Coed Shabbaton to Take Place Uptown Next Spring

Student leaders, the Office of Student Life (OSL) and administrators from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) are in the final stages of planning an uptown coed Shabbaton for the Spring 2018 semester.

Coed Shabbatons regularly take place at the Beren Campus, although Wilf Campus coed Shabbatons, despite having been proposed by various student governments, have not materialized in recent years. Commentator archives indicate that an Intercollegiate Shabbaton, sponsored by the Yeshiva College and Stern College for Women student councils, took place at YU’s Washington Heights campus in May 1980.

According to Yeshiva Student Union (YSU) President Nolan Edmonson, the OSL and RIETS have been working very closely with Student Organization of Yeshiva (SOY) and YSU to make the Shabbaton a reality. Additionally, SOY President Moshe Spirn and Edmonson have reached out to their counterpart student leaders at the Beren Campus — Stern College Student Council (SCWSC) President Shoshana Marder and Torah Activities Council (TAC) President Adina Cohen — both of whom expressed interest in collaborating to see the Shabbaton to fruition.

As of now, the Shabbaton is tentatively scheduled for a Shabbat shortly after winter break. The currently proposed weekend is February 15-16, Parashat Tetzaveh, three weeks into the Spring 2018 semester. At least part of the Shabbaton’s programming will take place at the Mount Sinai Jewish Center, a shul in Washington Heights.

Final planning for the Shabbaton involves certain logistics, such as finding Washington Heights housing where women undergraduates can be hosted. “We are exploring different ideas including reaching out to current students and alumni living in Washington Heights to see about their ability to host women for a weekend,” explained Edmonson. “Once we figure this logistical issue out, I think we’ll be closer to sharing a more detailed plan with the student body.”

Students can expect further details very soon. “I think that before the end of November,” figured Edmonson, “our councils will have made significant progress, and we hope to begin advertising before the end of the fall semester.”