Constructing Jewish Community, On Our Own Terms

By Hal Triedman August 13, 2018

It was a warm Wednesday in the fall of my first year at Brown University. As I meandered through the main green, a child with with tzitzit poking out of the bottom of his shirt walked up to me and asked, “Are you Jewish? Would you like to say a prayer or come to dinner?”…

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4 Tips for DIY Judaism in Small Campus Communities

By Erin Ben-Moche May 22, 2018

If your family is anything like mine, you were raised on mandel bread and ridiculous family stories that felt like a “Seinfeld” reboot in the making. Growing up, I was a proud member of the Metro Detroit Jewish community. I went to shul regularly, sang in the congregational choir, taught at Sunday school, and attended…

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Student Divers Study Torah and Ocean Conservation

By Hannah Bernstein April 23, 2018

There’s an old Jewish joke about a righteous man who kept all the mitzvot. Every day, he prayed to God to win the lottery, and every day, he did not win. After the man died, he entered heaven and found himself at the foot of the Lord. In anger, he asked: “Why did you never…

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Should Hillels Do More to Prioritize Mental Health?

By Leora Eisenberg April 9, 2018

I’m no stranger to issues of mental health. Depression set in shortly after the beginning of the second semester of my sophomore year. I cried incessantly for no apparent reason, I had difficulty getting out of bed in the morning, I loathed running into an ex for fear that he would trigger a panic attack….

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Merging My Judaism and Disability Advocacy

By Lily Coltoff February 12, 2018

I’ve met member of the House Bipartisan Disabilities Caucus Rep. James Langevin (D-RI), networked with RespectAbilityUSA president Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi and practiced my ASL with program director of Gallaudet University Hillel Jacob Salem, the first-ever Hillel director who is Deaf. One year ago, as a freshman at American University, I could scarcely imagine having any…

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Grieving Students Rely on Their Hillel Communities

By Michelle Rubinov February 6, 2018

Standing in the middle of New York’s Penn Station on her way home after her mother’s memorial service, Julia Brody, University of Delaware ’17, found a place to plug her phone in, with thoughts and memories of her mother still heavy in her head. A man using using the same outlet struck up a conversation…

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This Jewish Student Struggled With Anxiety on Campus – So She Started a Nonprofit

By Gabrielle Magid November 2, 2017

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a worrier. As a perfectionist, everything felt dire. There’s a running joke this means I’m Jewish, but I’ve learned it’s anxiety. I arrived at the University of Florida in 2011, unsure about everything. I could not have known then that my anxiety would inspire me to…

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Teaching Disability Inclusion One Shabbat at a Time

By Lily Coltoff August 23, 2017

My initial reaction after the fact was relief. After months of planning, weeks of searching for the perfect readings, and a few crazy days of racing around like a chicken with its head cut off, I had finally crafted my first Friday night Shabbat service. And thankfully, it was a success. Earlier this year, as…

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Fighting BDS Shouldn’t Be Our First Concern

By Max Buchdahl August 18, 2017

Originally published in The Jewish Exponent. For the past year and a half, I have served as president of the student board of Hillel at Temple University. Over the course of my time on board, I’ve seen students plan weekly Shabbat dinners, various types of holiday programming (including the ever-popular Chocolate Seder) and our first-ever…

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The Cost of Privatizing Jewish Campus Life

By Misha Vilenchuk July 26, 2017

Throughout the 20th century, American Jews – particularly young Jews – were agents of social change. The pre-war generation stood for worker’s rights, while the generation after the Holocaust marched at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement. Why then are there so few Jews active in the contemporary resurgence of progressive student activism? Some…

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The OSU Incident: The Problem Is Hillel’s Israel Policy

By Sarah Asch April 6, 2017

Ohio State University Hillel cut ties last week with an LGBTQ Jewish student organization, and possible homophobia is just the beginning of why it’s a problem. To recap, the split occurred after the group, B’nai Keshet, hosted an event to help queer refugees. They co-sponsored the event with Jewish Voice for Peace, a Jewish group…

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OSU Hillel Ousted Its Queer Group Over Israel Politics, and It’s Not Ok

By Noah Strauss March 30, 2017

LGBTQ Jews have long been on the front lines, fighting for social justice. We are found on every page of the LGBTQ movement, from Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person to be elected to office in California, to Avram Finkelstein, who co-founded the AIDS advocacy group ACT UP. We are found on every page…

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5 Steps for Creating LGBTQ-Friendly Hillels

By Noah Strauss March 28, 2017

I saw women and men sitting across from each other at tables and sat on the ground in between to make my presence visible. It was awkward for all of us. Apparently the irony of a heteronormative speed dating event taking place next door to a gay bar was lost on my Hillel. But the…

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My Hillel Neglects Queer Jews

By Noah Strauss February 21, 2017

I came out to myself, and my wider community, during my sophomore year of college. Hillel was the first organization I was involved in on campus, and before I ever entered queer spaces, I came out at my Hillel. The reactions made me reflect on Hillel’s relationship with queer Jews and gave me with a…

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“Refusing to Choose” Forum Highlights Orthodox LGBTQ Activists

By Michele Amira February 2, 2017

In the Talmud it says, “Whomever saves a life, it is as if they have saved the entire world.”  Yet many observant queer Jews are struggling in the closet and suffer high rates of suicide. According to Hannah Bar-Yosef, a member of the Israeli Interministerial Committee for Suicide (operated under the auspices of the Health…

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