Jewish Network provides non-religious community, discussion

By Eileen Chen     11/12/24 9:51pm

Faculty and staff established the Rice Jewish Network this semester. Moshe Vardi, Lisa Geda, Anatoly Kolomeisky, Rebeca Kalontarov, Lisa Birenbaum and Yael Hochberg were all involved in the creation of the organization, which aims to create a support system for Jewish people on campus, according to Vardi.

Vardi, a professor in computational engineering, said the influx of antisemitism around the world and on campus after Oct. 7 prompted the creation of this support network. 

“The past year has been challenging to those, on the Rice campus and on many campuses as well,” Vardi said. “Protest movements have taken the nature of being anti-Israeli.” 

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Vardi said that the Jewish Network aims to focus on socializing and education rather than politics, hoping that people at Rice can converse peacefully and find comfort “with people who understand their points of view” in an otherwise unstable political scene.

Kolomeisky, a professor of chemistry, said he was in Israel on Oct. 7 and that the rise of antisemitic movements after the fact reminded him of the Holocaust. 

“I was a visiting professor at Weizmann Institute when the Israel-Palestine war started. I spent a lot of nights in the shelter and was barely able to escape Israel eventually,” Kolomeiskey said. “It hit me. It really hit me. It hit my relatives. My grandparents and other relatives were killed by Nazis during the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a consequence of all this anti-Jewish propaganda, which I see, and I don’t want to do it again.” 

Jewish Network is the first Jewish community on campus that unites faculty and staff with students, according to Geda, a math department operations administrator. 

Other Rice Jewish clubs such as Hillel and Chabad — besides primarily serving students rather than faculty or staff — connect people through religious affiliations, said Kolomeisky. 

“In Judaism, there is Reform Judaism, there is Conservative, there is Orthodox and all things reflected,” Kolomeisky said. “Jewish Network is not either Jews or not Jews, it’s for everyone. There is nothing to do with religion. It has this only goal of supporting people who are suffering.”

The Jewish Network met for the first time Oct. 31. A group of about 20 people came together and shared what they hoped to gain from this new support system, according to Vardi. 

Kolomeisky said Jewish Network’s main focus this semester will be to educate people to exchange accurate information. 

“The main problem is education,” Kolomeisky said. “I believe there is a huge amount of misinformation, fake news and, unfortunately, many people that are not well-educated in history.” 

Kolomeisky and Vardi said they foresee inviting guest lecturers and organizing food or international events. 

Kenny Weiss, executive director of Houston Hillel and the Rice Hillel rabbi, said he would be open to working with Jewish Network. 

“Certainly Hillel and I would welcome working with this group, as we do with similar groups on all the campuses that we have a presence on,” Weiss said. 

Kolomeisky said he is excited that many people expressed their wish to join the Jewish Network that are not Jewish or Israeli. 

“It means that this resonates with many people’s thinking. This resonates with the good feelings of the people that are trying to help those who need it,” Kolomeisky said. “Educate people, exchange ideas. Just discussion is better than any war. Even if we don’t agree, discussion is better than fighting.”

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