After over a year and a half of planning, Brown will host “130 Years of Jewish Life at Brown,” a weekend of Jewish-centered events from Nov. 7–9. The three-day event will feature opportunities for Jewish alums and students to connect through panels, dinners and social gatherings.
The event “offers a rare chance to celebrate the diversity and brilliance of Jewish life at Brown,” event organizer Teddy Hara ’25 wrote in an email to The Herald.
“I think that having this celebration and emphasizing the history that we have on this campus … is very powerful and at a time when Jews need it most,” said event organizer Sophia Kremer ’25.
Kremer said the idea for the event arose in 2017 after Princeton held a similar reunion weekend for its Jewish alumni. Organizers also took inspiration from Brown’s “125 Years of Women at Brown Conference” and the Black Alumni Reunion, she added.
Kremer also emphasized the history of religious inclusion at Brown. Brown “was the first Ivy League institution” to adopt an official policy of accepting students from all religious affiliations, she said. “It was one of the first schools to promote inclusion and religious freedom.”
The theme of the event — L’dor V’dor — is a Hebrew phrase that means “from generation to generation.” The theme signifies each generation of Jewish students “scrupulously passing on the customs and traditions to the generations that follow,” organizer James Hirschfeld ’91 wrote in an email to The Herald.
Kremer made the distinction that the weekend “isn’t a class reunion.”
“It’s celebrating the mixing and weaving of every single” generation, past, present and future. She added that the theme informed the organizers’ selection of the challah — a traditional Jewish braided bread that weaves three or more strands — as the event logo.
The reunion weekend will begin with a “more retrospective focus” and transition into a current and future look of Jewish life at Brown, Hirschfeld wrote.
Over 50 students and alums have been involved in making this reunion weekend happen, Hara said. Kremer said that organizers expect an attendance of over 700 alums, in addition to 300 to 400 enrolled Brown students.
Brown RISD Hillel has also been “deeply involved” in bringing about the event, Rabbi Josh Bolton, executive director of Hillel, wrote in an email to The Herald.
Hara explained that with the introduction of the Sharpe Refectory’s kosher kitchen in the fall 2023 semester, Jewish students have the opportunity to be more integrated into Brown’s dining community.
Hara said that the reunion’s fundraising subcommittee is working to cover the cost of the event and endow mashgiach positions — supervisors of kosher food production — in the Ratty’s Kosher kitchen. Hirschfeld wrote that this endowment will “ensure that a kosher kitchen in the Ratty will endure in perpetuity.”
Hirschfeld also looks forward to the “living timeline,” an archival project that will be made available during the reunion in both physical and digital form. The project will consist of a timeline with milestones but also incorporate archival materials and artifacts, Kremer said.
Brown’s campus culture — “where students are super passionate about their classes … but they’re not competitive” — has persisted through generations of Brown students, Hara said. Meeting Jewish Brown alums at the event would be an opportunity for current students to learn how the student culture “comes from what people before us have built.”
Bolton hopes attendees, through the event, identify their experiences as part of “a much larger narrative of inclusion, community and transformation,” he wrote.
Despite the large scale of the event, Hara emphasized that smaller events would also allow “ample opportunities” for individual connection. There will be a space reserved for attendees to “mingle” and have tea or a snack, Hara said. In addition, young alums and current students will have the opportunity to participate in a mentorship program, he added.
Event organizers have planned a Saturday night gala featuring several student and alum performances in the Lindemann Performing Arts Center, including playwright Alfred Uhry ’58, an alum cabaret and a cappella group the Alef Beats.
“I’m glad that it’s only six months after I graduate,” Hara said. “I have an excuse to come back.”
Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled James Hirschfeld's last name. The Herald regrets the error.
Annika Singh is a senior staff writer from Singapore who enjoys rewatching Succession and cheating on the NYT crossword.
