Posing before a football game are Auburn Jewish students in t-shirts that say Auburn in Hebrew. From left, are Moises Rivera (Miami, FL.); Emily C. Levinson (Columbia, SC.); Wallis A. Smith-Owens, who made her shirt into a dress, (Cartersville, GA.); Rebecca Y. Chazanoff (Los Angeles, CA.); Zach A. Getson (Dallas, TX.) The Auburn Jewish Student Organization sells the shirts as a fundraiser; they can be obtained by contacting Rob Kulick at kulicro@auburn.edu.

Fall is underway and here in the South, fall means colorful foliage, college football and constant activity on the Alabama campuses our Birmingham Jewish Federation works closely with and supports.

Today we travel down to the plains of Auburn University where The BJF provides outreach to the Auburn Jewish Student Organization(AJSO). Funds from The BJF Annual Campaign help support our work at Auburn and other college campuses in our state.

Jewish student life on the Auburn campus is on the rise; the AJSO counts about 90 active participants this year (out of an approximate enrollment of 24,500 undergraduate and graduate).

In addition to their campus programs, the students are always welcomed at Congregation Beth Shalom, Auburn's synagogue. Several students attended a recent pot luck dinner at Beth Shalom featuring former Israeli foreign service officer Ronnie Porat, who spoke on the current situation in the Middle East. The students also attended Rosh Hashanah services and dinner at Beth Shalom.

CROWD PLEASER

Football remains a crowd pleaser at Auburn, and the students joined Claire Solomon, education fellow from the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, who came to meet with the students for lunch and watch the Auburn-Clemson game. Unfortunately, this was not a game to remember for Auburn as Clemson broke the last year's National Champions' 17 game winning streak.

The students are now planning for the holiday of Sukkot, the Festival of Booths, as they will build, as they do each year, a Sukkah on the lawn of the Auburn Student Center.

In addition to funding from our Federation, The Birmingham Jewish Foundation's Martin Moss Freeman Auburn University Hillel Fund will provide for the Sukkah decorations and programming in conjunction with the holiday. Martin, who lives in the DC area, is an Auburn alumnus and deeply committed to strengthening Jewish life at Auburn. The Federation and Foundation are grateful for his continued support.

If you would like to contribute to The Foundation to help foster Jewish life at Auburn, contact Foundation Executive Director Sally Friedman at 205-803-1519 or sallyf@bjf.org.

CONNECTING STUDENTS

Birmingham Jewish community members Fran and Lee Godchaux's son Scott is currently a freshman at Auburn. As the High Holidays approached, Fran contacted BJF staff member Joyce Spielberger for help in connecting Scott to religious observances on campus. Joyce contacted Rob Kulick, faculty advisor to the AJSO, and Rob quickly communicated with Fran and Scott. In response, Fran wrote The BJF a great thank you email.

"I was delighted that Rob reached out so quickly when he learned that my son Scott had arrived as a freshman at Auburn. Auburn is such a large SEC school and Joyce and The BJF serve as a GPS to lead our Jewish students and help give them that needed sense of community," wrote Fran. "Scott attended a recent Shabbat dinner and has found other Jewish students in Auburn and the synagogue in Auburn, which is a place to say shalom and feel welcome!"

"With a limited Jewish population at Auburn, their 'guiding light' needs to shine brightly -- I extend a huge thank you to The BJF for helping shine the light at Auburn by supporting their Jewish Student Organization."

If you know of a Jewish student at Auburn or any of our Alabama college campuses, please let us know so that we may help them connect with Jewish life and other Jewish students on their campus. Joyce and BJF Director of Outreach Caren Seligman are the staff people who work with our colleges and universities. They provide outreach, programming support and resources. They can be reached at 205- 879-0416 or joyces@bjf.org or carens@bjf.org.

STRENGTHENING OUR FUTURE

Through "Our Next 100 Years," a historic Jewish community initiative (see below link), The BJF has been working with Alabama's colleges and universities, to strengthen Jewish life and pro-Israel activities on campus and to make attending school in Alabama an attractive choice for both in-state and out-of-state students.

The BJF believes that by encouraging Jewish students to attend schools in our state, we are enhancing the chances of them remaining in Alabama and building careers here, which will only strengthen our Jewish community and entire state in the decades ahead.

As always, we thank those who contribute to The BJF Campaign. Your dollars are providing the staffing, organizational structure and funding to underwrite this important effort.