It would be an understatement to say that I've taken a lot of flak over the past few weeks for my last article, which argued that Brandeis is too "Jewish."To address some of the issues raised by my detractors: I have no desire to vacation in Cancun, ever; I don't like partying, on Friday or any other night of the week; I love Brandeis and would never consider transferring; and I'm a Conservative Jew. So if you want to write a letter to the editor, please don't assume anything about me.

With all the dissent I've encountered-some of it bordering on hate mail (for those who threw the Holocaust at me, don't confuse the reason Israel was founded with that of Brandeis)-the sane thing for me to do would be to lay low. Well, color me masochistic, but I can't let a dead horse lie; in the three weeks since my apparently inflammatory column was published, I've thought up a few addenda.

I've realized the question isn't about the number of Jews, but whether Brandeis should be a Jewish university or a university with many Jews. While shrinking the number of Jews would certainly prevent the former, we should focus instead on changing mindsets independent of any demographic shift.

Given the contentiousness of my last proposal, I've thought of a different method for mitigating the institutional Judaism at Brandeis. Surprisingly, it requires a return to the University's beginnings.

The University's mission statement expresses the original intent for Judaism's influence here: "Brandeis was founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian university under the sponsorship of the American Jewish community to embody its highest ethical and cultural values and to express its gratitude to the United States through the traditional Jewish commitment to education [emphasis added]."

It seems the University community has drifted away slightly from our mission statement. I would venture that most students-current and former-don't realize or understand the shift's ramifications. They mistake "cultural values" for culture, and culture for religion, a distinction I should have spelled out in my last column. But values and practices must not be confused; the former reflects a commitment to social justice (in this particular case), but the latter reflects ritual and dogma.

Ritual and dogma are private matters, not those of a nonsectarian establishment-which is why certain institutional practices, like the holiday-driven break schedule, are a little disturbing. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur should obviously be days off-not because of their religious importance, but because most students wouldn't go to class. But not nearly as many students observe Sukkot, so virtually all classes would have quorums. Therefore having the first and eighth days of that holiday off is a religiously-based decision-especially because classes are in session on the second and seventh days, which are of equal religious importance. What goes for one must go for the other.

And for the record, not everyone goes to Cancun during spring break; for those of us not from the Northeast, it is very difficult to be at home for a week and a half when our non-Brandeis friends are all away at other colleges. That's also one of Brandeis' geographical biases.

College is a time for students to question their beliefs-one of the foundations of a liberal arts education is asking questions. This process can lead to new beliefs, but more often than not, it reaffirms original convictions. Given that, I cannot understand why Jewish students who come here for religious reasons do so. I would much rather be among a minority and fortify my beliefs than allow them to become lax in a majority setting.

The administration, fortunately, has done much in the last two years to reassert the University's commitment to Jewish "cultural values"-and by that I mean its emphasis on outreach to Arabs and Muslims over the fierce Israel-only attitude some may expect. Last year's founding of the non-partisan Crown Center for Middle East Studies, and this year's defense of Crown Senior Fellow Khalil Shikaki, a partnership with Al-Quds University and the recent selection of the Jordanian Prince El Hassan bin Talal as the keynote commencement speaker all reveal a desire to move away from traditional "Jewishness" regarding the Middle East. Hopefully, this trend will continue.