Upwards of 500 members of the Tufts community came together Friday evening to celebrate Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath.
While Jewish students have on-campus outlets to observe the weekly day of rest, which runs from Friday at sunset to Saturday at sunset, organizers of Shabbat 500 wanted to do something special last week.
"The goal overall was to get as many people to celebrate Shabbat together ... at the same time as possible," said junior Kenny Fifer, who helped organize the event.
The event was open to students of all religions, and Fifer said it sought to educate members of the community.
"I feel that a lot of people on campus don't understand Shabbat," he said.
Religious services and dinners at the Granoff Family Hillel Center, the Chabad House and the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity were part of the programming. In addition, matzo ball soup and dessert were available in a tent on the Academic Quad.
The Hillel dinner was the largest, with about 200 people in attendance, according to Fifer.
The fraternity saw a large crowd as well. "We basically invited all the fraternities and sororities, and we had about 70 people," he said.
The first event of the evening was a screening of Michael Moore's recent documentary "SiCKO."
It was sponsored by Hillel's Moral Voices program rather than the Shabbat 500 organizers, but it took place in the tent along with some of the other events.
"SiCKO" was selected to educate those in the audience about domestic health care problems and to encourage them to take action
The latter goal is in line with the Shabbat tradition of giving, according to Ethan Prosnit, a member of Hillel's staff who helped organize the screening.
"Traditionally, a lot of people like to give back [to their communities] before Shabbat starts," he said.
