Growing up I was part of a very social community. The families involved in the minyan I went to in Chicago were possibly a little OCD about inviting each other over for meals, hosting parties and welcoming new people into the community. It was an extremely rare Shabbat growing up that my family didn’t have guests for either Friday night dinner or Saturday lunch. I didn’t realize this wasn’t normal until I was out of high school and spending my first few weeks at the Univeristy of Iowa. Even after attending services at the shul in Iowa City every Saturday, no one invited me to a meal, no one offered to show me around town or asked how I was settling into college life. I was secretly appalled. I told my friends the people were unfriendly, and didn’t know the first thing about being good hosts. 
I had always been taught that being a good hostess (or host) is a mitzvah. And not just any old mitzvah– one of the biggies, one of the first mitzvot we see demonstrated by Abraham when he welcomes the three angels into his home shortly after he’s been circumcised. He’s an old man, he’s just had some pretty serious self-inflicted penis surgery, and when he sees guests he gets right up, runs to them (OUCH) and asks them to come in, eat, drink, and have their feet washed. The text never says that they approached him, and then stood around awkwardly while he tried to decide if he had time to cook a big dinner, and if they would be good guests. Abraham just gets right up and invites them in, even before he asks his wife to start making the food, and before he has slaughtered the meat he’s going to serve them. This was pretty much the philosophy I had grown up with. Constantly invite people, and you’ll figure out precisely how you’re going to feed them later on (I once invited a family for lunch without consulting with my mom beforehand. To no one’s surprise, she was able to feed six more people with no advance notice, and there were still leftovers). For the most part I think that’s a good philosophy, but I think are other possibly less time consuming ways to host and welcome guests. If you’re good in the kitchen that’s fantastic, but if cooking isn’t your thing, inviting people over to watch a movie or a football game can be equally nice. I think the key to welcoming guests is to do it before they ask. When people see that they’re welcome somewhere they’re much more likely to put down roots, to stay and help out and become engaged with the community. Waiting for someone to offer something to you, and then having to ask for it is incredibly embarrassing, and it’s hardly the way to gain strength and reputation in our community. I was thinking about this whole concept recently in regards to an article in the Times about various universities installing footbaths in their bathrooms so Muslim students could wash their feet befor praying.
Nationwide, more than a dozen universities have footbaths, many installed in new buildings. On some campuses, like George Mason University in Virginia, and Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Mich., there was no outcry. At Eastern Michigan, even some Muslim students were surprised by the appearance of the footbath — a single spigot delivering 45 seconds of water — in a partitioned corner of the restroom in the new student union.
“My sister told me about it, and I didn’t believe it,” said Najla Malaibari, a graduate student at Eastern Michigan. “I was, ‘No way,’ and she said, ‘Yeah, go crazy.’ It really is convenient.”
Full Story The footbaths have caused something of a controversy. Lots of people aren’t happy about state taxes going to install footbath, and there are suits pending that say it’s a violation of the separation of church and state. But my reaction was much simpler. I was impressed that at a place like Eastern Michigan University the administration saw that it was something that would be really useful for Muslim students, and without even making a big fuss they just went out and installed one. To me, this is a great example of what welcoming guests should be like. I never thought I’d say this, but way to go Eastern Michigan University.