Latest News from Campus

The Albert & Norma Geller Hillel Student Center at Case Western Reserve University is celebrating its 10th anniversary as a hub for Jewish life across Greater Cleveland. While Cleveland Hillel has served the community since 1949, the current center building opened in 2016. The center has provided Jewish undergraduate, graduate, and professional students from 11 colleges and universities with a welcoming space to connect, celebrate Shabbat and holidays, explore Jewish identity, and build lasting friendships.

In an interview with “Wondering Jews with Mijal and Noam” co-host Noam Weissman, Hillel International Student Cabinet member and fourth-year University of Miami student Ethan Goetz shares how Hillel supported him after October 7th, inspiring him to become more involved in Jewish campus life. “Hillel was there for me and all of my friends,” he recalls. Since then, Goetz has deepened his involvement in Jewish campus life by creating opportunities for students to connect through Jewish cooking, running, and Israel. He also discusses the importance of strong relationships, finding Jewish joy, and helping students discover their place in the Jewish community.

Cleveland Hillel named Tilly Shemer as its next executive director. Shemer previously served as executive director of the University of Michigan Hillel where she supported Jewish student life, strengthened campus community, and expanded opportunities for Jewish learning and engagement. Shemer brings nearly two decades of experience in Jewish communal leadership, including in Israel affairs at Hillel of Greater Toronto.

Posters targeting Oregon Hillel Executive Director Lenny Steinberg appeared across the University of Oregon campus, featuring his photo and labeling him an “enemy of the people” while also calling for “Hillel off campus.”  In response, University President Karl Scholz condemned the flyers, writing in a university-wide email that “language that targets based on religious and ethnic identity – is reprehensible,” and adding, “We can be better.” U.S. lawmakers Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Rep. Val Hoyle (D-OR) also issued a statement, saying, “Hate, intimidation, and antisemitism have no place on our college campuses, in our state or our country.”

Hillel of San Diego reports record start-of-year engagement across its four campuses, with more than 800 students participating and nearly 25% reaching the organization’s “deeply engaged” threshold of attending Hillel more than six times. Students are also seeking consistent weekly programs, meals, and community support while taking on leadership roles: from organizing a Shabbat service program at San Diego State University to managing recruitment and events at the University of San Diego and Cal State San Marcos.

In a recent op-ed, Grinspoon Hillel at Cornell CEO Rabbi Ari Weiss discussed activist Hasan Piker’s appearance at the university and the potential of Piker’s hateful words to incite violence. As Jewish life at Cornell was returning to normal in the post-October 7th world, Weiss said the event made Jewish students feel ostracized on campus,  writing to the student body in The Cornell Daily Sun, “I understand that Piker has views that you may want to hear said aloud. Our community’s well documented experience over the last three years show that words, though cheap to say, have costs to those who hear them.”