Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Life

The Lone Orthodox Jew at Notre Dame

The New York Times got lots of attention for their attention to profiling lonely Jews — most recently, the few Jews in Montana.

But what about being the [only] Orthodox Jew at the nation’s most famous Catholic university, Notre Dame? It is apparently a struggle against constant misunderstanding, as an article in a local college paper makes clear.

“Sharratt said he feels a general ignorance pervades campus about what Judaism stands for,” the reporter notes — before going onto use Sharratt to explain the basics, like how ““there are laws on how to clip your fingernails, tie your shoes, dress, what to think about, what you should have on your mind, self-inspection, prayer, business dealings — there are 613 biblical commandments.”

More importantly, though, the article allows Sharratt to explain once and for all why he can’t go to Notre Dame football games — though during the last few years, who, of any faith, would want to?

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.