Introduction
Though the first known Jewish students to attend Brown graduated in 1894, little support for organized Jewish life existed before World War II (“The University and the Jews”). Students at Brown fought with the administration for the right to a Jewish fraternity while the Christian Association dominated religious and social life at Pembroke, Brown’s women’s college (Horvitz and Rosen 307; Lamoree 123). Tower Club, a predominantly Jewish social organization, formed in 1937 and persisted throughout the 40s despite many members leaving Brown to fight in the war (Tower Club Tenth Anniversary 5).
This paper provides a rough timeline of Jewish life at Brown from 1947-1997 based on archival research conducted through the John Hay Library Undergraduate Fellowship Program. “Jewish life” refers to the ways Jewish students existed within their Jewish identities on campus. This paper discusses institutional factors like discrimination that impacted student life but primarily focuses on how students chose to engage with their religious and cultural Jewish identities.
The materials discussed here likely reflect a mere fraction of Jewish life that existed in the latter half of the twentieth century at Brown. The research discussed in this paper was limited by the materials preserved in the John Hay Library, Brown Digital Repository, Pembroke Center Oral History Project, and other similar archival institutions. The gaps in the collections of these institutions have translated to this project. The archives contained few materials centering Jewish students of marginalized identities, including Jews of color or queer Jewish students. Future research can focus on uncovering these narratives.
Most of the materials in the archives highlight Jewish students who engaged with programming or resources from Brown-RISD Hillel. Students who engaged with other forms of Jewish community, such as through Rhode Island synagogues or unofficial student communities, are not properly represented. This research utilizes student publications and testimonies as avenues to understand the student experience beyond institutional buzzwords, but those words were all processed through varying degrees of censorship.
1940s-1950s: Hillel on the Hill and the Rise of B’nai B’rith Hillel
In 1947, the B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation established a chapter at Brown University led by Rabbi Nathan R. Rosen (Horvitz and Rosen 336). According to Brown president Dr. Henry M. Wriston, Hillel’s primary purpose was “the enrichment of the lives of the young men and women they serve. In its comparatively brief history at Brown, Hillel has contributed much to the religious and cultural experience of many Brown and Pembroke students” (The Hillel Scroll 3). At its founding, Hillel was perceived as a cultural and religious organization to avoid competing with the social and fraternity-esque Tower Club (Jones). Hillel did not have a dedicated building until the Samuel and Rieka Rapaporte Hillel House opened in 1961 (Brown-RISD Hillel). Instead, students ate brunch in the Pembroke Field House, attended freshman parties at 99 Pitman Street, or prayed in the Faunce House Memorial Room (The Hillel Scroll 13-15).
Hillel on the Hill, a student newspaper published between 1947 and 1953, best described student life during the early stages of organized Jewish life on campus. Articles detailed early Hillel events like a Chanukah Candlelight Ball and a trip to the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island (“Candlelight Ball on December 6”; “130 Visit Touro”). Other articles focused on clubs formed through Hillel such as the Hillel Dramatic Group, which hosted a biweekly radio show on WBRU, Brown’s independent radio station (“Hillel Players Begin Third WBRU Season”). A student editorial team ran the publication and students likely wrote most of the articles, though Rabbi Rosen contributed to each issue via a column titled “The Rabbi’s Corner.” Most articles did not include a byline crediting the article to a particular author. Each issue reads like a tapestry of flyers about past and future events the involved student body found significant.
Issues of Hillel on the Hill highlighted participation from Pembroke students alongside Brown students, with women originating leadership roles for the Refreshments (Oneg Shabbat), Library, and Brunch committees in October 1947 (“President Announces Committee Chairmen”). While most early Brown Hillel presidents were men, Muriel Block ‘48 served as the 1948 Hillel president (The Hillel Scroll 6).
The State of Israel was established in May 1948, between Volumes 1 and 2 of Hillel on the Hill. Students recognized this event would impact the international Jewish community and took an interest. Multiple articles discussed Israeli politics and events held by the Intercollegiate Zionist Federation of America (“Israel Votes On Official Legislature”; “IZFA Chapter Begins Large Scale Operations”). External newspaper clippings suggest that Hillel invited guests with varying viewpoints to speak, including “Uri Davis, an Israeli university student known for championing the cause of self-determination for Palestinian Arabs,” but contributors to Hillel on the Hill were relatively uniform in their Zionist viewpoints (Professor, Student To Speak at Brown).
Some later issues of Hillel on the Hill break from the traditional news style of earlier years. Issues beginning in October 1951 included the Hillel Hi-lites, a section filled with inside jokes and creative elements. Volume 5 Number 3 from December 1951 depicts a hand-drawn illustration sporting the pun “Gentleman of the Jewry,” a comedic retelling of a recent student meeting, and recommendations for books the author found in Hillel (“December 9 Brunch Features Musical Numbers”; Richman; Bornside). This shift reflects a growing communal comfort and a willingness to display group humor.
Hillel on the Hill, last published in 1953, was followed by the 1952-1953 yearbook titled The Hillel Scroll. This one-time yearbook summarized the state of organized Jewish life associated with the B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation at Brown six years in. Student leadership at the time consisted of a President, Vice President, Corresponding Secretary, Recording Secretary, and Treasurer. Men served as the President and Vice President, while women held the other positions.
Hillel on the Hill and The Hillel Scroll also depicted religious life. Multiple Hillel on the Hill articles focus specifically on aspects of religious life such as weekly Oneg Shabbat celebrations and the annual model Passover seder (“Oneg Shabbats Held Weekly”; “Hillel Marks Pesach With Model Seder”). However, these topics were deemphasized in comparison to cultural or political topics, with only 2.5 pages of the 43-page The Hillel Scroll highlighting religious and interfaith efforts (The Hillel Scroll 15-17). Perhaps students attending Brown and involved with Hillel in the 1950s did not consider religiosity the primary way to engage with their Jewish identities. More religiously observant Orthodox students could not access Brown until the mid-1960s due to the lack of Kosher food on campus (Smith).
1950s-1960s: The Religious Union, Pembroke Housing, and Kosher Food
Though The Hillel Scroll depicted organized Jewish life on campus, it also demonstrated a young and fragile presence. The back cover of the yearbook is marked with a stamp from the Brown Christian Association. In the early days of Pembroke, “the only college-wide organization for the women was the Christian Association, then an auxiliary of the national, evangelical Young Women’s Christian Association. The Christian Association, as at other colleges, sponsored the freshman reception” (Lamoree 123). Hillel was a revolutionary resource for Jewish students who could only participate in organized social life through the Christian Association.
Pembroke College only shifted from religious activities dominated by the Pembroke Christian Association in the early 1950s after the association received significant complaints from students of different faiths (Guthrie). Some complained the organization was too religious, others not religious enough, so the leadership separated the distinctly Christian and potentially universal elements. The Pembroke Religious Union was established in April 1950 (“‘Religious Union’ Established”). According to the Pembroke Record, a majority vote allowed the creation of the Religious Union but decided that the club’s “title should not include the term ‘Inter-faith’ since it is not an acceptable [term] to all the religious groups on campus” (“‘Religious Union’ Established”). The lack of acceptance for an explicitly interfaith organization reflects the marginalization of Jewish perspectives by the Christian majority.
The Religious Union’s continued existence was put to a 1952 student vote that ultimately failed, leading to the end of the Religious Union and the start of an Interfaith Council in its place (“Porter, Fritz, Fraser and Spense Won: Religious Union Dissolved”). The Interfaith Council likely did not last long. An October 1952 article blamed the end of the Religious Union on an indifferent student body and encouraged students to avoid losing the Interfaith Council to similar treatment (“Interfaith Council”). The Interfaith Council was never mentioned in another Pembroke Record article, implying a short-lived reign.
The lack of interfaith unity at Pembroke was a response not just to student bias but to administrator bias. In 1936, Pembroke applications began asking applicants to self-report their race on their application (Lamoree 127). Eva A. Moor, a dean of admissions, did not refer to Judaism strictly as a race or religion but certainly profiled potentially Jewish applicants and their families during interviews (Lamoree 127-128). Later Dean of Admissions Margaret S. Morriss reported to the Advisory Committee on Pembroke College that “we reject each year now about 100 to 150 Jewish applicants, nearly all of whom are fully prepared,” a ratio that did not seem to apply to any other racial or religious group, implying the existence of a Jewish quota as early as 1942 (Morriss 1).
Discrimination toward Jewish students did not end following admission to Pembroke. Jewish and Black students struggled to obtain housing from Pembroke before the construction of Andrews Hall in 1947 (Lamoree 132). Multiple 1950s alumni recalled that Jewish students who lived in the dormitories were always paired as roommates with other Jewish students, while Black students were always placed in singles (Canner; Scola et al.; Rosen; Oppenheimer). This practice continued into the 1960s, according to meeting minutes from the Advisory Council:
“The placement of negro and Jewish girls poses a problem, those of the former group are placed in single rooms for the first year. After the freshman year, girls are permitted to choose roommates freely…Lewis stated that a girl’s choice cannot always be recognized, citing as an example a self righteous white girl’s request for a negro roommate, which for obvious reasons would be denied…It was suggested by Mr. Keeney that the dissimilarities within the Jewish group makes room placement a problem” (Lewis 2-3).
Brown Jewish student housing did not appear to be a problem at the time, since male students could choose their roommates (Lewis 3). However, Brown did not provide access to Kosher food, charged students for the meal plan even if they could not eat food from the dining hall, and forbade refrigerators in dorm rooms (Smith). Brown only allowed Jewish students to attend Brown if they did not keep Kosher or would pay for the meal plan and manage to access Kosher food independently. Through food, Brown controlled which students could not attend Brown, primarily excluding religious Orthodox Jews.
When Richard Hirsch ‘63 came to Brown from New York seeking Kosher food beyond what he kept in a hidden dorm refrigerator, Rabbi Rosen suggested that he visit the Smiths, an Orthodox Jewish family who lived near campus (Smith). Miriam Smith invited Hirsch and other students who kept Kosher to join her family for Kosher Shabbat lunches and daily dinners (Oppenheimer).
Smith eventually asked Rabbi Rosen for Hillel to organize Kosher meals for the growing population of observant Jewish students (Smith). According to Smith’s son Herschel ‘62, Rabbi Rosen initially rejected the idea because “if they needed Kosher, they shouldn’t have come to Brown. He said that his job was to take care of the social aspect of life for Jewish students, not their religious ones” (Oppenheimer). Eventually, he relented and, with funding from Hirsch’s father, a Kosher kitchen at Hillel began serving meals (Oppenheimer). Notably, interested students had to pay for meals at the Kosher kitchen on top of the dining hall fee, meaning that observant Jewish students had to pay more to attend Brown.
1970s: Siddur Nashim and the Women’s Minyan
Brown University became co-ed on July 1, 1971, during the rise of second-wave feminism (“July 1, 1971: Men’s and Women’s Colleges Combine”). Growing feminist activism, both at Brown and in the Jewish community at large, inspired students to begin exploring the intersection of their identities. In 1973, a group of Jewish feminist students began organizing a women-only minyan, a quorum of at least ten Jewish adults for prayer (Lotenberg 22). The Brown Women’s Minyan met at Brown-RISD Hillel for Saturday afternoon Shabbat services, avoiding conflict with the existing Orthodox and Egalitarian morning services (Jewish Life at Brown-RISD 1976-7 2-3). The minyan received pushback from some Jewish community members, but overall received much support, especially from Rabbi Richard Marker, then Brown-RISD Hillel executive director (Lotenberg 24).
In 1974, Naomi Janowitz, Margaret Moers Wenig, and Deborah French began a three-semester group independent study project exploring Jewish commentary and liturgy with Professor David Blumenthal (Lotenberg 19). Janowitz and Wenig utilized this knowledge and support to write a feminist prayer book titled Siddur Nashim (Hebrew for Women’s Prayer Book) for use by the Brown Women’s Minyan (Lotenberg 19). The siddur was perhaps more controversial than the minyan, revolutionary for its reference to G-d exclusively in the feminine (Wenig). Though it was never officially published, Siddur Nashim was widely circulated beyond College Hill, with excerpts published in the Jewish feminist magazine Lilith (Janowitz and Wenig).
Though groups of Jewish students at other colleges began forming women’s minyans around the same time, the Brown Women’s Minyan reflected Brown’s progressive and exploratory atmosphere. According to Wayne Senville’s ‘73 senior thesis surveying Jewish students on campus, female students valued their Jewish identities more than male students (Senville 17). A 1976 Brown Daily Herald article featured increasing opportunities for women at Brown to pursue religious leadership during and beyond their time at Brown (Riemer 1). Religious Studies Professor Jacob Neusner suggested that in a time with exceedingly few women rabbis, “Brown has sent more women to rabbinical school than has any other school in the country” (Riemer 3). Many women involved in the Brown Women’s Minyan, including Janowitz and Wenig, joined the rabbinate after graduating from Brown (Lotenberg 36-37). Brown’s Open Curriculum, adopted in 1969, also nurtured the Women’s Minyan (“1969: The New Curriculum Introduced”). With this new flexibility, Janowitz and Wenig could spend three semesters studying Jewish liturgy and writing a radically feminist prayer book. Students could bring their political and religious identities together into an intersectional space.
While the Women’s Minyan and Brown-RISD Hillel supported a subsection of Brown’s Jewish community, many Jewish students engaged with their Jewish identity in other ways. Students like Joan Katz ‘73 attended synagogues in Providence and hosted Passover
seders rather than feeling restricted to Hillel (Katz). Rather than eating every meal at Hillel, some Jewish students formed a Kosher Co-op which allowed them to eat certified Kosher food at their discretion (Jewish Life at Brown-RISD 1976-7 3). Jewish life at Brown was not restricted to Hillel but the institutional support often made it a center for Jewish life. The Kosher Co-op was an example of students embracing their Jewish observance within the larger Brown community beyond the spaces designated as Jewish.
1980s-1990s: Hebrew House, Mahberet, and Progressive Judaism
Students continued creating spaces to embrace aspects of their Jewish cultural identity in the 1980s and 1990s. In March 1986, Brown’s Residential Council approved an application from thirteen students to form a “Hebrew Culture House” focused on “Hebrew culture and language” (Ragozin). Council Chair Lee Dunst ‘86 insisted that the house remain a cultural institution rather than a religious institution, as the council previously rejected religious Christian and Hebrew houses (Ragozin). Residents seemed to take this seriously, insisting that “contrary to popular belief, Hebrew House is NOT Jewish house” (Camino and Lubin). Mark Mulgay, then associate director of Brown-RISD Hillel, similarly insisted that Hebrew House was unaffiliated with Hillel, though he mentioned that Hillel staff would provide the house with support and advice (Gordon).
Hebrew House initially consisted of eight students on a shared floor of New Pembroke #2, where two students would cook dinner every night in a communal Kosher kitchen (Gordon). The residents planned to host Hebrew speaking, challah baking, Israeli film, and folk singing events (Gordon). Hebrew House later successfully petitioned the Residential Council to move from New Pembroke #2 to 111 Brown Street, claiming the former’s layout prevented community formation (Iskyan 5). Later Hebrew House events included “informal Jewish singing” and weekly Havdalah services in partnership with Hillel (Berne).
Hebrew House demonstrated difficulty recruiting residents as early as February 1994 (Davidson 3). In a plea for students to apply, Beatrice Camino ‘98 and Teri Lubin ‘98 focused their marketing on the ability to circumvent the housing lottery and join a vegetarian co-op, rather than on Hebrew language and Israeli culture programming (Camino and Lubin). Hebrew House closed in 1998 due to a lack of interest. At its closure, only half of the residents participated in Hebrew programming at all (Berne).
While both the University and residents insisted that Hebrew House was not religious or Jewish, I chose to feature it in this reflection on Jewish life due to its proximity to Jewish culture. Cultural Judaism exists beyond its religious context. Though Hebrew House welcomed and embraced non-Jewish members, the existence of a space that embraced the cultural and linguistic aspects of Hebrew and Judaism reflects a way for Jewish students to engage in Jewish life outside of the traditional institutional context of Hillel. Hebrew House is one of few known tangentially Jewish collectives outside of Hillel in Brown’s history and accordingly deserves recognition.
The progressivism that fueled the 1970s Brown Women’s Minyan persisted into the 1990s. Many Jewish students aligned with progressive values and wanted a Jewish space to discuss these values and ideas with their Jewish identities at the forefront. In December 1990, Jewish students published the first issue of a new student magazine called Mahberet, Hebrew for notebook (Aronson, Brown-RISD Hillel Foundation 1990-1991 Program Notes 7). According to Carolyn Cohen and Leora Tanenbaum, the original Mahberet editors-in-chief, Mahberet “wanted in particular to attract students questioning their Judaism in religious or political ways–students who were exploring critical and debatable issues” (Cohen and Tanenbaum 1). Mahberet was technically produced through Hillel, but sought to reflect the perspectives of all Jewish students across campus, becoming a UCS-approved club in fall 1991 (Csollany). The emphasis on diverse perspectives from Cohen and Tanenbaum means that Mahberet is perhaps the most authentic reflection of the array of Jewish voices on campus rather than only the ones who felt supported by Hillel.
From the beginning, Mahberet was explicitly progressive and hoped to address “the struggle for equality for gays and lesbians, women, and people of color” (Cohen and Tanenbaum 1). The magazine also provided space for “the willingness and the need to criticize Israel when the Israeli government and army act inhumanely, despite one’s Zionist feelings. This commitment means speaking out for Palestinian Arab rights and advocating a solution to the Intifada” (Cohen and Tanenbaum 1). The journal accepted articles from student writers of various perspectives but primarily included those who aligned with Cohen and Tanenbaum’s progressive, Zionist, and critical stances. Hillel reflected this diversity of thought by supporting programs from both the Campus Israel Coalition and Zionists Against the Occupation (Aronson, Brown-RISD Hillel Foundation 1989-1990 Program Notes).
Much like Cohen and Tanenbaum hoped, Mahberet covered an array of topics from Jewish history and current events, to student narratives and art (Rotenberg; Antebi; Cohen; Bernstein). Alongside student articles, the magazine contained articles from Jewish professors, researchers, and community members across Rhode Island. Mahberet was advertised as a biannual magazine, but due to the constraints of the archives, I only had the opportunity to access issues 1.1, 2.1, 3.1, 4.1, and 6.1. Issue 6.1, the last or near-last issue of Mahberet, was published in 1996. There is no clear reason why the magazine stopped publishing, though the similar timing to the end of Hebrew House could reflect student interest shifting away from University-approved structures for Jewish life.
Conclusion
The observable trends in Jewish life at Brown represent the levels of integration with the greater student body at the time. Jewish students in the 1940s and 1950s were only beginning to receive identity-based support from an institution newly associated with Brown. Pembroke students who felt alienated from the campus’ reliance on the Christian Association likely felt disconnected from the greater student population, an isolation exacerbated by the segregated housing assignments. As Brown started accepting more religious Jewish students in the 1960s, the University’s Jewish community diversified, representing varying levels of religious observance. Students who kept Kosher were still isolated from the larger student population through dietary restrictions. The 1970s saw the combination of Judaism, the Open Curriculum, and progressivism with the Women’s Minyan and the revolutionary Siddur Nashim. These student-led initiatives reflected an integration of students’ Jewish identities and resources available to the entire student community. By the 1980s and 1990s, students began fully utilizing student resources to explore their Jewish identities, whether that be the residential community structure to create Hebrew House or registering a progressive Jewish student newspaper through UCS. Students at Brown could better explore their Jewish identities over time, when Jewish life could integrate and complement Brown student life rather than exist as an incongruous social option.
The growth of Jewish life at Brown was partly facilitated by the University’s gradual acceptance of Jewish students. When Pembroke eventually allowed Jewish girls to board, they restricted their roommates to other Jews, limiting social opportunities. The transition from offering no Kosher food to Hillel’s meager Kosher catering to Kosher options available through the common meal plan allowed observant Jewish students to not only attend Brown but eventually integrate into the social environment without isolation and additional fees.
The trajectory of Jewish life following World War II was a gradual integration into Brown’s culture. Over the decades, students began utilizing University resources to engage with aspects of Jewish life. While the Jewish students in the 1940s were Jewish students who happened to be at Brown, Jewish students in the 1990s were very clearly Jewish students at Brown, utilizing University resources and culture to the fullest.
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