2008 Woodie Awards
IHPi Statement of Aims
Issue date: 3/29/05 Section: Opinion
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[Editor's Note: IHPi's leadership had this statement prepared since December 24, 2004]
IHPi was started by a group of out-of-towners who had become disillusioned with the campus life (or lack thereof) at YU. The Shabbos situation was particularly instrumental in the formation of IHPi. Being from out of town, we were often left with nowhere to go for Shabbos. IHPi became a place where we could feel at home on Shabbos, and our less religious friends could have a nice Shabbos meal and experience. These are kids who otherwise would not have a Shabbos meal at all. This brings us to the next important facet of IHPi.
The "members" of IHPi all come from modern Orthodox backgrounds, are shomer Shabbos, keep kosher, and daven every day. At least 4 "brothers" were accepted to Ivy League universities, but chose instead to attend YU, solely for the purpose of maintaining their yiddishkeit. However, it seems as though everyone in YU is either a YP guy or is not religious at all. There is very little middle ground, as most people lie somewhere near one of the two extremes. The situation made it very difficult for the "middle ground" kids like us to thrive. It seemed as though we are always being pulled in one direction or the other. This was just not acceptable to us. We felt, and still feel, that we should be able to have fun and enriching college experience while still maintaining our modern Orthodox beliefs and practices.
Contrary to the delusions held by many senior administrators in Yeshiva University, THERE IS NO CAMPUS LIFE AT YU. YU's idea of a fun and exciting campus life is free Douggie's in Morgue every other Wednesday. Please forgive us if we find such "activities" neither fun nor exciting. So how does the average YU student (who's not in YP) enjoy himself on the weekends? They go downtown to one of the hundreds of bars and clubs in New York City. While places like these certainly fulfill the need for fun and excitement, they are veritable cesspools of sex, drugs and all sorts of other shmutz. As observant Jews, we felt that there had to be another way to enjoy ourselves during our tenure in YU. And so IHPi was born.
IHPi was started by a group of out-of-towners who had become disillusioned with the campus life (or lack thereof) at YU. The Shabbos situation was particularly instrumental in the formation of IHPi. Being from out of town, we were often left with nowhere to go for Shabbos. IHPi became a place where we could feel at home on Shabbos, and our less religious friends could have a nice Shabbos meal and experience. These are kids who otherwise would not have a Shabbos meal at all. This brings us to the next important facet of IHPi.
The "members" of IHPi all come from modern Orthodox backgrounds, are shomer Shabbos, keep kosher, and daven every day. At least 4 "brothers" were accepted to Ivy League universities, but chose instead to attend YU, solely for the purpose of maintaining their yiddishkeit. However, it seems as though everyone in YU is either a YP guy or is not religious at all. There is very little middle ground, as most people lie somewhere near one of the two extremes. The situation made it very difficult for the "middle ground" kids like us to thrive. It seemed as though we are always being pulled in one direction or the other. This was just not acceptable to us. We felt, and still feel, that we should be able to have fun and enriching college experience while still maintaining our modern Orthodox beliefs and practices.
Contrary to the delusions held by many senior administrators in Yeshiva University, THERE IS NO CAMPUS LIFE AT YU. YU's idea of a fun and exciting campus life is free Douggie's in Morgue every other Wednesday. Please forgive us if we find such "activities" neither fun nor exciting. So how does the average YU student (who's not in YP) enjoy himself on the weekends? They go downtown to one of the hundreds of bars and clubs in New York City. While places like these certainly fulfill the need for fun and excitement, they are veritable cesspools of sex, drugs and all sorts of other shmutz. As observant Jews, we felt that there had to be another way to enjoy ourselves during our tenure in YU. And so IHPi was born.