91 Comments
It may feel like the beginning of second semester outside, but the 40 Days event is happening now out on Low Plaza. To the delight of many, they’ve got more sandwiches than one can shake a stick at. But it turns out a large bunch of seniors are in the middle of another countdown, that of Passover (5 days to go, buds) and thus can’t eat the food that’s currently out there. A few disgruntled tipsters have reported that all of the Kosher food was gone by 12:45.
One senior writes that there were only “10 bottles of kosher wine and 10 kosher meals” while “close to 30% of the 2000 seniors planning on attending are Jewish.” Demanding an apology, the same student feels that the event “is clear case of cultural insensitivity and…should not stand, especially at a Columbia where Anti-Semitic claims are not a new thing.” He would like a kiss-and make-up event after the holiday, but that would be, well, 35 days until they walk.
Thanks to Lenora Babb for the picture.
– JDC
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91 Comments
@Mel Brooks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxrGTyRooVY
@I think you meant this one… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAVJ9ZyghlA
@Clement Attlee We need to learn how to be tolerant of all reigions and creeds.
The Old Testament instructs us:
“If you hear that in one of the towns, there are men who are telling people to go and worship other gods, it is your duty to look into the matter and examine it. If it is proved and confirmed, you must put the inhabitants of that town to the sword. You must lay the town under the curse of destruction, the town and everything in it. You must pile up all its loot in the public square and burn the town and all its loot. That town is to be a ruin for all time, and never rebuilt.” – Deuteronomy 13: 13-17
Religion.
@Bethmann-Hollweg Here’s one of my personal favorites from the Old Testament:
‘If a woman approaches an animal to have sex with it, kill the woman and the animal. They are certainly to be put to death. Their blood is on their own heads.’ – Leviticus 20:16
Religion.
@jeez whoa there. I was way less bothered by “insensitivity” of the event than this hostility to jews on the comments.
Yeah, I don’t think this is anti-Semetic, and if it were, it’d be like the lamest ruse to irk jews ever (rhyme not intentional). “We’ll offer Kosher food, but very little of it, mwahahaha!”
It just seems that whoever planned it fail to take into account that a lot more jews keep kosher during passover than other times of the year. I don’t think you can expect to cater to every person’s individual demands, but this is a significant portion of the attendees so it’s not that unreasonable for them to have planned accordingly. People keeping kosher are students like any other and it was student fees that paid for the event. If there were no vegetarian options, people would have been rightfully upset as well, even though this too is a personal choice and likely a smaller number than the people who keep kosher for passover.
@secret This is sooo stupid. People who observe religious laws MUST make sacrifices for God. Not going to this party is only a minor sacrifice for God. People who are religious all year round are used to making such sacrifices. GET USED TO IT!!!
@AHHHH! Why has everyone turned this into an issue about religious insensitivity??! They stole everyone’s party and tried to give out some free beer to appease us. The whole joy of 40’s on 40 was that it was, no matter how many people knew about it, a student-organized, unsanctioned, underground event. We didn’t need the admin’s consent. We didn’t need their permission. Why does nobody see that a university-organized party, complete with white picket fences and Jewish wine is only an attempt to prevent students from autonomous action?
@but... Autonomous action requires autonomy. Last I checked, the Trustees control the steps, not the students.
@JIIIIIHAAAAAAAD AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
PS- ty for the props #70
@why do jews drop the holocaust bomb so quickly?
respect your dead ancestors, rather than opportunistically trot them out to get another case of kosher wine and sandwiches next Thursday.
@Sprinkles And why do ignorant people like you fail to see the point: The person who made the comment was not directly comparing 40 Days with the Holocaust. He was drawing a parallel to how Jews today are expected to sit down and shut up, and how in the past, silence led to oppression.
@The Irishman I didn’t choose to be Irish, you choose to be Jewish. Who says the world has to cater to your effectively made-up belief and not to mine?
Welcome to the real world where no one gives a crap about what you like/believe in when giving away free food.
@nationality is made up too! suprise!
@uhhhh What beliefs correspond to having an Irish nationality? Are you about to stereotype your own people as violent drunks? And not all Irish are Catholic.
@yello I think the bigger problem is that they promised that there would be kosher options and then only had enough for ten. Don’t get upset with Jewish students for expecting to be accomodated when the email explicitly said they would be accomodated…
@jewish alum This is embarrassing. Keeping parve is a personal decision. If one doesn’t want to eat bread, don’t go to a free food event. Expecting the world to cater to your 1-week observation of 6000 year old traditions is pretty lame.
Oh, and if you think this is anti-semitic behavior, wait until you get to the workplace. At least the organizers tried (admittedly, weakly) to be sensitive.
@hundreds of jews hundreds, maybe even a thousand jews were denied entry to the party in the first place, just becuase they weren’t “seniors”
this is anti-semitism of the worst kind
@Robert Walpole In the end, religion is superstitious mumbo-jumbo.
If you can’t understand that, you probably don’t deserve any food.
@secret For the Jews who keep passover and not kosher year round you could have taken the friggen bread off the sandwitch!!! I am Jewish but I don’t care about kosher for passover anymore and I’d be willing to bet that 30+ percent of the Jews here do not keep kosher for passover in the slightest….I do not think it was anti-semetic of the university. In the rest of the country, even where there are reform and conservative jews…you would not be accomodated at all. If you choose to follow those dietary rules, you can’t expect people to always accomodate them. It is one thing if you ALWAYS keep kosher, but then you would be used to people not always accomodating your needs. If you had a dietary restriction, in my opinion it would be more imporant…but there too you would be used to dealing with it and know that sometimes you will have to eat before / after.
IE: what about the people who are allergic to wheat…what did they eat at the event??? Not everyone can be accomodated at every event.
@Sprinkles The point is, a little sensitivity on the part of the organizers, seeing how we’re a diverse university in a city with a huge Jewish population, was expected. But as usual, all we got was incompetence. And, wow, it’s amazing to see how many people think Jews should just sit down and shut up.
@quiqui By the time I got there, there were no sandwiches at all. Only nasty looking coleslaw. So just be happy you were there when food actually existed.
And jews have nothing to complain about. Classes left and right get cancelled for Passover, but I’ve had several exams scheduled on Good Friday over the years.
@seriously? leni this is a terrible article…. what a shame
@jon the BWOG distorted the picture. only one “student” complained/demanded/cried about the lack of kosher accommodations.
as someone who eats only kosher, i have never demanded kosher food at any function, and it was the teachers themselves that offered it in the first place.
also, many muslims do prefer kosher meat anyway…
@Sprinkles Wrong. I was one of them, and those aren’t my quotes in the post. So there’s definitely more than one. It’s basic knowledge that Jews can’t eat sandwiches and pasta during Passover, regardless of whether they’re Orthodox or Reform.
@your fault If you choose a lifestyle of restrictions on what you eat, drink etc, it is ridiculous to demand that the world should adjust to you, when you are the one that denies yourself. Grow up, stop whining, and deal with it.
@Jaramiah JEWS….
@I'm Irish There was no whiskey available, and that offends me as a member of the Irish minority.
Columbia might as well have a huge “Irish Need Not Apply” sign on Low.
@red the Irish thing is completely different…it’s not religiously mandated that you have to drink whiskey…don’t be a jerk
it’s not anti-Semitism but it wasn’t insensitive
@red sorry, I meant”
“it’s not anti-Semitism but it was insensitive”
@okay no, it wasn’t anti-Semitic…insensitive and poorly thought out? yes
@geez 30% are Jewish. Ok, by 30% don’t keep Kosher. Chill the fuck out. I’m a vegan, and if there isn’t food that I can eat, I don’t complain, because it’s a really annoying burden for other people. Just like demanding kosher food. I bring my own food so as not to burden others, you should do the same, Kosher people.
@Sprinkles Your definition of “Kosher” doesn’t take into account Passover. While most Jewish students here don’t keep Kosher year-round, I’m willing to be almost all observe Passover, and “Kosher for Passover” means it doesn’t contain the forbidden grain products. In other words: Most Jews who don’t keep Kosher year-round will still observe the rule to not eat bread. Columbia should have known this – it’s basic that Jews don’t eat bread during Passover.
@passed by... Why the hell were the College Republicans in front of the “40 on 40” thing?
p.s. The line looked way, way too long.
@WTF ANTI-SEMITIC?!?
ALL THESE ALCOHOL-CENTRIC EVENTS WITH NO HALAL MEAT ARE ANTI-MUSLIM!!!!
COCKTAIL RECEPTIONS?!?
LERNER PUB?!?
40 DAYS?!?
FORCED TO EAT RABBIT FOOD WHEN I CRAVE RED MEAT?!?
MAKES ME SO ANGRY I WANT TO JIHAD!!!!
@haha nice Haha post #50 is actually really hilarious. Islam has an obsession with the number 40. I forget why exactly but it’s a special number for them. By them I mean “us”, but I’m not a really good Muslim.
@haha. I’m a crappy muslim too!
@shut up stop whining. Columbia is not a religious institution and therefor doesn’t have to cander to anyone’s religious beliefs. I’m Catholic, do you think I’d bitch and complain if there wasn’t a fish fry on a Friday during Lent? No, I’m not stuck up. I love Jewish people, have tons of Jewish friends, but seriously get a life and stop blaming Columbia for being insensitive. Life isn’t perfect.
@bureacracy again Damn Columbia bureacracy strikes again. “40s for 40 days” to graduation! Can they put up a fence and mismanage religous holidays for 40 days straight? It’s a challenge but I’m sure they’ll figure something out
@??? i don’t get it. how is it racist?
@shocc everything is racist if you think hard enough
@racist Because of the stereotypes associated with African Americans and 40’s… particularly sitting on the steps.
@i think drinking 40s has racist undertones. it’s done to be ‘trashy’ and ‘ghetto’. i certainly have never gone to a store and said, you know what, i think i’d like to kick back and enjoy myself a cold 40 after a hard day of work.
so yes, its racist in the SHOCC, everything is racist way whether you realize it or not, but certainly not intentionally.
@JEW it is amazing and appauling at how many poeple thnk the jew should go back to his little corner (i.e. kraft center for Jewish life) and shut up. The only reason why the jew keeps pulling the anti semitism card is because for the entire history of this jew he has had to listen to the same type of sit down and shut up comments like the ones posted so freely and plenitfully here. Should he shut up all the way to the gas chambers like last time?
@to #69 and others Look, we’re talking sandwiches, not gas chambers. And I think the point people are making is that Jews are not the only ones who have to put up with shit nowadays. Muslim students rarely get anything Halal on this campus (save John Jay food as of last year I believe), and I will refrain from restating the Catholic argument. I assume most Passover practicers practice out of faith, right? Well, sometimes, in the name of faith, you have to make sacrifices. Not that I’m saying that you should take racial violence sitting down at ALL, but it’s NOT the same thing.
And Please, don’t play this “gas chamber” card — it’s not something that we should just throw around. It’s almost sickening when you even subtly compare a petty Columbia incident to such a thing.
@JEW QUOTING #69: “It’s almost sickening when you even subtly compare a petty Columbia incident to such a thing”
The comparison and coment was not about a petty columbia event but about the comment in post #67 about how many PC COLUMBIANS want the Jew to sit down and shut up
@WTF I’m actually really glad somebody went ahead and compared NOT ENOUGH SANDWICHES to GAS CHAMBERS, because now this is officially the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, and we can all go talk about something else. Right?
@lets be fair the middle east isn’t really asia. sure one could call it southwest asia, but really north africa and southwest asia are an entirely different region.
@Arthur Balfour Israel.
@ugh.. i agree with #29. get over yourselves, you are not the only people who observe religious holidays. i’m catholic and it IS holy thursday, too.
@speaking of cards I’ll throw out the race card. Does anyone find 40’s on 40 to be a bit racist? If not racist, then perhaps insensitive?
@i like asians they’re like the only minority that generally doesn’t make a big fuss. you don’t hear the chinese or the indians make a huge deal about things that arent actually a big deal most of the time. the black students, jewish students, gay students, the women, etc all overreact all the damned time. but the asians. especially the mongolians. now theres an ethnic group that takes everything in stride. whens the last time you heard a mongolian bitch about being fucked over for his minority identity? thats right, probably never because theyre a good fucking people.
@on manschiewitz I am not even Jewish and someone poured me up a glass of illicit Manschiwitz. IT was WAY too sweet. like whoa. but the point is–they brought two bottles of kosher wine in, no problem. The event was a glorious success. f-off to the naysayers.
@Bethmann-Hollweg Although to be fair, you can’t really fault a student for trumpeting the “Anti-Semitic” card. They’re most likely a moron.
@even if So if 40’s on 40 was not cancelled, would jewish students still get involved? Do they make kosher malt liquor?
@Not the same The difference is that this is a university-sponsored event…so I guess the practicing Jewish students feel that they should be entitled to enjoy the party. I agree that it sucks for them, but…you know, sucks for them.
@Sprinkles No – malt is forbidden on Passover because it’s, well, barley malt.
Sephardic Jews can have saki, though.
@boohoo anti-semitic?! You guys have a building for yourselves (Read: “The Kraft Center for JEWISH student life”). Stop bitching. If one day shit didn’t go your way, try and reflect on the 4 years where your community imposed itself on everyone else’s Columbia experience. And stop pulling the Anti-semitic card out at the drop of a hat, its pathetic.
@Besides Manischewitz is gross, yo
@get over it as a catholic, if this event was on a friday, i wouldn’t be whining that columbia didn’t serve me fish sandwiches because i don’t eat meat on lenten fridays. get over it, and don’t blame others for your own personal decisions not to eat or drink certain foods at certain times.
@I agree with you but I’m afraid to say it out loud, because then I would get branded an anti-Semite.
@hmm 29 makes a good point here, as harsh as it may sound.
@ChallengeEverything I’m protesting, who’s with me?
@freedom to get trashed!
@well i really hope this leads to a makeup repeat. i’m not jewish, but i fully support another “on the steps” day scheduled whenever it’s cool for jews to do brew again.
judaism is totally killer and/or sweet.
@down with the man! 24 on 24!
12 on 12!
6 on 6!
@i am observing passover and deserve to get shit-faced. the spirit of passover is to follow arbitrary dietary rules, not reflect on spirtuality. there’s nothing about passover which discourages shitface-ed-ness. fuck student council’s inability to let me be observant and drunk-off-my-ass.
@Sprinkles Well, Passover is a celebration of freedom. So get lost.
@upset The most important thing to consider here is that this a traditional event. As a senior I was looking forward to finally experience the fun of 40’s after waiting 4 years only to find out that by a complete lack of thoughtful planning by Student Council and columbia it is nearly impossible for me, and also hudreds of other practicing jews, to participating in the festvities. I have put my time into columbia, and they gave me back pure unadulterated shit. There should be some sort of compensation for the countless students excluded from a traditional event that was a right of all seniors for more then 20 years.
@confused why make the gesture of having kosher food available and then only have enough for 10 people?
Was vegan food available in similar proportions (ie i don’t know, maybe one meal?)
@AND I HATE THE YANKEES!
@Greg You cant take that as an action against Jews though. Its just an action to prevent excessive drinking/bringing in other illegal substances
@upset Agreed, but it is just one more thing that makes it nearly impossible for practicing jews to participate in the festivities.
@upset and not drunk There are searching bags, and saying that no foreign food or drink is allowed into the pearly gates.
So even if a student went home and brought his own bottle of kosher wine, it would be a no go.
Fuck Columbia’s complete incompetance in understanding student needs.
@Well... Tomorrow. Or 40s on 33.
@CU Security So when will the attention die down enough for me to go out at night and enjoy a six pack next to Old Alma without the watchful eye of CUPS?
@Sprinkles 1. Pour contents of six-pack into Nalgene bottles.
2. …
3. Profit!
@class of 2008 400 days on the steps will be WARM and SUNNY. :)
@greg Stop complaining about everything. If you dont want to eat the food they are giving you for free, go find some somewhere else.
@Sprinkles That’s not the point. The point is, first they got rid of 40s on 40, telling us seniors we’d get an equivalent party. Then the party turns out to be nothing at all because we can’t eat or drink anything there. Because CU is incompetent and missed something blindingly obvious, again.
@ahem it’s not free. we paid for it, like we paid for everything, including the fences. so it should be worth the money we paid for it.
@By that logic since the university is obligated to do what we want since we pay tuition and fees, I should be able to not pay my student activities fees because the existence of clubs like the ISO are definitely not worth it. Right?
@blame mealac! anti-semiiiitiiiism!
@Lame It’s too cold out. Next Thursday it will be warm and sunny and we can have a real 40 on 33, without the lame white picket fences and fancy deli meats.
@Eric Cartman I’m talkin’ fifth-season-Night Court-rerun LAAAAAAME!
@obviously this must be blamed on barnard
@fuckin right that’s how i feel about this event. FUCKIN RIGHT.
@Sprinkles Seriously, this is bad planning. It didn’t occur to anybody that there are loads of Jewish students, and that while most of us don’t have the Kosher meal plan, pretty much everybody is following Passover rules? It’s not brain surgery, Columbia…and it’s not like we’re a teeny tiny group of people, either.
It’s not anti-Semitic, it’s just really, really lame incompetence.
@chater david chait is incontinent
@i know chait choose matthew fox because he’s not a jew and chait is an anti-semite!
@fucking chait couldn’t make the day warmer
fuck him, and fuck matthew fox
@david chait is an anti-semite!!!!