It all began with my latest venture. A small college in Riverdale – which is actually the Bronx – advertised for a Psychology professor to instruct students taking a course called “Introduction to Psychology.” It was a core course – one of those courses that every freshman has to take- and so they’re prepared to dislike it even before they’ve occupied a seat. To me, it sounded like a challenge, which it has been. Freshmen are in the process of emerging from their shells, and until their feet are stabilized in the new world, they go through an - at times –difficult period of adjustment.

However, the real surprise to me – this being a Catholic college with resident Sisters of Charity – was observing several men with yarmulkes on their head, sitting at a table in the school cafeteria. I had assumed I would be surrounded with religious icons, crucifixes and images of saints, and I had even assumed I would be one of the few Jews in the school. At first I thought there might be a course in Hebrew, as part of a religious studies program, but that wasn’t the case. It seems that a school called the Academy for Jewish Religion (AJR), was renting space in the college, and had been for several years. Originally, it was named The Academy for Liberal Judaism and then the Academy for Higher Jewish Leaning. It has a charter from the Regents of the University of the State of New York to ordain Rabbis and instruct Jewish leaders.

The academy prepares men and women to serve the Jewish community as congregational spiritual leaders, chaplains, educators, and Administrators in Jewish service organizations. AJR is not bound by specific denominational or movement based approaches to practice or belief. Although their students are trained using traditional texts, the Rabbis and cantors adapt their learning to meet the spiritual needs of twenty- first century Jews.

They at first seemed reluctant to elaborate on their school, but when I mentioned my affiliation with the Megillah, their apprehension seemed somewhat to lessen. As for me, I confess that the yarmulke sightings were a source of comfort and I’m not sure why. When I mentioned my encounter to the chairwoman of my department, she said that in the spring, the academy holds some sort of outing on one of the lawns, and they can hear the mellifluous voices of the various cantors who are training at the school. There are numerous statues of the saints and the Virgin Mother, and it seems appropriate that Jewish voices should be raised in song as they were so many centuries ago.

My Bachelor’s degree was granted to me by a small Catholic College, and I realize now how much change has taken place over the years. Large numbers of faculty were Nuns, still wearing the traditional habit, and the students – the population was strictly female – while not in uniform, were quite conservative in dress. The Nuns would have been horrified, I’m sure, by the sight of low hanging jeans and by the general demeanor of the coeds. I was an adult student at the time, returning to college, and my weekends, doing laundry and taking care of my kids, was more exciting than those of most of the girls. While most of the students came from strict religious homes, there seemed no straining against the bounds – the way it was, was the way it was meant to be.

Major change, and I wonder if we have all become less religious – many of the students at my present school are first generation college students- or do we no longer view differences in religion as the great divide. We intermarry, vis-à-vis religion and race, and the world does not seem to cave in. Exceptions, of course, where they still sit Shiva for the “lost” daughter or son. For me, although I would not consider myself deeply religious, there is a need for identity of some sort and I wonder if that is not true of most. At any rate, I look forward to Spring and the voices of my people raised in song.