Condolences to Rav Avi and Sara Schwartz
Dear Rutgers Hillel Community, As many of you have already heard, Rabbi Avi and Sara Schwartz's beloved daughter, Kiki, Yakira Leeba, passed away yesterday. Kiki, just a few weeks shy of 4, was a joyful and loved child who brought light and laughter to her family,...
Bringing Theater Back to Rutgers Hillel
The arts have been a subject which, for a long time, have held great importance to the students who make up the community at Rutgers Hillel. In the past, there were frequent opportunities for students to produce and appreciate art. Over the last few years, this work...
Message to the Community
Dear Friends,As a community, we just concluded the celebration of Purim, the Jewish holiday in which we recognize the topsy-turvy, unpredictable nature of our world. So perhaps it is fitting that the whole world seems a bit topsy-turvy right now, with the...
Rutgers Hillel: A Safe Haven for Observant Students Living Off Campus By Brian Skydell RU ‘18
Moving out of the dorms can be an anxiety inducing process. From looking for a home or apartment to acclimating to off campus life, it has not been the easiest thing to accomplish at Rutgers University over the past few years. But there is good news! If you are Jewish...
Rutgers Hillel Statement Regarding Prof. Mazen Adi
The revelation that Rutgers University hired a former spokesperson for the genocidal Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad to teach, of all things, international human rights law, has become a national embarrassment to the University. Not only was he an official in a...
An Israeli Perspective on the Kotel Decision By Aviv Ayash
An Israeli Perspective on the Kotel Decision By Aviv Ayash As the Jewish Agency Israel Fellow at Rutgers Hillel, I believe I have responsibility to my American Jewish students but also to the Jews who live in Israel. That's why a few days ago I wrote on...
A Truly Life Changing Experience By Forrest Butensky ’17
A Truly Life Changing Experience By Forrest Butensky '17 Where can I start? If I really wanted to lay out my entire Birthright experience, you’d be reading for hours. I’ll keep it simple and pick out my most memorable experiences from the trip. Just a heads up:...
Thanks for a great trip, Birthright!
Thanks for a great trip, Birthright! By Brianna Bornstein '20 My experience on birthright was so special. If you had asked me a few months ago what I expected from this trip, I would have had no clue how to respond. I went in with an open mind and let the...
Andrew Getraer Shares Thoughts About Jerusalem, 50 Years After
Andrew Getraer Shares Thoughts About Jerusalem, 50 Years After By Andrew Getraer, Executive Director, June 7, 2017 50 years ago today, June 7, 1967, Jewish sovereignty was returned to Jerusalem, our holy city and eternal capital, for the first time since the 2nd...
Statement By Rutgers Hillel Board of Directors
STATEMENT BY RUTGERS HILLEL BOARD OF DIRECTORS As members of the Board of Directors of Rutgers Hillel, we reject recent calls for Hillel Director Andrew Getraer to apologize for "Islamophobic remarks.” Such claims are based on false charges made more than a year ago....
Thoughts on Yom HaShoa – Holocaust Memorial Day
Thoughts on Yom HaShoa – Holocaust Memorial Day by Andrew Getraer, Executive Director, Rutgers Hillel April 24, 2017 I will never forget the day that my wife Jean and I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau. It was a slate grey day in late fall/early winter. There was no...
First Student Board Gathering in the New Building
First Student Board Gathering in the New Building By Brittany Yesner '19 On Monday, January 16, the Rutgers Hillel Student Board met for the first time of the new secular year for our January Leadership Day. Leadership Day is an intensive training day for the Rutgers...
What Being Jewish Means to Me By Samantha Goldstein ’19
What Being Jewish Means to Me By Samantha Goldstein '19 This is the second of two blog posts written by students who spoke during the Rutgers Hillel Kol Nidre service for Yom Kippur. In the Jewish community, the holiday Yom Kippur represents a time to reflect on the...
What Being Jewish Means to Me
What Being Jewish Means to Me By Max DuBoff ’19 Max DuBoff ’19 This is the first of two blog posts written by students who spoke during the Rutgers Hillel Kol Nidre service for Yom Kippur. Yonkel goes to his rabbi and says, “Rabbi, I want you to make me a Levite.”...
Israel Changed Me Forever
Israel Changed Me Forever By Jordan Siegel, Class of 2018 Sam Kralle, Jordan Siegel, and Kelly Stimmel on their birthright trip For me Birthright was an eye opening and life changing experience. Before going on Birthright I felt little to no connection to the...
A Great Way to Kick Off the Year by Leila Gordon ’17 and Jacob Holdowsky ’17
A Great Way to Kick Off the Year by Leila Gordon '17 and Jacob Holdowsky '17 Leadership Day 2016 was the start to what is sure to be a great year for Rutgers Hillel. Although exhausting, the Hillel Board spent all day planning future events and discussing the...
Welcome & Welcome Back! By Sami Brandspiegel ’17
Welcome & Welcome Back! By Sami Brandspiegel '17 I remember my first weekend at Rutgers Hillel like it was yesterday, and believe me, sometimes I wish that it was still my freshmen year. For all current students, other than my fellow seniors, no one...
How can the Reform Movement Revitalize its Presence on College Campuses? by Sarah Joselow
How can the Reform Movement Revitalize its Presence on College Campuses? by Sarah Joselow (This article was originally published here and is being posted on our website with permission of the author.) Although Reform Jews represent the majority of American...
A Home Away from Home: Reflections on Four Years with Rutgers Hillel By Michael Guggenheim ’16
A Home Away from Home: Reflections on Four Years with Rutgers Hillel By Michael Guggenheim '16 For many people, college can be a time of extreme change. People both discover and lose interest in their passions, make friends from all different walks of life, and...
10 Extraordinary Days on Birthright
10 Extraordinary Days on Birthright by Jose Matiella ’17 I was never a religious person, and I don’t plan on becoming one. However, my birthright trip made me feel closer to the Jewish people and made me embrace my Jewish heritage. It’s an extraordinary...
Rutgers Hillel as “Bookends” for my College Career
Rutgers Hillel as “Bookends” for my College Career by Esti Mellul, class of 2016 Esti Mellul ’16 singing with Kol Halalya To say that Hillel has been an important part of my college career would be an understatement. Hillel has not just been a part of my...
The Trip of a Lifetime
The Trip of a Lifetime By Jacob Persily, Class of 2016 10 days – 12,000 miles in the air – 75 miles on foot – 1 incredible experience Jacob Persily ’16 at the kotel on Birthright with Rutgers Hillel in May 2016 There is no better way to characterize the incredible...
Rutgers Hillel Leadership Training Day
Rutgers Hillel Leadership Training Day By Max DuBoff, Class of 2019 Julia Motis ’17 , Ashtyn Greenstein ’17, Brittany Yesner ’19, Sam Snyder ’19 and Max DuBoff ’19 at Leadership Day in May 2016 I’m Max DuBoff, and I’m incredibly excited to serve as Koach/Conservative...
It’s a Small World After All by Sami Brandspiegel ’17
It's a Small World After All By Sami Brandspiegel, Class of 2017 Rutgers Hillel Student Board Vice President 2015-2016 Rutgers Hillel Student Board President 2016-2017 "Oh, you must know her! She's Jewish!" is a common phrase that I hear when I am talking to synagogue...
Building Bridges on Campus By Alex Hamilton ’16
Building Bridges on Campus By Alex Hamilton, Class of 2016 Rutgers Hillel Student Board President 2015-2016 When I started this year, I set out to do three things: to connect more organizations to Hillel, to encourage more inter-Hillel work, and to help the Rutgers...
Chocolate, Chocolate Everywhere! By Jaclyn Platt ’18
Chocolate, Chocolate Everywhere! By Jaclyn Platt, Class of 2018 Rutgers Hillel Student Board Conservative Community Chair 2015-2016 As a young child Passover was always my favorite holiday. At the same time, I always felt like I was missing out when my other friends...
My Bar Mitzvah Experiences with Rutgers Hillel by Robert Schenker ’19
My Bar Mitzvah Experiences with Rutgers Hillel By Robert Schenker, Class of 2019 When I first arrived at Rutgers University for the Fall 2015 semester, I had no idea what Jewish identity truly meant for me. I had always felt a strong link to Judaism, but never had the...
Coming Together – Interfaith Shabbat Dinner by Alex Hamilton ‘16 and Mudassar Zaidi ‘17
Coming Together - Interfaith Shabbat Dinner By Alex Hamilton '16 and Mudassar Zaidi '17 Alex Hamilton is a senior in the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences majoring in Jewish Studies and Middle-Eastern Studies. He is also the Rutgers Hillel Student Board...
Rutgers Hillel Helped Me Build a Jewish Life – And Eventually Become a Jewish Wife by Bethany Mandel ’08
Rutgers Hillel Helped Me Build a Jewish Life - And Eventually Become a Jewish Wife By Bethany Mandel, Class of 2008 When I arrived at Rutgers in the fall of 2005, I was dating a (very nice) non-Jewish guy from high school and my last name was Murphy. Despite that, I...
Jewish group expands trips to Israel for Rutgers students by Jacob Green ’19
Jewish group expands trips to Israel for Rutgers students Originally published in The Daily Targum on March 3, 2016 By Jacob Green, Class of 2019 Birthright Israel, a group that helps Jewish students travel to Israel, is ramping up outreach at Rutgers and...