In reference to the Jewish value of engaging different opinions, Cameron Isen ’18 mentioned an old Jewish joke: ask a question to two Jews, you will get three opinions. For Isen, the debate was whether as a Torah-observant Jew, he was allowed to study secular subjects. As a double major in economics and classics, Isen said he had been interested in the intersection between secular academia and Jewish theology.
Reflective of his own intellectual curiosity, Isen wrote a 10-page research paper examining the historical relationship between secular wisdom and Jewish theology and was awarded the Jewish Academic Innovation Award at the seventh annual Sinai Scholars Society Academic Symposium held in Carlsbad, California on Feb. 7.
More than 100 campuses across the country have a Sinai Scholars Society program taught by rabbis. Executive director of Chabad at Dartmouth Rabbi Moshe Gray founded the Dartmouth Sinai chapter in the fall of 2006. Since then, students can participate in the eight-week course, culminating in a five-page report. Some students, such as Isen, decide to expand the paper to submit to the symposium.
“The value of Sinai Scholars Society is that students don’t always delve into the religious thought of their religion in an intellectually stimulating manner,” Gray said. “To really get hundreds, if not thousands, of Jewish students thinking critically and intellectually, looking at sources — both ancient and modern — to see the significance or relationship that Judaism has today in the 21st century is very powerful. I think a lot of the kids walk away thinking, ‘Wow this ancient religion which is 3,000 years old has a lot to teach me in 2016.’”
Isen took a Sinai Scholars Society class taught by Gray in the spring of his freshman year. He said that one classics book about the influence of Greek wisdom on Jewish theology heavily influenced his final paper for the class.
Isen added that he had long wanted to write a paper on the Hellenistic influence on Jewish theology, but did not have a reason to.
“[The Sinai Scholars Society Academic Symposium] became a really good excuse, so I started off thinking about how I can deal with writing about the classics in Judaism and fitting it into the theme, which was ‘Sinaitic Wisdom for the Modern Age,’” he said. “That kind of inspired me to say, ‘Let’s look at the history and bring it to the modern day,’ and that’s how the structure of the paper came about.”
Following the Sinai Scholars Society’s acceptance of his proposal, Isen was paired with Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe as his mentor for the research paper. After submitting his final draft of the paper, Isen and eight other students from across the country were selected to fly to California to participate in the academic symposium.
Isen noted that he enjoyed interacting with students who had committed to research different topics.
“One of the things that I said in my mini-acceptance speech was that one of the powerful things about Judaism is that it calls on each Jew to be a part of the academic tradition,” Isen said. “It was really inspiring to get to be a part of that and also to interact with other people who are a part of that.”
Isen’s paper could have been one of over 2,000 papers submitted for consideration, Gray said. Isen is the second Dartmouth student to win the award since Brandon Floch ’11 received the award in 2011.
Gray emphasized how difficult this kind of project is to undertake while balancing a full Dartmouth course load and other activities.
“The fact that he did it and he’s able to take a passion of his, the classics, and come up with a cohesive paper that people can read and say, ‘As a modern American Jew, this speaks to me. I didn’t think there was a relationship between secular knowledge and religious knowledge or Jewish knowledge,’” Gray said.
Gray added that Isen’s work put forth a strong claim that showed how different leaders in the Orthodox Jewish world have tried to understand this issue.
Sarah Cohen ’18 took the Sinai Scholars Society class last spring with Isen, complimenting his dedication to working on the project.
“He’s very passionate and strong-willed,” Cohen said. “He took on this paper while taking three other classes, and he was doing research [for the Sinai Scholars paper] on top of that. That definitely shows his willingness to go above and beyond of what’s required of him.”
Isen’s roommate Kyle Dotterrer ’18 said Isen can be characterized as hardworking and intellectually curious.
“For anybody that knows Cameron well, the fact that he won the award won’t come as a surprise,” Dotterrer said. “He’s somebody who’s very curious about his religious beliefs. He’s also serious about his academics and his intellectual pursuits. The fact that he was able to combine the two — I’m impressed, but I’m not surprised.”
