Serendipity and Community: Cork JSoc Ainsley-Kay Rucker

Sometime in mid-September of last year, the word of the day on my little dictionary app was “serendipity.” Still recovering from what was proving to be an incredibly persistent jet lag, I slept through my first lecture, making my way across the University College Cork (UCC) campus to the library later than usual that day. In another flap of the butterfly’s wings, I ran into a friend whom I hadn’t seen since the previous semester ended, so I took a different path across campus, giving us a chance to catch up and make plans for the weekend. As we parted ways, I turned around and found myself face to face with a table tucked into a nook outside the library, a small banner proclaiming them to be the Jewish Student Society.

I arrived in Ireland for what was originally supposed to be a study abroad semester in early January of 2022, but I found myself falling in love with the city to such an extent that soon after I began the process of transferring to be a student in Cork full time. I knew I had made the right choice, still a year later not regretting it for a second, but regardless I found myself laying in my room night after night the following semester, my first as a full time student at UCC, slowly but surely realizing despite having peers and friends, I lacked any community to fall back on.

Then, serendipity. I rushed to the JSoc booth, probably startling our poor founder and, ever artful with words, simply pointed at myself, proclaiming

“I’m Jewish, too!” At the time, the table was staffed by our current president and leading founder of the society, Ianna Rosa Román, as well as committee member and co-founder, Abbie Hackett. We spent some time introducing ourselves, all three of us absolutely giddy at the prospect of the now growing community of young Jewish people in Cork city.

The first event I was able to attend was our Sukkot celebration, where I as well as about 30 other students turned out despite the biting cold to make décor for our impromptu sukkah, get to know each other, and schmooze. From here, the structure of the society slowly but surely came together. More importantly, the community started to take shape.

“You cannot really be Jewish in isolation,” explains committee member Shoshana Groom, “Judaism is built through community, and the JSoc has been that community for me.” Similar sentiments were echoed by other members over the array of events organized over the past semester - with even more being planned for this semester, including a neighbourhood clean-up, various fundraisers and food drives, and attendance at the UJS Convention in February. These events have become a staple of student’s lives. Weekly Shabbat din- ners, regular events, and deep friendships have been found in JSoc, with everyone always looking forward to spending our Friday nights together. “People don’t really realise we have a Jewish community in Ireland at all,” says Ianna. “It’s been really exciting to open people’s eyes and introduce them to our culture.” Reflective of that desire to educate and spread our culture, our events are open to the whole student body and consistently draw in non-Jewish students as well, always eager to learn. Wanting a strong Jewish base to be the foundation of the society, Ianna says their first impasse was to find the Jewish community both on campus and in Cork as a whole. Getting in touch with the Cork Jewish Community was only the start to founding our society, spending time at stalls and reaching out to other students who might be interested became a full-time job. This work, however, proved to be fruitful and drew in dozens of interested members. The weight of this accomplishment is not lost on anyone in the community, with each member taking time to rave about Ianna and their work when asked about the importance of society to them. As Ianna put it, “we have made such a bustling little community all on our own,” and anyone who takes the time to look in would see the passion and pride each member brings, all of us gladly carrying the torch of being the founders of the UCC Jewish Student Society and the young people of Cork’s Jewish community.