Does this warrant a diversity statement?

nathanieljschwartz

Apart from the schools that specify you have to be a URM. I know that some schools leave the prompt for a diversity statement open.
I wanted to get the concensus of what you guys think about this justifying a diversity statement.
I grew up ( and currently reside) in a home that doubles as a synagogue. For the past 14 yrs my father has been the preacher in a synogogue that is the back half of my house. I have cleaned it every week and do the general maintenance on it (painting,lights, yada yada) for the past 14 yrs ( i am only 22 so i can definitely say it has been a huge part of the majority of my life). P.s. i do this all for free. I dont get paid at all for any of this. I do it as a community service
Waking up in the morning to find congregation members traipsing through my house to use my bathroom is part of my M.O. lol
The reason i am considering writing a statement for this is that i beleive it has really affected who i am today as a person and that it has had an affect on my future career goals,( to help others) AND that I will add a different dimension of diversity to a university

P.p.s i am not writing this to gain anyones respect or to blow my own horn. I would really appreciate your honest input. Be brutal.

Thanks,
Nathaniel

nathanieljschwartz

P.s. my father does not get paid for being the preacher. Nor does my family take any money from it. And many of the expenses of running the synagogue come out of my familys pockets bc ther are no charges for attending

westcoastbestcoast

I believe this warrants a diversity statement. A diversity statement need not be limited to URM status, but can be used to inform admission officers about unique, and extraordinary circumstances. I think your situation falls under that standard.

studyingandrestudying

Yes, writing about faith and having grown up in an unusual situation sound like good reasons for a diversity statement.

nathanieljschwartz

Thanks @lsatplaylist and @westcoastbestcoast yeah after writing out that post. I further convinced myself that it would be worthwhile to write one

westcoastbestcoast

@nathanieljschwartz said:
Thanks @lsatplaylist and @westcoastbestcoast yeah after writing out that post. I further convinced myself that it would be worthwhile to write one

Cool! Let us know if you need more help

TabbyG123

Yes unequivocally so!

This would be an INCREDIBLE diversity statement. I wanna read it when you've written it!

Seeking Perfection

I could be wrong here but rabbi in a synagogue right, not preacher? I would be careful with your terminology.

I also woundn't over emphasize the did it for free part. I don't think that it makes a huge difference to the type or quality of the diversity that you were working for free.

Nonetheless, it sounds fascinating.

TaylorAnn

@"Seeking Perfection" said:
I could be wrong here but rabbi in a synagogue right, not preacher? I would be careful with your terminology.

yeah, you're wrong.

In Judaism, you can be a Maggid or a preacher. Rabbis focus more on teaching.

That's a really cool idea of a DS. My parents are very involved in my synagogue too!

calicolombia

Yes! This would make for a very, very interesting read.

Seeking Perfection

@TaylorAnn said:

@"Seeking Perfection" said:
I could be wrong here but rabbi in a synagogue right, not preacher? I would be careful with your terminology.

yeah, you're wrong.

In Judaism, you can be a Maggid or a preacher. Rabbis focus more on teaching.

That's a really cool idea of a DS. My parents are very involved in my synagogue too!

Just to be clear by "be a Maggid or a preacher" you mean that the Maggid is also called a preacher right?

If this is the case, then for the actual essay, I might lean toward using Maggid(preacher) or some variant of this and then whatever you want. While I am not representative of your audience, there are clueless people everywhere and it would be best to try not to confuse us.

The clueless shouldn't always be coddled but admissions essays are a good place to err on the side of safety.

TaylorAnn

@"Seeking Perfection" said:

@TaylorAnn said:

@"Seeking Perfection" said:
I could be wrong here but rabbi in a synagogue right, not preacher? I would be careful with your terminology.

yeah, you're wrong.

In Judaism, you can be a Maggid or a preacher. Rabbis focus more on teaching.

That's a really cool idea of a DS. My parents are very involved in my synagogue too!

Just to be clear by "be a Maggid or a preacher" you mean that the Maggid is also called a preacher right?

If this is the case, then for the actual essay, I might lean toward using Maggid(preacher) or some variant of this and then whatever you want. While I am not representative of your audience, there are clueless people everywhere and it would be best to try not to confuse us.

The clueless shouldn't always be coddled but admissions essays are a good place to err on the side of safety.

Yes.

And it's only confusing because of your ignorance of it. You can be a Jewish preacher. That's the name they're called. Maggid is just the Hebrew word for it. If anything, I would think most clueless people would understand what a preacher does (preach) than know what the ancient term for it is. For example, when people hear priest they may automatically think Christian, but many other religions have priests. Using the ancient term for those people doesn't seem to make anything less confusing.

nathanieljschwartz

Yeah @TaylorAnn i was thinking along the lines of what u are saying. But i could also use rabbi bc he does represent that function as well.

nathanieljschwartz

Thank you all for your input.i really appreciate the help

TaylorAnn

@nathanieljschwartz said:
Yeah @TaylorAnn i was thinking along the lines of what u are saying. But i could also use rabbi bc he does represent that function as well.

Your family sounds awesome Either way, I think it's going to shape up to be a strong DS.

nathanieljschwartz

@TaylorAnn thanks! Yeah my parents are really amazing. Im blessed to have them. My mom moves her beds out of their room when the synagogue gets packed to make more room. I dont know how she does it lol

Seeking Perfection

@TaylorAnn said:

@"Seeking Perfection" said:

@TaylorAnn said:

@"Seeking Perfection" said:
I could be wrong here but rabbi in a synagogue right, not preacher? I would be careful with your terminology.

yeah, you're wrong.

In Judaism, you can be a Maggid or a preacher. Rabbis focus more on teaching.

That's a really cool idea of a DS. My parents are very involved in my synagogue too!

Just to be clear by "be a Maggid or a preacher" you mean that the Maggid is also called a preacher right?

If this is the case, then for the actual essay, I might lean toward using Maggid(preacher) or some variant of this and then whatever you want. While I am not representative of your audience, there are clueless people everywhere and it would be best to try not to confuse us.

The clueless shouldn't always be coddled but admissions essays are a good place to err on the side of safety.

Yes.

And it's only confusing because of your ignorance of it. You can be a Jewish preacher.

That's what I acknowledged. I think you can fairly take clueless as a substitute for ignorance. And as I said my ignorance is probably not representative of the state of knowledge of the target audience of admissions board readers. But since it is possible that someone reading it might be similarly ignorant and since it's not hard to make it clear for them, the OP might as well do that.

If anything, I would think most clueless people would understand what a preacher does (preach) than know what the ancient term for it is. For example, when people hear priest they may automatically think Christian, but many other religions have priests. Using the ancient term for those people doesn't seem to make anything less confusing.

I disagree. Most people who hear Rabbi or Maggid or any other religious title either know what it means, look up what it means, or assume the person does a similar combination of preaching and teaching that they are used to from their own religious authorities. If they know, then it's fine either way. If they look up what it means, then it will be fine either way, but it will be slightly easier both psychologically and practically to look up "Maggid" than to look up "Jewish preacher". Finally, if they assume a Maggid is analogous to their own religious leader, then it would probably be best and most relatable for that assumption to continue.

When people hear priest, they don't think Christian, they think more specifically to Catholic or maybe to Catholic, Anglican or Eastern Orthodox. I think this example is analogous, but I don't think it added to your point at all. If some significant number of people admittedly because of our ignorance will wrongly think that the term preacher or priest is exclusive to Christianity or specific branches of Christianity, then introducing the concept with either parenthesees "Maggid (preacher)" or an appostive "My father was a Maggid, a preacher, in a synagogue..." is probably worth the one or two words it takes up.

TabbyG123

@nathanieljschwartz said:
@TaylorAnn thanks! Yeah my parents are really amazing. Im blessed to have them. My mom moves her beds out of their room when the synagogue gets packed to make more room. I dont know how she does it lol

Find a way to put that detail in your essay. Seriously. It's powerful. And then find an area in your life were you've "moved the bed out of the way to make room for others" (so to speak) to show how you've been influenced by your parents, and then specifically connect this to how you're going to carry this value into your future career (especially if you intend on going into PI law).