Goodbye, Girls

Seminary girls are an endemic part of the city’s landscape. Over the years, their favored bags may shift from wristlets to cross-bodies to fanny packs, along with the evolving brands of shoes, sweaters, and hair accessories. But the “look” remains pretty uniform, and along with the exterior, there are certain underlying dynamics that just don’t change.

One of the interesting characteristics of seminary girls is their hybrid resident-outsider status. A few weeks after their arrival, they learn the ins and outs of their new residence’s transportation system, currency, and eateries (if you want to know the bus schedule or the best place to buy ice coffee, they’ll be happy to share their expertise).

Yet as much as they move to the rhythms of Yerushalayim, they don’t miss a beat of their households across the ocean. You’ll overhear them on the phone with a sister back home, discussing what outfit she should wear to the neighbor’s vort, planning a birthday party for a younger sibling, or making menu suggestions for a Chanukah party. They’re apart from yet a part of their families, even from thousands of miles away.

The distant-yet-connected life is something that’s built into the system for our yeshivah bochurim, an environment they’re planted in for years and that is key to their growth.  For our girls, though, it’s more of a blip — a ten-month experiment that’s over almost before it begins. Even though the seminary year has become a given, there’s something slightly surreal and unnatural about the idea of girls living in a dorm and learning “full time.”