Shabbat 1000: Changing the Perception of Jewish Life on College Campuses

On college campuses across America, particularly campuses that have an abnormally large amount of Jewish students, a new program has been developed that has helped spread Jewish culture and integrate it into the student body. This program called "Shabbat 1000" has been a huge success and continues to get stronger as the program on each college campus develops each year to become bigger and better.

Shabbat 1000 is essentially a Friday night Shabbat dinner which celebrate the Sabbath for Jews every weekend. On many college campuses, a dinner is served to Jewish students as prayers are said. The Shabbat 1000 program is indeed a dinner but it is also free for all students to partake and many students who come to the event aren't event Jewish; they are just there for the free food and having a good time with their friends. That too is perfectly fine. In fact, planners of the event would argue that having non-Jewish people at the dinner is one of their goals.

The main goal of the program is to encourage more Judaism among non-practicing Jewish students on the college campus. The program is co-sponsored by all of the Jewish groups on the college campus including Hillel and Chabad, two of the most prominent young peoples Jewish groups. The program encourages non-Jewish students to interact with their fellow Jewish students and to learn a little bit about their religion and culture, even if it is for only one night. Many college students have turned away from the religious practices of the Jewish religion, so much so that Judaism has been thought of as a culture by many people instead of as a religion.

The Shabbat 1000 dinner is called such because the goal of the program is to get 1,000 people at the dinner. The event usually gets 1,000 students to the dinner and many more. In fact, on college campuses that are extremely successful, the goal of the dinner in terms of student turnout has been increased to 1,500 or even 2,000.

The dinner is very nice and is usually a five-course menu. Student volunteers who help run the program are the food servers who bring food to the table. The tables are usually round to encourage conversation amongst people who might not even know each other. The dinner usually has students make new friends in college. The dinner usually lasts about two hours and is covered by student media publications. Throughout the meal, the rabbi or religious leader usually leads in some kind of prayer over the food and talks about the Jewish religion. Students are encouraged to wear a head covering although it is not necessary to do so to eat at the dinner.

Overall, the dinner is a fantastic experience and I encourage all students, Jewish and non-Jewish to attend this fantastic event.