When I arrived at the College as the Jewish Chaplain nearly nine years ago, I was told by scores of alumni across generations about how campus life was organized, planned, and executed almost entirely by students. To the extent that faculty and staff played any role, it was to support students in their process of shaping and creating student life for themselves. This was part of the appeal for me in coming to the College. So while I teach Jewish thought, practice in informal settings, and offer spiritual care, my work with student groups is as their advisor and guide. I walk alongside them as they do their work.

One of the primary functions of a residential college, aside from helping students learn how to think and gain skills that make them employable, is to support them in figuring out who they are as emerging adults. As each student navigates this process, they weigh options, make decisions, take risks, and, crucially, learn to live with others who are different from them. As Director of Jewish Life and the campus rabbi, my job is to help students do that when it comes to Judaism, Jewish identity, and religious practice.

Judaism is a diverse and complex tradition. My task is to work with students as they figure out for themselves and in community with others how to navigate it. My job is not to make the decisions for individual students or groups, but rather, to accompany them, to ask questions, to challenge them, and to help them sharpen their own questions. It is to enable them, in the words of the founder of the Bronfman Fellowship’s Campus Commons initiative, to take on “a greater sense of agency to lead.” My job is not to control, but rather to empower students to lead Jewish lives of meaning and purpose. The students do this in superlative fashion. For example, in the Williams College Jewish Association (WCJA), this involves cooking Shabbat dinner each week for themselves; organizing weekly Friday night prayer services; and a recent art program on students’ relationship to Israel, organized by WCJA co-president Shayna Podhoretz ’26.

In contrast to this reality of student autonomy, in his April 22 Record op-ed about the placement of an Israeli flag in the Jewish Religious Center (JRC), Dr. Nate Lebowitz ’86 seems to suggest it is college administrators who should determine what should be hung up in shared student spaces. I believe his stance ignores the reason why the flag was taken down in the first place, which was to allow students to discuss and decide among themselves how an Israeli flag should appear at the JRC.

This is what took place: Toward the end of finals this past December, an Israeli flag appeared on one of the walls in the JRC. It was unclear who placed it or why they had. Since no discussions were had before mounting the flag, it was taken down. I emailed the Jewish-affiliated students at the beginning of Winter Study to share what had happened. I reminded students that the JRC is a campus community space that is designated to support Jewish religious, cultural, and communal life and that is open to all members of the College’s student body. As a result, it is a public space meant to represent the needs of a far larger number of people than an individual.

I was, and am, eager to help students speak about the symbols that represent identity and to find ways to make them visible in the JRC. Along with the WCJA presidents, I invited Jewish students to initiate a conversation about whether to hang an Israeli flag somewhere in the building and to support them in discussing and deciding among themselves how an Israeli flag should appear. However, no one responded to my invitation, nor did anyone request to hang up the flag. It was unclear why this was the case: Did students not care enough to have the conversation? Were they comfortable with the status quo? Or uncomfortable coming forward? Regardless of the reason, I will continue to support this discussion when students are ready to have it.

Taking down the flag from the JRC and explicitly inviting students into conversation is one example of how I, along with faculty and staff here at the College more broadly, support students in becoming adults. We invite students to explore the messy reality of the world in which we live, helping them to both find their own voice so that they can advocate for themselves and listen to and learn from others. At the JRC, it is only through communal discussion that expressions of Jewish identity in a communal space can take shape.

I trust that students will have robust conversations that take into account the diverse needs and desires that they have. And I will be there to help them have those conversations, supporting them by ensuring that they are respectful of the needs of all those who wish to take part. I believe that experiences such as these are among the best ways the College can prepare them to enter the world of adulthood after graduating, and I also trust that it will help them to bring immeasurable benefit to the world they will join.

Rabbi Seth Wax is a College’s Chaplain and Director of Jewish Life.

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified Rabbi Seth Wax as the College’s Jewish Chaplain. He is a College Chaplain and Director of Jewish Life. The article was updated on May 5 at 2:41 p.m. to reflect this change.