Chaplaincy offers advice on festival class clashes
A CHAPLAIN is usually a student’s first port of call for a hot Shabbat meal or some religious advice. This year, the majority of universities begin term during the Yom Tov period, with some fresher’s fairs falling on Yom Kippur and classes clashing with Sukkot.
London chaplain Rabbi Gavin Broder offered this advice to concerned students: “In terms of missing class time owing to a Jewish festival, the absolutely correct thing to do is to contact your course convenor, politely explain that you will not be able to attend because it’s a festival that means you can’t be on campus. And ask how you can catch up on the information that you missed.”
A University Jewish Chaplaincy spokesman said: “For those who had fresher’s fairs on Yom Kippur there will be opportunities to sign-up for JSoc and to meet chaplains during the week of Sukkot.”
This year sees the launch of a number of new Chaplaincy projects. To cater to London’s wide geographic spread of students, Friday night dinners will be hosted in central London from October.
After a successful pilot scheme, veteran Birmingham chaplaincy couple Rabbi Fishel and Esther Cohen are relaunching a “buddies” scheme. It will pair first years with older students on similar courses who will help guide them through their fresher year.
Rabbi Cohen said: “It is an opportunity to help them along with settling in and with course-related issues.”
More than 80 students signed up to the programme last year, but Rabbi Cohen predicts this year will be “bigger and better”.
“If they are doing the same or similar courses, their experiences are likely to be shared. It helps in terms of the course, but also from a social perspective, it’s someone they know who has been there and done it.”