Spirituality
'lilies New Strategy
College organization opens doors to non-Jews, broader campus experiences.
Ben Harris
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Washington
H
illel centers on university cam-
puses were viewed not long
ago as little more than the local
Jewish hangout, a place where students
could come for kosher meals or socialize
with other Jews.
But in a move that Hillel leaders say
has been forced upon them by this
generation's altered social landscape, the
organization is throwing open its doors to
everyone, designing programs that appeal
to Jews and non-Jews
and hyping its contribu-
tion to university — not
only Jewish — life.
Examples of the shift
are abundant.
Rabbi Joshua
Feigelson, who grew up
in Ann Arbor and is the
Miriam
self-described "campus
Starkman
rabbi" at Northwestern
University, has designed
a campus-wide pro-
gram called "Ask Big
Questions" that stresses
the value of Jewish wis-
dom in addressing con-
temporary challenges.
Other Hillel chapters
Rabbi Martin
are organizing interfaith
programs, like Jewish-
Muslim coexistence
houses or trips to rebuild the Gulf Coast.
And it's becoming more common to find
non-Jews serving on local Hillel boards or
as regular attendees at Shabbat dinners.
The University of Michigan Hillel has a
non-Jew on its governing board.
The shift is even evident in Hillel's
changed mission statement. Prior to 2006,
the organization sought to increase the
number of Jews "doing Jewish with other
Jews!' Now it seeks to "enrich" Jewish stu-
dent life, the Jewish people and the world.
"Most of the students that we have are
not interested in doing Jewish with other
Jews;' Feigelson told JTA. "They're interest-
ed in doing Jewish with their friends who
are doing Catholic and Puerto Rican and
Turkish — their friends and their family.
The challenge for us is how do you create
expressions of Jewish life that students
will deem to be authentic at the same time
as they are not exclusive or tribal!'
Beginning under the leadership of
Richard Joel, Hillel: The Foundation for
Jewish Campus Life sought to expand its
reach beyond the minority of students
with strong Jewish identities who natu-
rally gravitated to the local Hillel chapter.
Broadening The Scope
But Hillel leaders say increasingly that to
reach the majority who might view the
organization with anything from disdain
to indifference, it must actively counter
the perception that its chapters are "Jews-
only" venues.
As it attempts to do
so, Hillel finds itself
negotiating a tricky
line between Jewish
particularism and uni-
versality, between the
twin imperatives of
creating uniquely Jewish
programming and pro-
Cindy Hughey
tecting the fluidity of
personal identities that
today's college students see as their birth-
right.
"This doesn't really represent a change
for our Hiller said Cindy Hughey, execu-
tive director of Michigan State University's
Hillel. "We have always welcomed friends
of our Jewish students at our weekly
Shabbat dinners and programs. Events
and programs that are co-sponsored by
MSU's student government or academic
units are open to the general campus
community. We like to think of ourselves
as the hub for Jewish life on campus and
an integral component of the diversity
mix at Michigan State University"
At Hillel of Metro Detroit, executive
director Miriam Starkman said, "While
our primary focus remains Jewish stu-
dents and Jewish life on campus, because
we are working in a campus culture, some
of our work involves engaging other stu-
dents as well. An example is our Students
for Israel group, which is a stronger coali-
tion because it's not just Jewish students
but also non-Jewish students!'
The shift rings true at the U-M Hillel.
"More and more, the best Hillel pro-
gramming not only activates Jewish
students to connect to their identity and
culture, but also more broadly inspires
and reaches other groups on campus as
well," said Rabbi Nathan Martin, assistant
director U-M Hillel in Ann Arbor .
"This past fall, U-M Hillel's Conference
on the Holocaust organized a program in
commemoration of Kristallnacht that was
recently voted best student program of
the year. Forty Holocaust survivors from
the Detroit area met with U-M students
(Jews and non-Jews alike) and shared
their stories. The emerging Will Work
for Food initiative (willworkforfood.org )
is designed to activate Jewish and non-
Jewish students alike to make a difference
on campus, and even Hillel's alternative
spring break trip this past year integrated
a first-ever trip for Jewish and Muslim
students together.
"We like to support our Jewish students
to draw from the best of their values and
tradition to make a positive change for
the broader campus, to help cultivate a
next generation of leaders that is sensitive
to the challenges we face as human com-
munities.
"This type of programming, I believe,
helps Jewish students to see that they are
part of the larger effort to help heal the
brokenness in the world and hopefully
inspires them to get more closely connect-
ed to their Jewish roots in the process:'
Rabbi Martin said.
World Without Boundaries
"We're in a world that has no boundaries
— no boundaries and infinite choices,
literally" said Beth Cousens, a former
Detroiter and Hillel's director of organiza-
tional learning and the author of a 2007
monograph, "Hillel's Journey: Distinctively
Jewish, Universally Human:' which lays
out guiding principles for Hillel in the
coming years.
"It is just dumb; it's counterproductive
for us to create boundaries',' Cousens said.
"The way to make Jewish life vibrant and
help people fall in love with Judaism and
discover who they are Jewishly is not to be
afraid."
Much discussion at Hillel's recent sum-
mit here focused on the peculiarities of
so-called millennials, the generation born
after 1980, and their unique set of cultural
dispositions: globally minded, skeptical
of institutional authority and unwilling to
have their identities narrowly defined.
At the summit's opening plenary, Robert
Putnam, the Harvard University professor
who authored Bowling Alone: The Collapse
and Revival of American Community,
described how he could name the religion
of every person in his high school class
because faith defined the limits of his
generation's dating pool. High-schoolers
today, he contended, couldn't perform a
similar feat.
"It's not that people have stopped being
religious; it's just not that big a deal any-
more," Putnam said. "That line has been
somewhat deconstructed!'
For those who worry about the threat
of intermarriage to Jewish continuity,
the rise of the millennial generation and
Hillel's response to it is likely to keep them
up at night.
Hillel responds that it simply has no
choice, that if an intermarried couple
doesn't meet at Hillel, they will meet at a
party or in the classroom where the orga-
nization will have no influence on them.
"Hillel is acknowledging that we don't
live in a Jewish bubble Cousens said. "If
we don't do this, we'll be irrelevant!'
Creating Broad Connections
Putnam has written extensively on the
decline of community in America, and
he urged the 675 summit participants
— most of them Hillel professionals — to
look for ways to create social connections
that stretch across the boundaries of race
or ethnicity.
In interviews with JTA on the sidelines
of the summit, evidence emerged to sug-
gest that process is already well under way.
At Syracuse University, the election of
a non-Jewish student to the Hillel board
occasioned some opposition. But while a
meeting must sometimes pause to explain
a particular Jewish phrase or practice, stu-
dent leaders mostly say the addition has
been positive.
"I think it's been a mutually benefi-
cial experience for not only him and the
board, but for also the community at
large to see that we've reached beyond the
Jewish student, that we've reached beyond
what Hillel's stereotype is and to bring
in other types of people and to really let
ourselves realize that Hillel isn't just for
one type of person',' said sophomore Jillian
Hillel on page C2
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