By P. Erik Meyer ’14
THE ROUNDUP

The Jewish Student Union is a new addition to Brophy this year and will meet every Tuesday in Mr. Lane McShane’s ’82 room at lunch.

All students are welcome to come to the meetings to learn about Judaism and have fun.

Last year, three freshmen in period one forensics, Logan Hall ’14, president, Coby Palivathukal ’14, vice president of charitable affairs, and Gavin Singer ’14, vice president of communications, discovered that they all practiced Judaism.

The three decided to form a Jewish Club.

They all consider themselves to be conservative Jews.

This means they all had bar mitzvahs, go to temple and celebrate major Jewish holidays.

This is a less formal way of practicing Judaism than an Orthodox Jew. They do not wear their Yarmulke all the time and do not partake in a kosher diet.

“A very important aspect of Judaism is forming a sense of community, and we feel that at a place like Brophy, it is important for Jews to maintain that sense of community and we hope to build that,” Palivathukal said.

Other main goals of the club include non-Jews learning about Judaism, uniting the existing Jewish community, bringing awareness to Brophy through money that will be donated to Jewish organizations, establishing Brophy as a welcome place for Jews and to just have fun.

“It is a great addition to Brophy, it is good for Jewish kids at a Jesuit school to know that there are other Jewish kids at Brophy,” said Jewish Student Union member Dylan Dinan ’14. “We will get a lot of community service in and we are going to be a philanthropic union.”

“It will be a positive and quite instrumental addition to the school,” said Chandler Hall ’14, a non-Jewish student.

Some activities the club sponsors are weekly meetings on Tuesdays at lunch with free pizza, guest speakers, celebrations and festivals of Jewish holidays, fundraisers, prayer services, community service and other secular activities.

“It will be fun, but we want to maintain our Jewish identity,” Singer said.

“We want non-Jews to come and learn a basic understanding of Judaism,” Palivathukal said.

At the club fair, the Jewish Student Union had 112 signups.

“It’s going to be great and we are going to help out a lot of people,” Dinan said.

Vice Presidents Palivathukal and Singer said they are confident that the club will be a great success.

Editor’s Note: Club President Logan Hall ’14 is a Roundup staff member but did not contribute to the writing of this article.