About Us
Swarthmore Kehilah is a pluralistic community that is based on the principle of radical welcoming and joyful engagement with Jewish traditions and culture. Through Kehilah’s programming, Jewish students (and our many friends and community members from other religious backgrounds) come together to cook, eat, discuss, ask questions, play games, pray, sing and build. We hold weekly Shabbat services and student-cooked dinners, community service opportunities, Jewish holiday programming, discussion groups and classes on Jewish tradition, and support many other communal activities organized by Jewish students on campus.
We are committed to interfaith engagement, as well as meaningful collaboration with other identity-based groups on campus, and we look forward to contributing to and learning from the larger campus community.
We are a queer affirming community which means integrating queer perspectives into our teaching and learning, celebraing those voices as authentically Jewish. We are constantly working to identify the ways in which we can continue to make our community more inclusive and welcoming of a diversity of gender identities and experiences. We honor the gender identities, presentations, and pronouns that members of our commuity prefer.
Whether you connect to Jewish identity through prayer, lively discussion, music, cooking, or social justice, there is place for you at Swarthmore Kehilah. We look forward to meeting you!
Mission Statement
Swarthmore Kehilah, as defined by its student board, is a religious, social, and cultural organization that serves the Swarthmore Jewish community and the campus as a whole by (a) fostering engagement with Jewish cultures and religion, (b) connecting students who are interested in Judaism to one another, and (c) providing a space for practicing, exploring, and discovering Judaism and Jewish identity