FIG

The Jewish Studies FIG was an interesting experience and a very different one than what I was expecting....

When I signed up for the FIG I thought that I was going to meet Jewish kids from all over the country who have an interest in Judaism and want to be apart of a Jewish community. When I got to IU the FIG was a bunch of Jewish kids who mostly signed up for the FIG so that they could live in McNutt.

Our FIG leader wasn't that great! He wasn't interested in doing Jewish activities and he didn't know that much about Judaism. In the FIG the only thing Jewish about the FIG was that we were all Jewish and living together and taking two Jewish Studies courses together.

In the FIG there were the kids who grew up in large Jewish populations and the kids who didn't grow up in a large Jewish community, there were the camp kids and the kids who had never been to Jewish overnight camp, there were the religious kids and the not religious kids, basically a group of Jewish kids who either had lots in common or nothing in common. The dynamic of the FIG does change year to year because the Jewish upbringing of the kids who are in it change from year to year.

While I am glad that I did the FIG because I was able to get ahead in my Jewish Studies courses, I don't think that I gained anything Jewishly from it otherwise. I think that in order to improve the FIG for future kids, I think that the leader should be in the Jewish Studies Department or active at Hillel and if it is going to be a Jewish Studies FIG it should be more than just a bunch of Jews living together and taking classes together, it should be the start of a Jewish community for freshman.