Meet Zack

Hometown: Northbrook, IL
High school: New Trier
Current school: University of Illinois at Chicago
Major: Engineering
Graduation date: 2011
Hillel Involvement: The William and Mildred Levine Hillel Center 

"Hillel staff helped me out with signing-up for Birthright and we talked about Israel. And then I went on the trip and I was like, 'Oh, this is amazing, the best time ever.' And then spring semester--bam--I was all over the place at Hillel. I felt a lot more connected spring semester."

In his first semester at UIC, Zack didn't consider himself too involved with Hillel. He did, however, meet a Hillel staff member on campus and sign-up for a winter Birthright Israel trip. Preparing for his trip, he talked with Hillel professionals about all he was reading regarding Israel. Then, after a powerful experience on Birthright, Zack found himself at Hillel very often, talking to students about his time on the trip and what it meant to him.

Growing up in Northbrook, Zack attended Hebrew school until his bar mitzvah. While he's always felt Jewish, it was in college, in that second semester, when Zack started to think about participating in the Jewish community as an adult. His involvement with Hillel on campus led him to a position as one Levine Hillel's engagement interns for his sophomore year. In this position, Zack helps facilitate the involvement of other residential students in Jewish life on campus through his own networking and programming in the dorms. Through taking on a leadership position and helping others on their Jewish journey, Zack explained, he's also exploring his Jewish identity.

"Being involved with Hillel on campus, I have time to reflect, to stop and think about what I'm doing in terms of being Jewish."

Great Latke-Hamantash Debate at UChicago

The time has come once again for the legendary Latke-Hamantash Debate, hosted by Newberger Hillel at the University of Chicago. Listen as four of University of Chicago's finest professors debate the relative merits of these two icons of traditional Jewish cuisine. Originating at the university in 1946, this very humorous event ironically spoofs the seriousness of academia and has always provided an opportunity for Jewish faculty and students to celebrate their Jewishness. This year's debate features esteemed moderator Ted Cohen as well as pre-show entertainment. The debate is free and open to the public.

Tuesday, November 25th
Mandel Hall, 1131 E. 57th St.
Doors open at 7 pm
Post-debate Reception, 9:30 pm, $5

Please visit the Newberger Hillel site or call (773) 752-1127 for more information.

Students can apply to Lewis Summer Intern Program 2009

A summer work/study program in the Chicago Jewish community, The Hillels of Illinois' Lewis Summer Intern Program gives university students the opportunity to work in social service fields throughout the Chicago Jewish community. With twice-weekly seminars and Shabbat Retreat, LSIP interns also connect while learning about Jewish and social service themes.

The program is now announcing winter break interviews for summer 2009, offering 26 paid internships in agencies/departments of the Jewish. Undergrads residing (parental residence) or attending school in Illinois can apply on-line, write to lsip@juf.org, or call The Hillels of Illinois at 312-444-2868 to schedule an interview in Chicago. The deadline for interviews is March 20, 2009.

Click on the Lewis Summer Intern Program tab at right for information.

Green Menorah promotes environmental Jewish thinking

In the second annual Green Menorah Contest, young Jewish artists will design and build a menorah using only recycled materials. Sponsored by Hillel Arts in the Loop, a division of Hillels Around Chicago, student artists are eligible to receive prizes, including a first-place prize of $500. Student and Hillel staff organizers plan to announce winners at a Hanukkah party December 4th on Columbia College's downtown campus. The contest promotes sustainability and also involves Jewish art students in their growing Jewish community on campus. Community members are invited to attend.

Hanukkah Party, awarding student artists
Hokin Annex, 623 S. Wabash
Thursday, December 4th, 5 pm

For information on this event, please see Columbia Hillel students' blog at colum.edu/Hillel or visit HillelsAroundChicago.org.

Bringing Sukkot to students

Hillel often connects students with their first experience celebrating Sukkot. Take a look at just a few photos and see how students experienced the holiday with friends on campus. 

Northwestern students looking for answers

A group of students at Northwestern University would like to have a conversation.They want to talk, and they want to get their entire campus community talking.

The AskBigQuestions initiative, a student project of Fiedler Hillel at Northwestern, aims to promote civic engagement and discourse. The initiative does exactly what its title suggests, asking questions of universal concern in the university setting and stimulating discussion.

The initiative has three parts: A colorful website (AskBigQuestions.com), with space for bloggers and readers to respond to weekly questions (like, “Why are you here?” and “What should we sacrifice to change the world?”), man-on-the-street videos, and links to explore questions further; a print campaign, including posters, banners and post-its; and an on-going series of salon sessions with popular professors on campus.

“It gets us talking beyond our academic divisions and our specific communities about human questions. We don’t necessarily intersect even when it comes to talking about these important life questions. AskBigQuestions allows for that and gets us thinking together,” said Sam Schiller, a Jewish student in his senior year. Schiller was among the first students involved with AskBigQuestions when it began last year.

Hillel Campus Rabbi Josh Feigelson, who conceived the idea of the program and supervises students running the initiative, noted that in a university environment everyone is specialized. “There are not so many places to go where you can discuss these concerns common to us all. So I think we’re filling a void,” he said.

“It’s sparking conversation. It’s getting people to think about what really resonates for them and then channeling that curiosity. And that’s what we’re here for. We’re here to help Jewish students explore and connect to our heritage while doing so,” said Fiedler Hillel Executive Director Lisa Kudish.

Hillel’s survey and anecdotal evaluation of the project show its results on campus, with students on campus noticing, and talking about, provocative banners. Students--and professors--who participate in the initiative’s more intensive programs reported great satisfaction in being engaged in this kind of discussion on campus.

Rabbi Feigelson explained how the initiative provides for a Jewish experience for students in addition to promoting campus-wide discussion. “It allows and facilitates conversation. Then we can see how Jewish thought, ritual and tradition elaborate these questions.” Jewish tradition, among others, he continued, explores these questions.

Feigelson explained that AskBigQuestions reverses the traditional way of connecting to Jewish students. “We don’t just immediately show students how Jewish life is important to them. We’re showing students how they’re important to Jewish life.” Students become part of a Jewish conversation about life questions, he explained.

Schiller’s involvement in AskBigQuestions has been a Jewish experience, affirming both his religious identity and civic identity. AskBigQuestions’ conversations combined for him a sense of civic responsibility, his concern for maintaining public discourse, and the “space that religion allows us to think spiritually about our place in the world.” He added, “I see myself as an engaged participant in this world, and that ultimately reinforces my own religious, Jewish identity.”

In keeping with AskBigQuestions’ notion of inter-group relations, he worked in its first year to get co-sponsorship of programs, for instance, with a feminist group on campus. “I wanted the conversation to be relevant to everyone,” he said. He now contributes online and involves campus personalities from various backgrounds with online content, including videos.

Alexandra Komisar, AskBigQuestions’ managing director and a senior at Northwestern, said that AskBigQuestions allows for one to fit their own Judaism into a larger, global perspective. “Seeing how others reflect on their faith lets me reflect on mine,” she said.

People answer questions drawing from various personal experiences, said Komisar. Her time with AskBigQuestions has shown her that the various ways by which we identify ourselves are intimately connected, though we commonly think they are not. Her Jewish and civic identities, she affirmed, are not isolated.

Komisar works with over ten students actively involved in implementing the initiative, set up like an editorial board.

Another big component of the project is its distinctive appeal. AskBigQuestions looks good. When you visit its website or see its printed banners, with questions put in simple script against a very bright background, it is immediately attractive, and, then, thought-provoking.

By creating a unique brand identity, AskBigQuestions responds to the reality of ubiquitous branding in our culture. It promotes civic engagement in an attractive, and very current, way.

“The initiative really catches the imagination of those who come into contact with it, and so it’s gotten a lot of publicity,” said Feigelson. “The appeal of the media component ideally drives students to more human interaction, and, for Jewish students, to meaningful Jewish dialogue on important subjects,” he added.

With its great appeal and aim to promote public discussion, it’s no surprise that AskBigQuestions is growing. In addition to offering the program on other campuses, its student board plans to become independent of Hillel and embrace not only the Jewish student community, but the various groups that comprise their campus. Komisar explained that they plan on creating a diverse advisory board with faculty and religious leaders.

AskBigQuestions furthers students’ Jewish identities because it aims to engage all students in life’s big questions, said Feigelson. “It becomes a Jewish project by being a human project. So as the initiative expands and ultimately outgrows its original home in Hillel, we see it as a gift that Hillel is giving the university community.”