Let the gator growl.
These are the words students at my university, the University of Florida, will be screaming Friday night. This weekend, most of Gainesville will shut down and celebrate Gator football homecoming with a lineup of events like Gator Growl, a.k.a UF’s pep rally, the homecoming parade and the homecoming game. But what makes homecoming in Gainesville so memorable is that it brings together all of the student organizations to join together in the parade. You might be thinking, what makes bringing together all of the student organizations so interesting? You see them advertised everyday on campus, handing you fliers and stopping you on the way to class to explain their mission. But my reason for going to the parade is something a little different.
Although you might think it would be easy to spot out UF’s Jew-ish population, ranked number one in 2009 on Hillel’s listing of the 60 public universities with the largest Jewish student population in North America, it sometimes feels like I’m constantly using my “Jewdar,” to try to locate different Jewish organizations and feel part of the Jewish Gator nation.
When I started UF, I was under the impression that every Jew congregated at Hillel. After all, I had been told for most of my life by my mother that it was “the place” to hang out on campus. To my surprise, Hillel wasn’t as jam packed as I thought. So I did a little bit of investigative journalism on the Internet and looked into where I would find them. It turned out that UF had more Jew-ish organization than I thought. Lubavitch Chabad Student Group, UF Hillel, Jewish Student Union, which includes Gators for Israel, AEPhi and AEPi just to name a few.
Together but separate, the Jewish student community sometimes feels divided. However, during the homecoming parade, every student-run Jewish organization makes themselves present by creating elaborate floats, throwing free T-shirts to students, and getting their message of a strong Jewish community all the way down University Ave. For one day during the whole year, Jew-ish student organizations let every Jewish student know, just like me, that we’re not alone.
