This coming week is the Student Association online election (via UAlbany’s MyInvolvement page). We had four members of our Jewish campus community running for positions, so each of those campaigning that was present on Friday Night was given opportunity to introduce themselves and speak to the students. Lee Stanton is running for SA President, Marc Cohen for SA Vice President (each on a different ticket), Rachel Kamins is running for Senator from Humanities/Art and Elliott Weintraub is running for the Senator-at-Large position.
Rabbi Mendel introduced them with “You Should Know Albanian” and the connection to keeping one’s (campaign) promises, and then Marc, Rachel, Elliott and Lee spoke. They spoke well: it was dignified, civil, respectful and warm. While Shabbos House can’t endorse specific candidates, we are excited to see a nice group of our campus community active in the political process and broader community. And we do endorse and encourage students to participate in the process and make sure to vote!
The crowd was a little smaller than usual, but the vibe was really nice. It was a nice night out weather-wise (finally!), and people lingered and stayed on until quite late. There were really nice discussions and conversations.We had a prospective student from NJ, and a few girls who have never been before. Our daughters Sara and Bassie both had school friends over. Mendel’s brother Simmy was here too. Our son Moshe was away for Shabbos at a Bar-Mitzvah of a friend.
No politics on Shabbos Day, though we did have some of the candidates come back for lunch. Mendel spoke about Jewish Body-Language and an experience Mushky and Chani had at a children’s nursing home. Minyan was nice, we read HaChodesh – the 4th of 4 special Torah readings this time of year. The 3rd Shabbos meal was small, most were thinking about Hillel’s Masquerade Semi-Formal on Saturday Night. Mendel’s brother Simmy was here for Shabbos, so we did a little Maamar study about the primacy of action over thought and a little shmoozing about real-estate, return on investment, regulations and stuff like that. We do look forward to the 3rd Shabbos meals after Passover when we start up our Pirkei Avot Ding-a-ling Hotline again!