Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life
Encyclopedia
Campus
A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings...
organization in the world, working with thousands of college students globally. Hillel's stated mission is "to enrich the lives of Jewish undergraduate and graduate students so that they may enrich the Jewish people and the world." In practical terms, campus Hillel foundations engage Jewish students in religious, cultural, artistic, and community-service activities. Currently, Hillel is represented at more than 550 colleges and communities throughout North America and globally, including 30 communities in the former Soviet Union, nine in Israel, and five in South America. The organization is named for Hillel the Elder
Hillel the Elder
Hillel was a famous Jewish religious leader, one of the most important figures in Jewish history. He is associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud...
, a Jewish sage who moved from Babylonia to Palestine in the 1st century and is known for his formulation of the Golden Rule
Ethic of reciprocity
The Golden Rule or ethic of reciprocity is a maxim, ethical code, or moralitythat essentially states either of the following:* : One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself....
.
History
The Hillel Foundation was founded in 1923 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-ChampaignUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
by members of the local Jewish and university communities. It later came under the sponsorship of B'nai Brith, which served as the sponsoring organization until the 1990s. By then, it encompassed 120 Hillel foundations and affiliates at an additional 400 campuses. The campus foundations seek to create a welcoming environment for Jewish students on their respective campuses. Today, Hillel is the largest Jewish campus organization in the world. Hillel foundations are found in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, and the Post-Soviet States
Post-Soviet states
The post-Soviet states, also commonly known as the Former Soviet Union or former Soviet republics, are the 15 independent states that split off from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in its dissolution in December 1991...
, and affiliated organizations are found in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Prior to the Hillel Foundation's national organization in 1923, Texas A&M Hillel
Texas A&M Hillel
Texas A&M Hillel is the oldest Hillel Foundation organization in the United States. The organization was founded in 1920, three years before the national Hillel Foundation was organized at University of Illinois. Texas A&M Hillel began as the "TAMC Menorah Club" and was organized in 1916 by Dr...
was founded in 1920. At the time of its founding, Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...
was named the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas.
Hillel International Directors
- Rabbi Benjamin Frankel 1925 - 1927
- Dr. Louis L. Mann 1928 - 1933
- Dr. Abram L. Sachar 1933 - 1947
- Rabbi Arthur J. Lelyveld 1947 - 1956
- Dr. Judah J. Shiapiro 1956 - 1959
- Rabbi Benjamin M. Kahn 1959 - 1971
- Rabbi Alfred Jospe 1971 - 1975
- Rabbi Norman Frimer 1975 - 1979
- Rabbi Oscar Groner 1979 - 1984
- Larry Moses 1984 - 1987
- Richard M. JoelRichard M. JoelRichard M. Joel is the fourth president of Yeshiva University , a Modern Orthodox Jewish university with some 7,000 students at its undergraduate and graduate divisions in New York City...
1988 - 2003 - Avraham Infeld 2003-2005
- Wayne L. Firestone 2005–present
Services
Hillel is not a membership organization. Any interested student may participate in their activities, usually free of charge. Most activities are free of charge and other fees may be waived because of need. Hillel's strategy, as redefined in 2006, explicitly set a goal to "inspire every Jewish student to make an enduring commitment to Jewish life." To be effective, Hillel activities vary from campus to campus, with an emphasis on responding to the needs of participating students. To reach a larger audience, campus Hillel foundations struggle to create a pluralistic, inclusive environment that still remains distinctively Jewish. To do so, the national foundation organizes trips to Israel,http://www.hillel.org/israel/travel/bri_hillel/default.htm places service fellows at the campus foundations,http://jcsc.hillel.org creates a guide to Jewish student life,http://www.hillel.org/guide and leads advocacy work on Jewish and Israeli issues,http://www.israeloncampuscoalition.org as well as providing some financial support to its campus foundations.Hillel is also dedicated to social activism, fundraising and philanthropy for charitable causes. These activities are usually led on the local campus level, but many campuses participate in alternative spring break
Spring break
Spring break – also known as March break, Study week or Reading week in the United Kingdom and some parts of Canada – is a recess in early spring at universities and schools in the United States, Canada, mainland China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, the United...
trips dedicated to service, a Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur , also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most solemn day of the year for the Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue...
Fast Action Campaign, and the Oxfam
Oxfam
Oxfam is an international confederation of 15 organizations working in 98 countries worldwide to find lasting solutions to poverty and related injustice around the world. In all Oxfam’s actions, the ultimate goal is to enable people to exercise their rights and manage their own lives...
Fair Trade Coffee
Fair trade
Fair trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries make better trading conditions and promote sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as higher social and environmental standards...
Campaign, as well as more traditional local service projects at soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and Jewish community organizations.
Hillel Houses in the United Kingdom
As of March 2007, there are official Hillel Houses in the cities of BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, Bournemouth
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
, Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
, Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
, Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
, Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
and York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
.
Hillel House in Manchester
The Hillel House in Manchester, which used to be located in converted terraced-house accommodation in Grafton Street, RusholmeRusholme
-Etymology:Rusholme, unlike other areas of Manchester which have '-holme' in the place name is not a true '-holme'. Its name came from ryscum, which is the dative plural of Old English rysc "rush": "[at the] rushes"...
, and is now in purpose-built premises in Hulme
Hulme
Hulme is an inner city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England. Located immediately south of Manchester city centre, it is an area with significant industrial heritage....
, has recently been renovated and is now a state-of-the-art residence for anyone wishing to study in the local universities (including Manchester University, UMIST and the Metropolitan University of Manchester). It serves as the meeting place and headquarters of the local Jewish Society and Israel Society.
Hillel House in Leeds
Hillel House in Leeds is home to Leeds Jewish Society http://www.leedsjsoc.com, one of the leading J-Soc's in the UK. The Hillel Student Centre is the flagship Hillel run student house. It is kitted out with plasma televisions, a shul which is home to the Leeds Student Minyan, as well as a quiet study area. There is also a cafe where kosher lunch is served for students. The centre has been run for many years with dedication by Charles Ross, a Leeds resident.Praise and Awards
The Hillel Foundation has received numerous praise and awards over the years. One example is from March of 2011, the Hillel Organization was a recipient of one of the first nine grants from the Jewish New Media Innovation Fund, a pilot program of the Jim Joseph, Righteous Persons, and Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. The fund provides a total of $500,000 in grants and technical support to digital media projects designed to engage 18-40 year olds in Jewish life, learning, culture and community . Investment analyst David Cohen said in a 2006 fundraiser “We [Cohen and his wife] believe that Hillel is perhaps the organization in the Jewish community best equipped to educate the next generation. No other group so fully embraces the entire community the way Hillel does: kosher or not; observant or not; religious or not; Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, Orthodox — just Jewish."Local branches and staff members that are part of the greater Hillel Organization are often recipients of both Jewish and non-denominational awards. As an example, in 2010, Bernard Steinberg, President and Director of Harvard Hillel received a 2010 Covenant Foundation Award for excellence in teaching. In 2008, the University of Kansas Hillel was named "KU Student Organization of the Year" out of more than 500 student clubs for the second year in a row. In 2007, Hillel at Virginia Tech received the University and Community Partnership Award for offering "students the means to explore and celebrate their Jewish identity in a dynamic and comfortable environment".
Criticism
Most of Hillel's activities differ little from other mainstream campus ministries or ethnic organizations. However, some of Hillel's policies, actions, and leaders have come under criticism. Hillel's use of the motto "Wherever we stand, we stand with Israel" has been criticized as alienating to Jewish students who do not adhere to ZionismZionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
, as well as attaching political ideology to an otherwise religious group. At the same time, others have claimed that some Hillels are being used by pro-Palestinian activists to promote their own political goals.
Another criticism has been the monopolistic
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
tactics that the group is alleged to have used to assume primacy over the Jewish campus scene.
In its attempts to reach out to all Jewish students, some believe Hillel's activities are too broad. In 1997, Jeremy Deutchman, a graduate of Hillel's JCSC fellowship and a student member of Hillel's board of directors, wrote a lengthy article in Tikkun
Tikkun (magazine)
Tikkun is a quarterly English-language magazine, published in the United States, that analyzes American and Israeli culture, politics, religion and history from a leftist-progressive viewpoint, and provides commentary about Israeli politics and Jewish life in North America...
asserting that Hillel engaged in the wholesale "dumbing down
Dumbing down
Dumbing down is a pejorative term for a perceived trend to lower the intellectual content of literature, education, news, and other aspects of culture...
" of Judaism, and providing stylish, yet meaningless Judaism instead of substantive Judaism. He echoes a common criticism of the Non-profit organization sector, arguing that the organization had become overly donor
Donation
A donation is a gift given by physical or legal persons, typically for charitable purposes and/or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including cash, services, new or used goods including clothing, toys, food, and vehicles...
-driven, and had hence compromised Judaic quality.
Former Hillel president Avraham Infeld was challenged in traditional circles for asserting that Hillel accepts intermarriage (marriage of Jews to non-Jews).
There have also been some controversies involving individual Hillel directors.
- UCLA Hillel rabbi and director Chaim Seidler-Feller was accused by journalist Rachel Neuwirth of verbally and physically assaulting her on the UCLA campus in October 2003. Eyewitness accounts were contradictory, with some indicating Neuwirth did not provoke the incident, but others indicating that she had. After more than three years of litigation, in a legal settlement, Seidler-Feller provided Neuwirth with a letter of apology accepting full responsibility for the attack on Neuwirth and a large financial arrangement with her.
- Robert Fishman, director of George Washington UniversityGeorge Washington UniversityThe George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
's Hillel apologized for claiming that a pro-Palestinian law student was a recognized terrorist. Fishman also orchestrated a group of Hillel members to read highly critical questions pre-drafted by Deborah LipstadtDeborah LipstadtDeborah Esther Lipstadt, Ph.D. is an American historian and author of the book Denying the Holocaust and The Eichmann Trial. She is the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University...
as if they were their own to President Jimmy CarterJimmy CarterJames Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
who spoke on campus in March 2007. This and their tactics of blocking the microphones from other students gave the media the false impression that the audience was critical of Carter despite repeated standing ovations.
Branches
Branches include:
Columbia/Barnard Hillel
Dartmouth Hillel
Harvard Hillel
Ohio State Hillel
Penn Hillel
University of Texas Hillel
University of Western Ontario Hillel
University of Wisconsin Hillel
Oberlin College Hillel
- Hillel at Arizona State University
- Hillel of Greater TorontoHillel of Greater TorontoHillel of Greater Toronto is the Hillel Foundation organization for Jewish student life in Toronto. It provides programming and events for undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Toronto, York University, Ryerson University and 'emerging campuses' such as Seneca College, Humber...
- Tanger Hillel at Brooklyn College
- Texas A&M HillelTexas A&M HillelTexas A&M Hillel is the oldest Hillel Foundation organization in the United States. The organization was founded in 1920, three years before the national Hillel Foundation was organized at University of Illinois. Texas A&M Hillel began as the "TAMC Menorah Club" and was organized in 1916 by Dr...
- UCSB Hillel
- University of Florida HillelUniversity of Florida HillelUniversity of Florida Hillel is one of the oldest Hillel Foundation organizations in the United States. The organization was founded in 1947 at the University of Florida and currently serves around 8,000 Jewish students who attend the university....
- University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
External links
- Official Hillel International Site – includes links to individual campuses
- Jewish Campus Service Corps