24 | SEPTEMBER 17 • 2020 

H

illels at Michigan uni-
versities are usually 
buzzing with activity 
around the High Holidays as 
they work to prepare Jewish 
learning, programing and wor-
ship opportunities for students 
across their schools. But this 
year, COVID-19 has required 
Hillel staff to reimagine the High 
Holidays on campus.
“We’
ve never seen anything 
like this — everything’
s different,
” 
said Sam Appel, assistant director 
of Hillel of Metro Detroit, which 
serves Wayne State University 
and five other schools in the 
Detroit area. “Summers are pret-
ty slow for Hillel, but it’
s been 
wild, rebuilding everything from 
scratch. Nothing’
s the same any-
more, and the sooner we realize 
that and lean into it, we can 
make some really cool opportu-
nities.
”
Hillels have already been 
through a virtual holiday season 
when the start of the pandemic 
interrupted Passover plans on 
college campuses. Digital engage-
ment became key during the 
spring, and they’
ll continue this 
model into the fall, with activities 
and programs that have usually 
been held in person with big 
groups now happening online 
or outdoors in small groups. 
At Hillel of Metro Detroit, this 
might look like a virtual tashlich 
meditation event or a traveling 
pop-up sukkah.
“The idea we’
re talking about 
now is we’
ll drop off a sukkah 
and a bunch of signs that cele-

brate Sukkot at someone’
s house, 
and then they’
ll tell us whose 
house it goes to next,
” Appel said. 
“They’
ll have an opportunity to 
eat a snack in the sukkah and 
to do the prayer, and we’
ll help 
them and teach them that pro-
cess if they’
d like to know.
”
Hillel at the University of 
Michigan plans to make use of 
the warm weather at the start 
of the school year. Their high 
holiday programing will include 
meditative walks in the univer-
sity’
s arboretum, community 

service activities and “reverse 
tashlich” where students help 
clean up the Huron River.
“We’
re also hearing that our 
students are craving connection, 
but nervous about group size and 
restrictions, so when we tell them 
that we’
re offering programming 
that is highly controlled by RSVP 
to maintain safety or will be done 
virtually online, they seem both 
relieved and excited to partici-
pate,
” said Director Tilly Shemer.
At Michigan State University, 
tashlich is the one activity that 
will be held in person, with 
social distancing in effect. But 
“I’
m also going to do an online 
version of that, because there’
s so 
many people who are off campus 
who might not be near a body of 

water or just want that program-
ming online,
” said Rabbi Jenna 
Turow, the new rabbi at MSU 
Hillel.

ONLINE PRAYER
Virtual programing will extend 
to High Holiday services, too. 
This fall, MSU and University of 
Michigan Hillels will broadcast 
their services online. University 
of Michigan’
s Hillel will also 
focus on empowering students 
to host their own small gather-
ings to observe the holidays, and 
they’
re waiting until school is 
in session to determine wheth-
er their services will have any 
in-person component, said 
Shemer.
“That might look like students 
being trained to lead part of the 
service in their own home with 
a small group,
” Shemer told the 
Jewish News.
At MSU, Turow thinks the 
switch to virtual might allow 
more students to participate in 
Hillel’
s high holidays program-

ming. MSU Hillel runs Hillel 
Campus Alliance of Michigan, 
which provides Jewish program-
ming to universities outside of 
Southeast Michigan.
“That’
s actually kind of the 
cool thing about it being online 
is that students at other cam-
puses can all come to services 
because it’
s available to them,
” 
Turow said. “Otherwise, it’
s just 
me — I’
m the only one — so I 
would not have gotten to do ser-
vices for all the schools.
”
Turow, who just began at MSU 
Hillel this summer, said she’
s 
curious to see if participation in 
Hillel services increases among 
MSU students, too. Many Jewish 
students who stay in Michigan 
for college decide to go home 

for the High Holidays in normal 
years, but the ongoing pandemic 
makes going home for anything 
more complicated these days.
“From what I’
ve heard, for 
the most part, students at MSU 
would generally go home for 
holidays, and it’
s not that big of 
a group” at Hillel, she said. “I’
m 
curious to see if there are going 
to be more people attending 
because it’
s available online.
”
Allison Bloomberg, a senior 
at the University of Michigan 
and member of the Hillel 
International 
Student Cabinet, is 
going to stay in Ann 
Arbor for the High 
Holidays this year. 
She might go home 
to West Bloomfield 
for the afternoon 
to pick up some of the food her 
mom is cooking for the holidays, 
she said, but she won’
t stay the 
night.
“This year, I’
m not going 
home, but it’
s only because of 
COVID. I don’
t want to expose 
my family to whatever I’
ve may 
or may not have,
” Bloomberg 
said. “
And also, because the ser-
vices are going to be on Zoom 
anyway, I don’
t really see a point 
in going home.
”
Bloomberg, whose fam-
ily belongs to Adat Shalom 
Synagogue in Farmington Hills, 
plans to watch the service with 
a roommate who also grew up 
going there. She and her room-
mates will hold a break-fast din-
ner for Yom Kippur — though 
it’
ll most likely just be for the six 
of them, she said. 
One big plus about every-
thing being online this year is 
that schedules are more flexible 
now, Bloomberg said. In years 
past, she’
s decided to stay in Ann 
Arbor for the holidays anyway 
because she didn’
t want to miss 
important lectures.
As Bloomberg put it, “there’
s 
not going to be as big of a con-
flict with classes now that every-
thing’
s online!” 

Virtual High Holidays 
Come to Campus 

College Hillels across Michigan 
plan online and outdoor activities.

MAYA GOLDMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Rosh Hashanah 5781

WIKIPEDIA

Allison 
Bloomberg

“We’ve never seen anything like 
this — everything’s diff
 erent.”

— SAM APPEL OF HILLEL OF METRO DETROIT

University of 
Michigan Hillel

