Jewish campus groups prefer unorthodox ways of reaching new members
Northwestern University (Chicago)—
The scene at Norris University Center looked more like a Middle Eastern flea market than a student center. Recruiters yelled and sweet-talked, handed out candy and business cards as students squeezed through the packed aisles. Cultural groups, sports teams and even some students who developed a solar-powered car were trying to convince incoming Northwestern University students to listen to their pitches so that maybe, just maybe, the new students would make an appearance at their first meeting of the semester. This chaotic scene was the annual activities fair at Northwestern University, where student groups debated, pressured and begged freshmen to give their groups a chance.
But several groups with a common denominator were noticeably more subdued, or even absent from the fair. The link between them? They were Jewish and Israel-centered groups.
While most groups on campus use the fair as their initial recruiting push, Jewish and Israel-centered groups take a different approach to recruitment. Organizations such as Hillel, Wildcats for Israel and Meor are attempting to redirect their efforts onto a smaller scale. (Meor is a Jewish organization that first arrived at Northwestern five years ago and has since developed a presence on 27 campuses across the country.) They say it’s a more intimate recruiting method that will do more to sustain long-term relationships between students and these organizations.
Hillel has the most resources of any Jewish group on campus, including a large building of its own on campus and connections to the prominent international Hillel organization. Hillel is able to approach recruitment in a way few groups on campus can: by depending on name recognition.
Northwestern sophomore Nathan Abelman, a member of the Hillel Leadership Council and liaison to other Jewish groups on campus, said that Hillel is able to depend mostly on word of mouth to get people in the door.
When it comes to Hillel, “generally people self-select,” Abelman said. “Hillel’s got such a big network.”
While Hillel did have a booth at the fair, Abelman said it was perhaps the least important method of getting people to come to Hillel events.
Instead, the group offered several social programs, such as a barbecue, a pancake night and a pre-orientation program called Freshmen Fest, which welcomed 40 Jewish freshmen to Northwestern a day earlier than the rest of the incoming freshmen. Over the course of the 24-hour program, Hillel leaders worked to create connections in a light and fun way to initiate Jewish students into school. Abelman said that while all the students were Jewish, the focus was on orienting students to Northwestern as a whole, rather than to religious life. Programming included a night tour of campus; ice breakers; and whirley-ball, a game Abelman explains as a cross between basketball, lacrosse and bumper cars.
Jacob Trauberman, a Northwestern freshman from Bethesda, Md., said he attended the event after receiving a phone call from Hillel representatives this summer.
“They called me up and made a pretty good pitch,” Trauberman said. Overall, he said, the experience was extremely positive.
“It was a lot fun because I am not religious but it was a lot of people united by one commonality,” Trauberman said. As a result of attending Freshmen Fest, he now has friends involved in a variety of Jewish groups on campus, such as the Jewish a capella group, ShireNU, and a historically Jewish fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi.
Freshmen Fest is, according to Abelman, “probably where most of the bonding happens” among new Jews on campus. It is one of their most important events early on in the year, Abelman says, because it is the first step towards “getting people in the door.”
But in the end, Hillel can depend mostly on its reputation. Nearly every campus in America with a Jewish population has a Hillel and its building is often a stop on campus tours. So when the first Shabbat came around, more than 120 students crammed into Hillel for Friday night dinner. It was a perfect example of how Hillel succeeds in getting people to come: they have a name brand.
Rob Fisch, a freshman from Potomac, Md., went to that first Shabbat dinner. While Fisch said he “wasn’t really familiar” with any of the Jewish groups on campus, he did visit the Northwestern Hillel when he came to Northwestern as a high school senior.
Fisch added that though he had heard of groups such as Meor and Chabad, he did not visit their facilities. When he visited other schools, such as the University of Maryland and the University of Pennsylvania, he made sure to check out the Hillel facilities because he thought that would be the best place to meet active Jewish students.
But other Jewish group on campus, all of them smaller than Hillel, cannot depend on word of mouth. Organizations like Wildcats for Israel and Meor are wary of becoming too big. Their recruiting is focused on finding individuals who will potentially invest a lot of time in their groups.
Wildcats for Israel, an Israel advocacy and political group on campus, does not attempt open recruitment. The group is lead by sophomore Alex Jakubowski, who said the group in its current form would not thrive by simply getting as many people as possible to join in.
“We don’t want to get too big,” Jakubowski said, adding that the group specifically targets people interested in politics and Israel advocacy.
Even if they wanted to join the activities fair, the group is not under the auspices of the Associated Student Government, meaning that they would have been unable to have a booth. Jakubowski said the group wants to maintain its independence and was not worried about the lack of a booth.
“Relationships get people, not fliers, not candies,” Jakubowski said.
Rabbi Josh Livingstone of Meor also takes a starkly different approach to recruiting Jews on campus than Hillel does.
Meor functions similarly to Hillel in some ways, namely that they offer free Shabbat meals. (Tthough Livingstone, the director of Meor Northwestern, generally attends services at Hillel.)
Like Hillel, Meor had a booth at the activities fair. While Livingstone looked to chat up anyone who would listen and offered free popcorn, he said he did not anticipate it making a substantial difference in attendance at Meor events.
While many groups at the fair try to get anyone and everyone on their mailing lists, Livingstone does not take that approach. He, like Jakubowski, says working on a smaller level is key to achieving Meor’s goals of developing strong individual relationships with students.
“I’d much rather have 50 students I can really have a relationship with than 1,000 people on an email list,” Livingstone said.
Meor’s goal is to be “more small scale, more homey,” according to Livingstone, which is why his organization “doesn’t lend itself to big marketing campaigns.”
“We’re certainly never going to be in-your-facers with fliers all over the place,” he said.
Livingstone repeatedly said that he believes once people come for an initial visit, they will be convinced to return based on the experience alone. Still, Livingstone acknowledges, Meor needs to spread its name at Northwestern to get people to come in the first place.
For now Livingstone and Meor Northwestern are still searching for answers on how to maximize attendance of quality participants without the name recognition Hillel boasts.
Livingstone said, “I’m trying to find the line, and I’m not sure I’ve found it yet. I’m going to keep playing with it until I have found a way.”
Gabi P. Remz is a freshman at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He spent the past year studying and doing national service in Israel. He is a New Voices Magazine national correspondent. Earlier this month, he contributed to New Voices’ essays reacting to the release of Gilad Shalit.
