Matzah in the Marketplace

“What do you mean we don’t have any days off for Easter?” I incredulously asked my roommate, who happens to be Jewish. "Can they do that?”

She smiled and joked back, “You know, maybe they should have days off for Passover. It’s one of our most important holidays.”

Having grown up in the heart of the Bible Belt, I have taken for granted that the school district will respect holidays. That is, Christian holidays. Although I have never been particularly religious, I assumed that we would have time off for Christmas (a nondenominational yet coincidentally timed “winter break”) and Easter ("teacher workshops", of course). Back home, it didn’t take any effort to follow the Christian faith—it took initiative not to.

It was not until I came to college when I realized I had to make a choice: continue independently in my parents’ beliefs or follow the less religious path toward which I had trended over the last few years. I also realized that choosing to remain a practicing Christian would not be something I would do on my own—Christians make up the greatest proportion of students who identify with a religion at Duke, and there are countless organizations, services and celebrations that make it easy to feel part of the greater Christian community.

Students practicing minority religions, however, may have a distinctly different experience when they are faced with the same choice I had to make. I have had the opportunity to interact closely with the Jewish community on campus, both through my friends and as an intern at the Freeman Center for Jewish Life, and I have come to appreciate the importance of organizations like the latter in maintaining a community based not only on religion but also on a common social tie. I've realized that one does not need to be devoutly religious to practice his or her faith in college.

My roommate explained that certain holidays, such as Hanukkah, are going to be celebrated regardless of one's level of religion. She compared it to Christmas—a time to spend with family, have a good time, share presents and, of course, remember its religious significance. To her, celebrating Hanukkah made her feel closer to her family, even if she was not able to physically be with them due to our somewhat Christianity-favoring winter break.

Despite the relatively small size, the Jewish community has a strong presence on campus, from the Freeman Center offering kosher meals and an area to socialize, to holiday celebrations open to all. Having worked with the center on programming, though, I saw the great emphasis on creating a community. I worked on community service, marketing and planning events at the Freeman Center that focused on allowing Jewish (and non-Jewish) students on campus to get to know each other.

My roommate explained that she always thought that the events at the Freeman Center sounded interesting but never went because she didn’t know anyone that would be there. Another friend of mine, a senior who was looking back on her last four years at Duke, recalled that she had felt the same way her freshman year. She participated in a project at the Freeman Center through which she met many Jewish students on campus, with whom she now celebrates holidays. It seems to be a vicious circle: students don’t get involved because they don’t know anyone, but they don’t know anyone because they don’t get involved.