-age-of-mitzvah-a-guide-for-all-genders/#so-what-do-we-call-it

We will meet regularly throughout the year, in person and on zoom and explore issues that are relevant to you such as: 

• What does it mean for me to be Jewish in the US today? How can I integrate this identity with my other identities? 
• Which holidays, customs, music, art or texts speak to me? Which are difficult and why? 
• What does Israel mean to me?
• How does Judaism tackle the big challenges of our time - climate change, economic inequality, the legacy of Jim Crow and ongoing racial disparity as well as a greater awareness of gender expression and neurodiversity?

Absolutely no Hebrew or other prior knowledge is necessary. All you need to bring is your own curiosity and joy of learning. 

By the end of our exploration, you will have a deeper appreciation of who you are as a Jew. You will also be able to read prayers in Hebrew and, in a B-Mitzvah ceremony, be called up to the Torah and, if you wish, chant Torah from a scroll and receive a certificate. 

There are student-led Jewish Student Organizations (JSO) on both the Lincoln Center and the Rose Hill campuses. Both run programs on their own and together. 

Lincoln Center

To get involved, please contact Reyna...

Rose Hill

To get involved, please contact

Fordham Graduate Jewish Life

This year, we hope to create a graduate student community - Fordham Graduate Jewish Life. We plan to have meaningful conversations and foster social collaborations - anything from learning together to karaoke (why not take a break from studying?)! Please be in touch if this is something you might be interested in! 

Shabbat Shalom! 

Shabbat (Saturday) is the beating heart of the Jewish week. Signaling the end of the work week, the twenty-five hours beginning Friday night are a time to take a deep breath and to reconnect. Whatever is going on in our lives or in the world at large, Shabbat invites us every week to pause and to reflect. Maybe there's a practice you would like to add to your life this year? 

• Light (residential-life approved) Shabbat candles on Friday night - you can get them at our offices!
• Unplug your electronics for a bit or all of Shabbat
• Spend Shabbat afternoons with people you love

At Fordham, we welcome Shabbat in ways that bring us together. We have student-led delicious dinners on most Friday nights on both campuses. We also hold communal dinners, Shabbat beyachad (Shabbat together) held roughly once a month on both campuses, that are open to all students. 

High Holidays 5784 (2024)

Celebrate the High Holidays this year with Fordham Jewish Life!

Rosh Hashanah marks the start of the Jewish New Year and opens up the Days of Awe, the 10-day period that concludes with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It is a time marked by introspection that focuses on tshuvah, often translated as introspection. Tshuvah means literally “return,” that is, the idea that we ask God and others (and ourselves) for forgiveness and prepare ourselves spiritually for the year ahead.  

We will eat apples and honey, hear the shofar, share a festive Rosh Hashanah dinner, do tashlich at the Hudson, and break the fast following Yom Kippur together. These are free of charge but you must register to attend our communal meals. Please RSVP here. 

After the introspection of Yom Kippur, tradition tells us to leave our homes and to set up a sukkah, a temporary outdoors structure, and to wave the lulav and the etrog. Come and savor the warmth of our community, and join us in our sukkahs on both campuses for meals, community, learning, and some prayer. This Sukkot, we will build and decorate our first sukkah on Rose Hill!  Would you like to shake the lulav but are not sure how? Every day (with the exception of Shabbat), there will be an opportunity to do so throughout Sukkot.

Chanukkah 

Passover

On Passover, we recall the experience of the exodus from Egypt and cleanse our hearts and our homes (or dorm rooms) from literal and spiritual hametz.  Passover holds the promise of personal and collective liberation and renewal, even at a time of personal or political chaos.

Please join the JSO for a delicious chocolate seder (with our own Haggadah!) at Rose Hill and  a sumptuous seder at Lincoln Center where we will sing, talk, and eat, and think about what it means to imagine our own liberation, and that of others, at Fordham!

To sell your chametz, and sign up for kosher for Passover food options or the sedarim, RSVP here.

Shavuot 

50 days after Passover, we celebrate the giving and receiving of the Torah  on Mount Sinai. Shavuot invites us to think about what it means to be Jewish today. We will share cheese cake bites to remind us of the sweetness of the Torah, and immerse ourselves in learning. 

Minyan

During the semester, there is a minyan on most days at the Law School at Lincoln Center. Please contact XXXX

Mezuzah

“You shall inscribe them on the doorposts (mezuzot) of your house and on your gates….{ (Deuteronomy 6:9, 11:20). Based on this biblical commandment, Jews affix a mezuzah to the doorposts of their homes to signify to all who enter that this home is marked by a commitment to Judaism and Jewish identity. 

Would you like to borrow a mezuzah from our mezuzah library for your dorm door? Come on by Fordham Jewish Life and for a deposit of $20, you can choose a mezuzah and return it at the end of the academic year.

Ritual Needs

Whether you are a newcomer to Jewish ritual or have been practicing all your life, whether you spent years in yeshivah or are just dipping your toes into the sea of Jewish learning, there's always more to explore! At Fordham Jewish Life, we offer a number of items to support you!

Residence hall approved Shabbat and memorial (yahrzeit) “candles” & cards with blessings

Lighting two Shabbat candles (although many light more) is an iconic image of the holiday and for many simply a must on Friday night, symbolizing joy, peace, togetherness and plenty. 

You can find residence-hall approved Shabbat candles and memorial/yahrzeit, as well as cards with the blessings for Friday night candle lighting or for Havdalah, the ceremony separating holy and week days, at the Jewish Life offices/Campus Ministry.

Do you have an additional ritual need? Please be in touch!

Are you in need of healing? Or perhaps someone in your life is?  

Are you or someone in your life struggling with physical, emotional or spiritual challenges? Please send their name to Rabbi Katja Vehlow and she will include them in her prayers. It is traditional to add their mother’s name if you know it. And please do not hesitate to reach out to the rabbi or another member of the Campus Ministry team so we can support you! Refuah shlemah (full healing) to all in need of healing!

“As the Director of Jewish Life, I supports Jewish life at Fordham through facilitating conversations, cultural and social activities, as well as teaching. I  was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary, hold a PhD in medieval Jewish history, and trained as a hospital chaplain.  As an immigrant—I grew up in Germany, and studied in the UK and in Jerusalem before moving to the US—I am attuned to stories of loss and arrival, and to the complexities and joys that come with living and studying far from home.  

I am looking forward to nurturing multifaith relations on campus through conversations, shared projects and hospitality. I am passionate about connecting people and communities, and believe that at a time of great pain and discord, it is paramount for us to open our hearts to acknowledge our pain, so we can own our stories and hear the narratives of others in order to pave the way towards a shared future. As a chaplain, I am available for pastoral one to one conversations—no topic is too small! If we have not met, I am looking forward to meeting you and hope you will reach out!”

Staff and faculty are welcome to join Jewish Life events for any learning opportunities, our monthly Shabbat dinners, holiday gatherings, and more. 

As Fordham’s Jewish chaplain and campus rabbi, and as former tenured faculty herself, Rabbi Katja Vehlow (she/her) is available for confidential rabbinic conversations in person, via zoom, or on the phone you are ill or in the hospital, facing bereavement, or just need a listening ear. Find her on the Fordham Hub!