Engaging the Already Empowered

"You don't need Hillel, Hillel needs you." -Caryn Roman

Ah the paradox of Jewish Life on Campus, and it has taken me this long to figure it out.

disclaimer to my students who read my blog: this is not a kvetching session. In fact, this is a challenge to the staff of Hillel Centers across the country.

So after about three years i have finally figured it out. We've been spending so much time focusing on how to outreach to high school students, specifically the regional leaders of NFTY, trying to get them involved in jewish life on campus, specifically within the confines of "Hillel." The commonly accepted reason why we aren't reaching these students has been for the longest time that we've burned them out, and that they want nothing to do with organized Jewish Life in College, because that's what they experienced in high school.

After contemplating this while watching the Ravens comeback from 11 points down to beat the Browns this afternoon (In which God proved his presence to me yet again, guiding matt stover's 52 yard game-winning field goal through the uprights), i came to this epiphany. It's not that these students leaders have no desire to get involved. It's that they are looking for something that can challenge them the way NFTY did. They are looking for something to feed there jewish education beyond what they received in their high school setting. To use the great visionary David Singer's quote, they are starving. And the fact of the matter is that Hillel isn't providing anything that they can grab on to, anything out of the ordinary.

Hillel is so caught up in engaging the secular or post-denominational Jew, that they've completely left out an entire group of students who already have a deep pre-existing connection to their Judaism. Sure there are the few of us who walk into the door of their Hillel on Day 1, and get onto the eighteen different boards, and do the presidencies, but really, how is that any different from what we were doing building Temple Youth Groups, and developing programming in High School?

"You don't need Hillel, Hillel needs you." Yep. Essentially i've hung around my hillel for the past three years cultivating a Reform Jewish Community at NYU, developing a pluralistic dialogue between the minyanim, and creating a welcoming environment for jews of all types to feel comfortable.

But what have i gotten out of it asides from a good resume booster and a great circle of friends? Have i truly enriched by Judaism by spending almost every waking minute dealing with beaucracy, ridiculous staff turnover, and politics? The simple answer is no. Most of my enlightenment has come from my time in other Jewish settings - via my work at Kutz, and surrounding myself with people who force me to continually challenge myself to go deeper.

Who are these people who do that? Unfortunately it's not the people who it "should" be. They are young professionals, just a few years older than I am. In a sense, they are my peers.

So for any Hillel Professional who walks across this blog, i ask of you to do several things:

1. An empowered leader needs to be challenged. Do not utilize them as a tool for engaging uninvolved students. Provide them with resources to go deeper. Create for them an environment which truly allows them to grow, as a college student, as a leader, and most importantly as a Jew.

2. Recognize a reality. Utilize the resources around you. Allow students to explore their judaism in other forms. Encourage it. Provide them with the ability to experience something that may not be available within the walls of a building. Spiritually we're looking for more. We want more. We need more. Help us find those unique experiences, and let us explore them. And then afterwards, provide us with the ability to communicate our experiences in a positive way.

3. An empowered leader always has something new to learn. Instead of having the empowered leaders always developing and running the programming, develop and run programming specifically for them, that truly meets their Jewish needs.

"You don't need Hillel. Hillel needs You."

Make us need Hillel. Make us Crave It.
Provide us those avenues for growth.

I have had the unique ability to have a slew of mentors over the past several years to help and lead me through my Jewish Life. I've learned so much from them, and hopefully have in turn taught something to them. They've provided me with confidence in who i am as a Reform Jew, and challenged me in ways that i never thought possible. They asked the tough questions, and allowed me to truly go deeper. You all know who you are. Thank You.

Now it's your turn. Step up to the plate, and challenge us like you've never challenged us before.