10 | SEPTEMBER 1 • 2022

OUR COMMUNITY

ver the past 30 years, Jewish
life at Michigan State
University has experi-
enced a renaissance.
More Jewish students
have started choosing
the school, which today
boasts a Jewish-friendly
campus and is home to a
recognized Jewish Studies
program.
When MSU senior Ellie
Baden, 21, was choosing a col-
lege, it was very important to
her that the school she picked
had a Jewish community and
support for Jewish students.
Learning about MSU Hillel

and that MSU’s Serling Institute
for Jewish Studies and Modern
Israel had received a large
endowment and hosted a con-
ference at the time, she says,
were some of the elements that
let her know she would be safe
and comfortable as a Jewish stu-
dent on campus.
“I visited campus and got to
talk to some of the students.
They mentioned both the
Jewish Studies program and
Hillel. That was wonderful to
hear,
” she says. “It just signaled
to me that the MSU community
as a whole supported Jewish
students and Jewish academics.
”

MSU’s boom in Jewish
life and culture comes as the
result of decades-long efforts
to connect Israel and MSU by
the Serling Institute’s Board of
Advisors. The Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit under
its leader Bob Aronson acted as
a catalyst at the very beginning
in the mid-1990s.
The advisory board sought
investment by the university to
grow its Jewish student body.
Along with the increased pas-
sion of professors and alumni,
MSU was made to feel more
like home for Jewish students,
explains Michael Serling, who

Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern
Israel celebrates three decades of success.
Victory for MSU

KAREN SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER • MSU PHOTOGRAPHY

ON THE COVER

Jewish Studies group
in Israel with Dr. Yael
Aronoff