NAACP, Hillel tackle issues of race and religion

Through a round of "speed-friending" and a game of Taboo last night, Hillel and Penn's chapter of the NAACP hoped to tackle the taboo topic of race and religious relations on campus and help students from Penn's Jewish and black communities get better acquainted.

College sophomore and Hillel's intercultural coordinator Davida Shiff, who planned the event, organized a round of "speed-friending," which allowed "an opportunity to ask people a series of questions and get to know quirky details about them," she said.

According to Shiff, the event was born out of a discussion held by the NAACP and Hillel in September in response to "two controversial op-eds" written by former Daily Pennsylvanian staff writer and then-columnist Meredith McBride, "in which she linked Hillel and Du Bois College House as places that provide for the needs of specific groups on campus."

Shiff said the pieces prompted the two groups to bring their members together, though not for the first time - on an alternative spring break program last semester, students from the black and Jewish communities traveled to Selma, Montgomery and Birmingham, Ala., to learn about the relationship between blacks and Jews during the Civil Rights Era.

Through lectures before the trip, visiting Martin Luther King Jr.'s church, walking the route of the bus boycott and touring a synagogue that was bombed because of a rabbi's involvement in the fight for racial equality, students from seemingly disparate backgrounds saw first-hand how interconnected their histories actually are, according to College senior Dan Ross, who went on the program his freshman year.

"Being a Jew with Southern roots, it was going back to where I'm from and looking at it in a new perspective," he said. "It was special to see that my people were involved with this great movement for justice."

While Ross said he learned and grew personally from the trip, he knows the coalition between the two communities is bigger than his own experience.

"The black-Jewish alliance used to be significantly stronger than it is today," he said. "We're looking for a stronger relationship in the future."

Because of this unique, shared history, students remain committed to nurturing the relationship with events like last night's and the ASB trip.

"There are common themes in their histories that trace back historically and that make this collaboration happen at Penn," said College senior and Hillel President Deena Greenberg, who also has participated in the program, adding that she hopes last night's event was "one of many future events to continue our collaboration and cooperation."

"We have to recognize our connections and to understand each other's histories," said College senior Asantewaa Poku, NAACP vice president of executive affairs. "While dialogue and talking about race relations is really important, it's also just good to come together and make friends."

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