by Esther Reed | Jul 6, 2017 | Hillel
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...
by Esther Reed | Jun 29, 2017 | Hillel
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...
by Esther Reed | Jun 7, 2017 | Hillel
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...
by Esther Reed | May 25, 2017 | Hillel
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...
by Esther Reed | May 24, 2017 | Hillel
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...
by Esther Reed | Jan 24, 2017 | Hillel
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...
by Esther Reed | Nov 22, 2016 | Hillel
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...
by Esther Reed | Sep 7, 2016 | Hillel
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...
by Esther Reed | Sep 2, 2016 | Hillel
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...
by Esther Reed | Aug 24, 2016 | Hillel
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...
by Esther Reed | Aug 15, 2016 | Hillel
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...
by Esther Reed | Jun 1, 2016 | Hillel
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...
by Esther Reed | May 19, 2016 | Hillel
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...
by Esther Reed | May 3, 2016 | Hillel
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...
by Esther Reed | Apr 19, 2016 | Hillel
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...
by Esther Reed | Apr 12, 2016 | Hillel
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...
by Esther Reed | Apr 6, 2016 | Hillel
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...
by Esther Reed | Mar 4, 2016 | Hillel
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...
by Esther Reed | Feb 24, 2016 | Hillel
Jewish, Christian and Muslim Dialogue: “Night of Encouragement” By Manya Goldstein, Class of 2019 Dozens of students filed into the Graduate Student Lounge on the cold evening of January 27, ushered in by the low lighting and warm atmosphere. They were greeted by the...
by Esther Reed | Feb 19, 2016 | Hillel
Birthright with Rutgers Hillel: A Personal Journey By Nehama Hanoch, Class of 2018 When I initially applied to go to Israel with Birthright, I was looking forward to a free trip to Israel – a chance to visit a place I had heard so much about but had never been to. In...
