Less than one percent of the world’s population is Jewish; impressively, approximately ten percent of Connecticut College’s student body identifies as Jewish. Accordingly, Conn employs a Rabbi, offers temple services and Shabbat dinners, but arguably the most important resource for Jewish students is Hillel, which hasn’t seemed to do much around campus – until now.
According to its website, Hillel is “the largest Jewish campus organization in the world,” and is represented in hundreds of colleges and universities across the country. Like a fraternity or sorority, Hillel is a national organization, with different chapters in different schools.
Last year, students on Hillel’s mailing list may have received an email once or twice a month, but currently, emails are sent weekly. This sudden explosion of activity not unintentional; rather, the student group has been working extremely hard to increase their events, visibility and membership on campus.
“This year we have been working hard to get the freshmen involved in Hillel,” explained Ellen Nadel ’13, President of Connecticut College Hillel, and Jessie Gold ’13, Vice President of Hillel’s Executive Board. “Last year we created a position named the ‘Prospective Student Liaison,’ who is responsible for talking to incoming freshmen and prospective students about Jewish life on campus.”
The group also created their own website, conncollhillel.org, which serves as a resource for both prospective students and alumni about the groups involvement on campus. Hillel communicates with the larger Conn community via Facebook, Twitter and email. According to Nadel, the Hillel email list consists of “250 students, as well as faculty and some [other] community members.”
The number of people on the email list, though, does not limit who Hillel sponsored events are available for. So far this year, Hillel has created a wide range of events to appeal to a broad range of interests on campus, and the group promises even more exciting events and announcements in the upcoming weeks.
“We’re making a conscious effort to reach people outside of the Jewish community,” described Sophie Gildesgame ’14, Hillel Vice President of Religious and Israeli Affairs. “People aren’t going to come to events because they’re Jewish, they’re going to come if the event is fun, with a broader appeal.”
One such event was Conn’s Sukkot celebration. According to Gildesgame, Sukkot is the equivalent of a “Jewish agricultural thanksgiving, where we feast and celebrate the fruit harvest.” The festival involves the building of a sukkah, which is a hut “built to commemorate the type of huts that the Israelites built and lived in while they were wandering in the desert.”
The event promised not only “delicious” Mediterranean food, but also “hookah in the sukkah.” The hookah was inspired some of the events put on by Conn’s Arabic club, Yalla Bina, and was also added with the intention of appealing to a wider variety of students.
Due to rain, the event had to be shortened to simply dinner in the Harkness Chapel Library, but Hillel promises that the hookah will be rescheduled to some time in the near future.
Hillel’s fourteen-member executive board has come up with a plethora of future events, including monthly trips to local synagogues, an Israeli-Arab conflict discussion, and, perhaps most excitingly, a Bar-Mitzvah themed dance. Conn’s Hillel has also organized a trip to spend Shabbat with Trinity College’s Hillel on November 4. The trip not only provides an opportunity to spend a Friday night with new members of the Jewish community, but also serves to provide inspiration for new ideas and events put on by Hillels at other schools.
“As a freshman, I noticed that there were certain parts of Hillel and generally Jewish life on campus that I thought we could improve,” said Nadel. “One of the great things about our small school is that ever since freshman year I have had the opportunity to play an active role in shaping our community.” •
