Latest News from Campus

Jewish students across North America marked Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, with their campus Hillels, leading programming that included Israeli food, trivia, block parties, music, and dance. At Texas Hillel, Rabbi Stephanie Max said Hillel “creates space for students to explore what.. [Israel] means for them,” describing it as an integral part of Jewish life and learning.

Across the country,  Black-Jewish Unity Dinners are bringing students together for shared meals and guided conversations aimed at addressing antisemitism, racism, and campus polarization. The initiative, launched by Hillel International, UNCF, and the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate, encourages students to build relationships, share personal experiences, and find common ground. The gatherings have expanded nationwide as students work to rebuild historical connections between the two communities.

At the University of Vermont (UVM), students gathered at Hillel for a Yom HaZikaron dinner led by an Israel Fellow, where shared recipes, conversation, and personal reflections shaped the evening. The program highlighted how shlichim at Vermont and elsewhere help facilitate Israel education and build community through meaningful, student-centered programming.

More than 100 Jewish student creators gathered in New York City for Hillel’s fourth annual Content Creators Forum, a multi-day program focused on digital storytelling and community-building. Participants took part in hands-on workshops, storytelling immersives, and media training sessions led by established professionals and creators, including Jake “Silly Jake” Goldberg, with a focus on sharing Jewish identity and experiences online. The forum also offered opportunities for mentorship and collaboration, equipping students with tools to create content that amplifies Jewish voices across platforms.

Rabbi Yonatan Arnon, a senior Jewish educator and rabbi at Johns Hopkins Hillel, is introducing mindfulness-based programming to help students build connections and navigate academic pressure. Drawing on experience in settings ranging from prison chaplaincy to campus life, Arnon is expanding Hillel offerings to include Jewish learning, interfaith engagement, and wellness-focused initiatives.

Kate Hartman, the Springboard Fellow at George Mason University Hillel, led immersive Holocaust education efforts for Yom HaShoah this year, designing programming to deepen student engagement with historical memory. Drawing on her own experiences studying the Holocaust, she created a campus “gallery walk” inspired by stolpersteine, memorial stones placed across Europe to honor victims of the Holocaust.