Sons of Providence

Extracurricular Involvement

Jewish students were integrated fully into campus life, participating in a great number of clubs, sports, and publications.  While some campus discourse made it clear that there could be a sense of difference between Catholic and Jewish students, it did not seem to hinder their full participation in campus life.  That was not the case at many Ivy League schools at the time.  At Yale, for instance, while Catholic students increasingly participated in extracurricular activities in the 1920s and 1930s, Jewish students were only well represented in the orchestra and debating societies.  No Jews were elected to the most senior societies, like Skull and Bones, before 1930. At Harvard, the participation of Jews in athletics, social clubs, and other extracurricular activities was low compared to non-Jews. While the administration there used this as evidence to illustrate how Jews did not "fit" the Harvard character, it seems it was more the result of anti-Semitic hostility and exclusion (Karabel, 2005). 
At Providence College, by 1928, Edward (Eddie) Wineapple had been elected vice-president of the sophomore class, was a pitcher on the baseball team and played basketball.  By the end of his sophomore year, he was recruited to play major league baseball for the Washington Senators. 
Within one year of the initial edition of the student publication The Cowl, Israel (Izzy) Siperstein ’38 served as the Cowl’s sports writer.  Willard (Will) Mefford Golby ’42, from New Jersey, was recruited to play football at the college, was an active member of the Carolan Club for resident students, was selected to the Friars Club, and was elected secretary of his senior class.  Jerome Tesler ’42 was the manager of the basketball team and a founding member of the softball club on campus.  Aaron Slom served as the manager of the baseball and football teams and the treasurer of the Monogram Club (athletic boosters), the treasurer of the Newport Club, as well as actively participating in intramural basketball. Beryle Sacks ’41, from Newport, was a member of the Pyramid Players (the drama club on campus), the captain of the basketball team, and the chairman of the Winter Festival put on by the Carolan Club (for resident students).   
Morton Hoffman, before he left the college to fight in WWII in 1942, was elected secretary of the Pyramid Players, was elected junior class secretary, participated in the debate team, and served on the sophomore dance decoration committee. Louis Saul Rosen ’42 from Cranston was the assistant editor and then the editor-in-chief of the Cowl, wrote for the Alembic, and was active in the Pyramid Players. He was on the literary staff of the Veritas yearbook and was on the senior cap and gown committee. 
Howard Lipsey ’57 was elected the president of Student Congress in 1956, after having served as a member of Student Congress his first three years on campus.  He wrote for The Cowl and was on the Veritas staff.  He was a member of the debate club and the St. Thomas More pre-law club.
Stuart Kerzner ‘68, like many Jewish young men at the time, grew up playing basketball in New York City and had a strong career as a Friar.
From the 1920s to the 1950s (when the tracking of students' religious denomination ceased), Jewish students participated in at least 28 different extracurricular organizations on campus, including the Friars Club and every athletic team.  These included:  baseball, football, boxing, basketball, bowling, fencing, softball, table tennis, the aquatics club, the Newport Club, the Fall River club, the Carolan club, the Boston Club, the Metropolitan Club, the debate club, the Pyramid Players, the prom committee, the glee club, the orchestra, the Phi Chi club (physics/engineering), the Albertus Magnus club (biology/pre-med), the philosophy club, the senior Cap and Gown Day committee, le Pleiade (French Club), student government, The Cowl, Veritas, and The Alembic. In comparison with the Ivy Leagues in the same period, Jewish students were permitted to integrate fully into the social and extracurricular life of Providence College, and they largely felt comfortable doing so. Together with their Christian peers, they contributed to the character and ethos of the institution. 

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