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

