By: Renée Rockford
President & CEO
My father once gifted a fire-engine-red KitchenAid mixer as a way to help increase engagement in Jewish life. And it continues to do so, long after he’s gone.
Here’s what happened.
The Hillel at Colby College in Maine had become home away from home for our daughter, Sarah while she was a student there (Colby Hillel President, 2015). Among the students’ efforts was to create community by providing home-cooked Shabbat dinners each week, including home-baked challah. (We’ve all heard the popular Jewish saying, “The belly carries the feet.” In popular media, it is reminiscent of the 1989 movie Field of Dreams, depicting a farmer who builds a baseball diamond in his field, on the advice of “build it and they will come.” The idea is that if you create something good, people will be drawn to it.)
However, the students were making and mixing that home-baked challah by hand. When my father wanted to support their efforts, he gifted the group a nearly industrial KitchenAid tilt-head stand mixer. According to the website, “It’s a mixer built to last,” with “10 speeds to gently knead, thoroughly mix and whip ingredients for a variety of recipes.” The brand is known for offering a variety of colors to “perfectly match your kitchen design or personality.”
Hillel has existed at the college for nearly 70 years, according to the Maine Jewish History Project. Colby College, particularly between the two World Wars, was notable for its open admissions policy toward Jewish students, a practice that was unusual among American colleges at the time. While many institutions had restrictive quotas, Colby’s relatively open admissions and progressive educational values, championed by its interwar presidents, allowed for a greater percentage of Jewish students than at neighboring schools like Bowdoin and Bates.
Today, Colby is also the only college in Maine with a dedicated Jewish Studies department. The college is also home to the Center for Small Town Jewish Life, an organization that works to bring Jewish life and learning to the state of Maine and beyond. Undergraduate students are an integral part of this work, and many Hillel students serve as Jewish Leadership Fellows, supporting statewide programming and events while gaining essential professional skills and leadership experience.
It was not, however, the community’s passion for Jewish life that led my father to select the red color of the donated appliance. Instead, it was the screaming deal on the discounted color, just before the manufacturer switched to pastel yellows and greens for the spring season.
Rabbi Rachel Isaacs confirms that every week, that mixer is still in use, bringing students together to make challah after challah and to build their own sanctuary for Jewish life.
Wishing you each a good Shabbos, and gratitude for meals and all the tools we use to bring and build community together.
Please email Renée Rockford at rrockford@jewishcolorado.org with questions or comments.