To be Jewish at LSU

Moshe Cohen has become a prominent voice for diversity and minority rights at Louisiana State University despite belonging to one of the smallest minority groups on campus. "Everyone wants diversity, and then puts it off and sequesters it into corners and leaves it nice and segregated," said Cohen, who is Jewish.      Cohen, a 24-year-old Ph.D. candidate, said diversity should be about people from different groups coexisting and helping one another, but the atmosphere on campus is about different groups working toward their own betterment and not the betterment of everyone. He said his views on diversity began with his upbringing in Tarrytown, N.Y., where he was one of only three Jewish students in his class. "Tarrytown has sort of a little neighborhood where there are rich people and white people. [There are] very few Jews," Cohen said. "Most of the town is Latino." Despite Tarrytown's small number of Jews, New York has the largest Jewish population in the United States at approximately 1.65 million according to the Jewish Virtual Library Web site. Cohen said the community was very diverse and his best friend growing up was Dominican. He also had friends who were Chilean and Venezuelan, he said. "To me that was growing up - growing up with people of all different types," Cohen said. "A couple people who were like this, a couple people who were like this and a couple of Jewish kids. It wasn't like growing up in the rest of Westchester [County] where everyone was rich, white and Jewish. I was very grounded at that point. I liked it." Cohen said he realized others' views of diversity were not like the community's he grew up in when he attended Binghamton University in Binghamton, N.Y., three hours away, near the Pennsylvania border. Cohen said he had lunch with Binghamton's director of multicultural affairs, and she gave him a "laundry list" of where each ethnicity could be found on campus. "I thought that's terrible," Cohen said. "How come am I going to a school that's so diverse, but it's segregated?" After graduating from Binghamton in 2004 with a bachelor's degree in mathematical sciences, Cohen came to LSU. Although the South may be known historically for discrimination or stereotyping toward minorities, Cohen and Rabbi Barry Weinstein of Congregation B'nai Israel in Baton Rouge said they have not experienced either in Baton Rouge. Weinstein, who has been in Baton Rouge for 23 years, said the community has always received him very well. "There's a great relationship here among the different denominations of religious faith," Weinstein said. Bernie Braun, an administrative analyst for LSU's Office of Budget and Planning, said 129 of the 30,564 students reported Judaism as their religious faith for the fall 2005 semester. Braun said 8,588 students did not answer the question about religious faith on the survey. There are approximately 16,000 Jews in Louisiana, which makes up only 0.4 percent of the state's population, according to the Jewish Virtual Library Web site.    Cohen said did not mind explaining Judaism to others because it was better than having people go through life assuming instead of knowing. "I'd like to spend five minutes clearing up some misconception rather than you go through your whole life not knowing the truth," he said. Weinstein said education is the key to ending prejudice and ignorance toward others. "I think [education] is essential. I think that is the key to better understanding among all faiths and all people," Weinstein said. "I think it's really important. That's how you overcome ignorance and prejudice, and it's essential." Cohen said he is trying to get the word out about Judaism while also connecting with other groups and figuring out what they need to do to gain visibility on campus. Weinstein said Hillel and the fraternity Sigma Alpha Mu "gives Jewish college students a place to go, a sense of community and helps them maintain programs and services to the larger community at LSU." Sigma Alpha Mu, which is better known as SAMMY on LSU's campus, is a fraternity for Jewish men, although it is not exclusively Jewish. Novak said the fraternity is about half Jewish and half non-Jewish. Marketing senior Kyle Goldich, 21, was one of the eight founding members of SAMMY at LSU in 2003. He also is the president of the fraternity and a member of Hillel. Goldich, who is Jewish and a native of Baton Rouge, said he and the founding members decided to start SAMMY to help revive Judaism at LSU. Although the fraternity is traditionally Jewish, Goldich said they do not have any Jewish traditions involved in the fraternity's rituals. "We're here in a way for Jewish guys have a place to feel welcome at the University," Goldich said.

_____ Contact Clinton Duckworth at cduckworth@lsureveille.com