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'Tabling' through turbulent times on the USF campus
© St. Petersburg Times UNIVERSITY NORTH -- It's Tuesday noon outside Cooper Hall and the foot traffic is thin. Still, Marshall Levit is committed to "tabling" here for one full hour. Tabling, the verb, means standing by a table laden with trinkets, pamphlets and event fliers. Levit, 25, works for Hillel, an organization that promotes Jewish life at U.S. colleges. "I table four times a week in the hot spots on campus," says Levit, a Texan here on a one-year fellowship paid by a Jewish foundation. Levit, three co-workers and the close-knit community they serve occupy a tiny corner in a tumultuous world. Their campus is bitterly divided over the fate of Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian professor accused of having ties to terrorists. They carry on business as usual -- the interfaith Passover dinner, the lunchtime lecture series -- as the death toll mounts in Israel, where tanks are rolling through West Bank towns and suicide bombers are striking from Haifa to Jerusalem. If Levit has opinions on these events, he doesn't offer them. While committed to a secure Israel, Hillel avoids taking controversial positions that might cause any Jewish student to feel excluded. Case in point: Jewish students associated with Hillel have marched in support of USF president Judy Genshaft, who is seeking to fire Al-Arian. But the organization, recognizing that not all Jews support Genshaft's position, is officially neutral. Mostly, Hillel offers resources: a weekly prayer service to mark the Sabbath, women's discussion groups, informal counseling, Hebrew language tutoring. "Part of what I do is dispel stereotypes about Judaism, or prejudices," Levit says, although Jews are his intended audience. It sometimes seems an uphill battle. At least 2,500 Jewish students are enrolled at USF, but Hillel sees a fraction of them. Several dozen take part in the student-led prayer services -- larger numbers on alternate Friday nights, when dinner is served. Director Nicky Spivak says location is a big stumbling block. Hillel has a tiny office on campus, but most of its space is in a duplex way north of Fletcher Avenue. Things should pick up next fall, when Hillel expects to open its $1-million center on campus. Despite its international population, Levit does not think USF has more than two or three Israeli students. He and Spivak know a student who lost an uncle in a suicide bombing. Another lost a relative on Sept. 11. Roughly a dozen are active in a political group called Students' Pro Israel Network, or SPIN. Much of their communication and lobbying takes place on the Internet. If the year's events have one measurable effect on Jewish campus life, it is on participation in the trips to Israel offered under a program called Birthright Israel. The international program pays the full cost of a 10-day trip for students, ages 18 to 26, who have never been to the Holy land. Information sheets -- even U.S. passport applications -- are laid out in the Hillel apartment, advertising trips this spring and summer. "A year ago, in December 2000, there were 3,000 people who went on the trip," says Spivak, who has been to Israel seven times. "This past December, there were 800." The Hillel staff was still accepting applications this week for a planned trip in May. But, with the State Department issuing increasingly pointed travel advisories, it's unclear whether those trips will happen. The violence in the Mideast has caused some schools, most recently the University of California, to rethink or cancel their Israel study programs. The Boston Globe reports that 3,500 U.S. college students were enrolled in classes or cultural programs in Israel this past year, but some are returning ahead of schedule. Hebrew Union College, which requires rabbinical students to spend a year in Israel, ended classes on March 24, more than two months early. A group of male students approach Levit's table. They glare, definitely glare at the signs in Hebrew. I notice, but Levit does not. Is he ever harassed? Not exactly. Some students ask him pointed questions about his political beliefs. "I don't want to debate the students, so I finesse an answer," he says. "And then, if I have to, I tell them that Hillel does not have an official stance on Israeli politics." He provides Jewish students with printed materials to help them in their own political discussions. When one passer-by kept inquiring about the Jewish concept of the Messiah, Levit downloaded yet another fact sheet from an organization called "Jews for Judaism." "I was tabling here on Sept. 11," he says. "People were coming up to me, asking, 'What are you doing here?' " But the very next day, Levit was tabling again. He's curious to see the response on April 17, when SPIN will lead an Israeli Independence Day celebration on campus. Does he expect peace in his lifetime? "I hope so," he says. "I was very hopeful in September of 2000, when Clinton was brokering that agreement between Arafat and Barak. I thought, 'This is the defining moment in our history.' "
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