• About
  • Editorial Board
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
The Wellesley News -
  • News and Features
    • Students With Medically Restricted Diets Struggle to Eat On Campus
      Students With Medically Restricted Diets Struggle to Eat On Campus
    • Students find new ways to celebrate Diwali
      Students find new ways to celebrate Diwali
    • Changing COVID-19 regulations impact students’ mental health
      Changing COVID-19 regulations impact students’ mental health
    • News
      • News in Brief
      • Nation & World
      • President’s Corner
      • Senate Report
    • Features
      • Alumnae Spotlight
      • Eye on Science
      • Faculty Focus
      • LGBTQIA+ Column
  • Opinions
    • Wellesley, why can’t you meet our dietary needs?
      Wellesley, why can’t you meet our dietary needs?
    • The block system is a joke
      The block system is a joke
    • Spineless nonpartisanship: how the Girl Scouts convinced me they no longer care about girls
      Spineless nonpartisanship: how the Girl Scouts convinced me they no longer care about girls
    • Staff Editorial
    • Letters to the Editor
    • The Elephant in the Room
  • Arts
    • Music Performance Courses Adapt to an Altered Semester
      Music Performance Courses Adapt to an Altered Semester
    • Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of “Rebecca” fails to deliver compared to its classic counterpart
      Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of “Rebecca” fails to deliver compared to its classic counterpart
    • “Dash & Lily” Find Love, Stranded
      “Dash & Lily” Find Love, Stranded
    • Arts In The News
    • Reviews
    • Music Peek
  • Health and Wellness
    • No image
      Athletic impacts of Covid-19
    • No image
      A new kind of PE
    • No image
      Maintaining wellness as the cold sets in
    • Athlete of the Week
    • Boston Sports Update
    • The Vegan Digest
    • The SHE Corner
  • Miscellanea
    • No image
      Remote students experience existential crises; change class years in email signatures
    • President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
      President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
    • Your next on-campus romance isn’t going to work out
      Your next on-campus romance isn’t going to work out
    • The Artichoke
    • The Dose
    • The Olive Branch
    • Multimedia
      • Galleries
      • Infographics
      • Videos
By Jordan R. Hannink Letters to the Editor, OpinionsApril 29, 2016

Letter to the Editor

Dear Editors,

On Saturday, April 23, there was an event for seniors of minority and marginalized communities to speak with Wellesley professors about life after Wellesley. College Government and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion promoted the event.

This Saturday was also the first day of Passover, one of Judaism’s larger holidays, marking the passage of the Hebrews from slavery to freedom from Egypt and the beginning of the journey to Israel. Regardless of religiosity, most Jews celebrate Passover as a time to be with family and remember the history of our people.

To translate for my non-Jewish friends — hosting a diversity event on Passover would be like hosting an event on Easter, Eid Al-Fitr, Diwali, or any other major holiday.

As a community living in white Christian society, we have adjusted to events being held on dates that are sacred to us. It’s not as though exclusion is new. The irony of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion hosting a diversity event on Passover is not just a sarcastic punch line. It represents the willingness of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion to exclude persistently marginalized communities.

For many that read this letter, they will fall back to the “Jews as White” narrative that has been impressed on our community in the past few years in the United States. While some Jews enjoy the privileges of being white passing, many do not — including the Sephardi, Mizrachi, Ethiopian, Kochin, and East Asian Jews. To collapse all Jews into whiteness excludes more than a third of the world’s Jewish population. But more than this, it dismisses the unique set of challenges that Jews face, including anti-Semitism, particularly in the United States where assimilation is expected.

It is my sincere hope that the College Government and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion will not repeat the atrocious exclusion of a community it purportedly serves. But moreover, I hope the marginalized communities at Wellesley will stand in solidarity, safeguarding each other from future trespasses.

Jordan R. Hannink ’16

Share on

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Google +
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Previous articleOur Wall of Silence: Admission policies should welcome undocumented students
Next articleCompleting SEQs facilitates a helpful dialogue between students and faculty

You may also like

A piece of pizza missing topings.

Wellesley, why can’t you meet our dietary needs?

The block system is a joke

Spineless nonpartisanship: how the Girl Scouts convinced me they no longer care about girls

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

Top Articles

Sorry. No data so far.

Recent Tweets

Tweets by @Wellesley_News

The independent student newspaper of Wellesley College since 1901.

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

  • About
  • Editorial Board
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
COPYRIGHT © 2021 THE WELLESLEY NEWS
Back to top