Living History
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SINCE 1958 ONE OF TWO INDEPENDENT, UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT-RUN NEWSPAPERS OF YESHIVA UNIVERSITY’S STERN COLLEGE FOR WOMEN, YESHIVA COLLEGE AND SY SYMS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS WWW.YUOBSERVER.ORG 64:10 MAY 2021 - SIVAN 5781 Editorials By Fruma Landa, Editor in Chief Living History One of the many objectives of a lished this year contributes to the resources and community to the As a newspaper, we have the newspaper is to document mo- knowledge people will have about LGBTQ+ student body, had not ability to strengthen movements ments in time with the goal of pro- the pandemic in the future. been formed. There were previ- and create history. This privilege viding individuals in later genera- ous attempts to start an LGBTQ+ comes with extreme responsibility. tions with primary sources about Aside from contributing to history related club, and conversations of I am proud that the initiatives that events which occurred. This year, via documentation, students on how to best support LGBTQ+ stu- changed the face of YU between we witnessed history being made, campus have done their fair share dents on campus were already in my first and last semester have and I am proud to say that as a of changing the future of YU, motion, but we were still far away been neatly recorded in the YU newspaper, we had the privilege of thus making history. The YU I am from change. Although contro- Observer, ensuring they are not documenting it. Aside from living about to graduate from is not the versial, the YU Pride Alliance has lost in time. I am confident that through the COVID-19 pandem- same YU I enrolled in. Initiatives the power to drastically improve the YU Observer will continue ic, we witnessed first hand the such as the Beren Campus Rosh students’ lives for the better as it to document the happenings of groundbreaking lawsuit against Chodesh Minyan and clubs such provides life saving resources to YU, and I look forward to reading YU regarding their refusal to pro- as the Jewish Activism Club and queer students and has the abili- about our history in the making. vide LGBTQ+ students on cam- Students Against Sexual Assault ty to connect students to a larger pus a club. These two instances, have done great work changing LGBTQ+ community on campus. although vastly incomparable, will the landscape of our communities The formation of the YU Pride root themselves in history. for the better. While these initia- Alliance, although not included tives and clubs were not active in the lists of YU clubs, has not One of the most important things when I arrived at YU, they have been left out of history. The trail, about living through history is that been active for several semesters beginning at the LGBTQ+ march, we take part in making it. Every and show no signs of slowing to the many attempts to gain club news article regarding COVID-19 down. The formation of these approval, to the eventual lawsuit, cases or testing procedures on clubs, as well as the articles writ- can be traced throughout YU Ob- campus leaves a paper trail for ten about their events, root these server articles. future historians to follow while clubs in the YU experience. researching institutions’ response Writing about events has the to the pandemic. Articles depicting Unlike the above YU-support- ability to record them for the the struggles and pain of the pan- ed clubs and initiatives, not all future. But further, documenting demic can be used down the line life-changing clubs have been new initiatives gives movements to understand how the pandemic granted the right to exist on a voice which allows them to gain influenced the lives of college campus. In my first year at YU, visibility and support, ensuring students, socially, emotionally and the YU Pride Alliance, an unoffi- continuity. academically. Every article pub- cial club dedicated to providing PAGE 2 Editorial MAY 2021 - SIVAN 5781 Passing the Torch: Mesorot and Looking with Hope Toward the Future of Yeshiva University persuasion, to openly engage Sarah Liberow (SCW ‘22) and By Shayna Herszage, in dialogue about LGBTQ+ I organized Health Education The approval of a reproductive Managing Editors presence at YU, making prog- for Students Society (HESS). health education club on the ress by starting an LGBTQ+ HESS, we decided, would be a Beren Campus of YU is a big step Mesorah. It is a word we use on support group through the club dedicated to educating YU toward confronting a topic that a regular basis in Yeshiva Uni- Counseling Center. Such open undergraduate students about used to be avoided altogether. versity. Colloquially, it refers to recognition of LGBTQ+ students reproductive and sexual health. However, much like the jour- the collection of notes gathered at YU would have been almost This club was particularly nec- ney of LGBTQ+ inclusion, the for a class over the years that is unheard of in my first semester essary due to the fact that many development of reproductive passed along to future students. — but three years later, so much YU students had not taken a health education accessibility Literally, it means the passing on within the realm of LGBTQ+ reproductive health education at Yeshiva University is far from of something, such as a respon- acceptance has become a reality class in high school, and many finished. During my time as co- sibility or a set of knowledge, at Yeshiva University. of those who had been exposed club head, we only had one full from person to person. Overall, to such a class reported that it semester for events; there is still it is a term that represents the Nonetheless, there is still a lot to was not of adequate education- so much more to learn. Addi- giving over of something from do in order to make Yeshiva Uni- al quality. tionally, we acknowledge that one person or group to the next, versity truly a place of LGBTQ+ many of the students on the Wilf marking the end of one era and equality. The YU Pride Alliance, a We knew, given YU’s discomfort Campus have also been denied the beginning of another. club which attempted to attain around the issue, that getting reproductive health education official YU club status in 2020, HESS approved on the Beren for most of their lives — will a Throughout my final year as has been repeatedly denied Campus would require nothing Wilf student see what is missing a YU undergraduate student, approval. In response to a culmi- short of a miracle. Sarah and I in their community and run a I struggled to come to terms nation of homophobic acts and designed a survey about sex- parallel chapter? with the impending mesorot. rejection of LGBTQ+ inclusion ual activity and reproductive My time in Yeshiva Universi- and dialogue, several students health education which we The Yeshiva University of my ty has been filled with many and alumni have filed a lawsuit posted on social media and sent first semester is not the same communal goals, and so many against Yeshiva University. While in group chats. Our aim was to as that of my final semester. For of these goals still have a long this lawsuit has not yet come to have a collection of data which that I am proud of myself and way to go. When I, along with a close, its initial filing stands as we could show to the Office of my peers, and I am thankful for my graduating peers, leave, who a testimony in itself to the fact Student Life in order to support those who have helped these will take our places and contin- that the YU community’s jour- our claims that Yeshiva Univer- changes come to fruition. But I ue the path toward what must ney toward LGBTQ+ inclusion is sity students did not have the also recognize that a great deal be accomplished? What if the well on its way. reproductive health education of work has yet to be complet- mesorot end here? backgrounds they needed. With- ed, and I call upon the current Another issue whose progress in minutes, survey responses and future students of YU to In my first semester, for example, I have witnessed at YU is re- began pouring in. continue what has been started. I heard tangentially about the productive health education. As Rabbi Tarfon states in Pirkei “Infamous Gay Panel of 2010” In 2013, before I came to YU, Soon after I posted the survey Avot, “It is not your responsibil- while I wrote an article about a controversy sparked: a Stern online, a friend sent me an arti- ity to finish the work, but you Ben Katz (YC ‘11), a YU alumnus College for Women student, cle about Sominski’s controver- also may not abandon it.” We and LGBTQ+ activist. I had never Dasha Sominski (SCW ‘14), sy. I was terrified, but there was must not grow comfortable with heard of the panel before, and posted an anonymous survey on no going back: the survey had how far we have come to the neither had most of my peers. Facebook, titled “YU Sex Ed and been posted, we had over thirty point of stagnation, especially In the beginning of my time at Questions of Acceptable Sexual responses and I had made up when we consider how much YU, the discussions surrounding Promiscuity.” Soon afterward, my mind that HESS was going to ground we still need to cover. LGBTQ+ inclusion on campus she received an email informing happen, no matter what it took.