Days before Hanukkah, Rabbi Katja Vehlow, director of Jewish life and Jewish chaplain, reflected on the major Jewish holidays she has celebrated during her first year and a half at Fordham.
Her first Passover seder at Lincoln Center far exceeded expectations: Two students initially signed up, and more than 25 came. For Rosh Hashanah this fall, she introduced dinners at both campuses and was touched to see so many students and faculty join them.
And for Hanukkah, which coincides with finals week this year, she has planned a Lights! Latkes! Trivia! party that all students can attend before the last day of classes at Lincoln Center on Thursday, Dec. 11. Even the annual Breakfast for Dinner meal, served to undergrads during finals, will honor the holiday; at her suggestion, both campuses will serve latkes and donuts—traditional Ashkenazi European Hanukkah foods.
Vehlow is modest about her impact on Jewish life at Fordham. But as the University’s first chaplain, she welcomes being called upon.
“My job is to offer presence to people and to listen and let people express what needs to be expressed. And I’ve been able to do that here.”
Deepening Jewish Traditions
Beyond Jewish holidays, Vehlow supports both longstanding Jewish traditions at Fordham and brand-new ones.
“Jews have been at Fordham for many, many decades,” she said. And even if they are not religious in the traditional sense, they may “still have deep Jewish identities which are expressed in many different ways.”
For over two decades, a dozen staff and faculty members have met three times a semester for a Jewish Texts reading group. Vehlow now joins them and spreads the word of upcoming meetings through her Jewish Life newsletter (sign up and select it here).
She also helps students deepen their relationship with Judaism. Rose Hill students have held Shabbat dinners for years that Vehlow now supports by bringing the ritual objects for prayers. And when three seniors requested a B’Mitzvah group last year, she supported their desire to take part in a ceremony they had skipped in childhood. They met each week to learn Hebrew and participated in a shared ceremony in the spring. A few faculty members joined them in reading from the Torah.
“I take off my hat to them. To show up every week for a school year, it’s a real commitment,” she said. This year, she has four students in the group.
A Light in the Darkness
As Vehlow prepares for Hanukkah, she noted that adding a light to the menorah each evening over the eight days offers an inspiring message of positivity.
“At a time that is dark and cold and stressful—these last few years have been very stressful, for so many reasons—Hanukkah gives us a chance to stop a little, to get together as a family, with friends, or as a community, and think about: What does it mean for me to see myself as a light—as somebody who brings something positive and beautiful to this world?”
Vehlow sees the hopefulness of the holiday reflected in the Jewish tradition as a whole.
“To me, our tradition is very much filled with hope. Things go wrong, and terrible things happen, and having a presence of a divine in our lives doesn’t mean that any of it goes away. But my hope is that it’s a little lighter to carry if we have this connection to the divine, to ourselves, and if we have community around us.”
