Hillel Blog

Rayna Schaff recently graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and became the new Jewish student life coordinator at St. Louis Hillel.  In this piece from jewishinstlouis.org, Rayna describes how she was able to explore Jewishly with UIUC Hillel and eventually step into her new role as a Hillel professional:

Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be many things: a marine biologist, a singer, a classroom English teacher. Had you asked me ten, five, or even two years ago, a career with Hillel would have been nowhere on that list.

I grew up in what I like to call a very “culturally Jewish” home in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago. I attended Hebrew school at a Conservative synagogue, I was Bat Mitzvahed, I ate my fill of potato kugel and matzo ball soup, and I smiled as my Jewish grandmother pinched my cheeks and told me I had a shayna punim. As my older brother became President of the local chapter of USY and my younger brother became involved with BBYO, I kept busy with my schoolwork, my friends, and my love for music. The few times a year my parents dragged us to shul, I would think of innovative ways I could pass the time: counting ceiling tiles, getting into thumb wars, and trying to think of clever ways to take passages from the siddur and transform them into song lyrics.

Fast forward about five years. I arrived in Champaign-Urbana, IL on my first day of college eager to make a name for myself. I walked around and signed up with as many clubs as I thought I could, until stumbling upon the Hillel booth. I met some of the friendly staff, told them I was Stu’s little sister (my older brother had designed their website) and moved on. Several weeks later, some of my girlfriends and I decided to give Friday night services at Hillel a try. After all, college was a time for experimentation.

There was no immediate ah-ha moment to be had. We showed up at the Hillel building that had been long outgrown. People were standing around in small groups with their friends, chatting about professors and parties they’d be attending later that night. The services were nice and student-led, and they were nothing like they were at home. We hadn’t planned on staying for dinner, but figured it would make our parents happy.

Before I knew it, the Shabbat services that had turned into dinner became so much more. I met fascinating people from all different types of backgrounds and began learning that there was so much to being Jewish that I had never explored. I met the Rabbi and his wife who invited me to classes and events. I was asked to be a student intern and began to feel invested in the Jewish community. Over the next few years, I would go on to serve on the UIUC (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) Local Board of Governors, the UIUC  Hillel Student Leadership Board, and ultimately, the Hillel International Board of Directors. All were extremely formative experiences that allowed me to grow as a leader, as an individual, and as a Jew.

Read more » 

Join over 1,000 University of Chicago students and professors for an evening of academic fun and frivolity! Every year, four of the University’s most prominent scholars waste decades of their accumulated knowledge by applying their respective expertise to this most inane of questions: Which is better? The Latke of the Hamantash?

The Latke-Hamantash Debate has been a University of Chicago tradition since 1946. Past participants and commentators have included Nobel Prize winners Milton Friedman and Leon Lederman; three university presidents, former Chicago President Hanna Gray, former Princeton University President Harold Shapiro and key people from a wide range of academic disciplines.

November 24, 2009
Mandel Hall, 1131 East 57th Street, Chicago
7:00PM-9:00PM
FREE and open to the public. Reception to follow: $5

Summer in Chicago? Apply for Lewis Summer Internships!

Undergrads residing (parental residence) or attending school in Illinois: Apply online at www.juf.org/lsip for the Lewis Family Summer Intern Program 2010, offering 26 paid internships in agencies/departments of the Jewish Federation. Potential work experiences in : development, marketing, public relations, grant writing and finance; direct service with youth, the elderly and special needs; journalism, event coordination, sports management and educational programming. Write lsip@juf.org or call 312-444-2868 to schedule a Winter Break interview in Chicago.

Application Deadline: Feb. 26, 2010
Interview Deadline: March 19, 2010

Highly subsidized student tickets to Chicago cultural events are made available for students through the generous contribution of the Gordon Brookstone Cultural Fund.

November 2009 Brookstone events include:

• Faust, November 3, Lyric Opera, 7:30pm
  Student cost: $10 sold out
• Vladimir Feltsman, November 8, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 3pm
  Student cost: $10
• Richard III, November 19, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 7:30
  Student cost after refund: $10

For more information on these events, please email suzannestorrs@juf.org.

Rachel Wides understands Jewish life in Carbondale, Illinois. A first-year social work student and Carbondale native, Wides is also the new director of Hillel at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

With such a small Jewish population in the town, Carbondale's Hillel house is crucial in the development of the Jewish community there, explained Wides. And, Jewish student life in Carbondale has seen tremendous growth, with numbers of active Jewish students up from last year.

Read more about Hillel's growth at Southern Illinois from the Daily Egyptian newspaper.

Read about Hillel students participating in Holocaust education in Carbondale. 

A CHARITABLE GIFT ANNUITY is a contract between you and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.  It is a combination of an annuity and a charitable gift. When you establish a charitable gift annuity with a minimum of $10,000, you receive quarterly fixed payments for life regardless of the economy or prevailing rates. The amounts of payments depend on your age. Part of your payment will be tax free and you will get a charitable income tax deduction.  You can also fund the annuity with common stock for more tax benefits.

Here is a sample of our CURRENT one-life gift annuity rates*

Age - Rate
90 - 10.5%
85- 8.9%
80 - 7.7%
75 - 6.8%
70 - 6.2%
65 - 5.9%

*Two-life and deferred gift annuities are also available.

Begin the year by securing payments for life, high rates, and a charitable tax deduction. At the end of the gift annuity, the
remainder can be designated to go to the Hillels of Illinois Endowment Foundation and will be recognized as a gift to the Jewish Federation’s Centennial Campaign, securing a Jewish future for the next generation.

If you or your financial advisor has questions, want a personalized illustration or set up an appointment, please contact Deborah Samuels, Director of the Agency Endowment Program at (312) 357-4853 or legacy@juf.org.

The IRA CHARITABLE ROLLOVER PROVISION allows you to make a distribution from your IRA to the Hillels of Illinois tax free. This tax savings opportunity will expire on December 31, 2009. Before time runs out, consider making a contribution to the Hillels of Illinois, the Jewish United Fund Annual Campaign, and/or the Jewish Federation’s Centennial Campaign.

The benefits are:

• IRA distributions directly to charities are not treated as a taxable distribution to you (but you would not receive a charitable deduction for the distribution amount)
• You would be able to remove taxable assets from your estate; and
• Your generosity would help Jews when they need it most.

The requirements are as follows:

• Donors must be at least 70 ½ years old;
• Charitable gifts may not exceed $100,000 per year;
• Distributions can only be made to qualified charitable organizations such as the Hillels of Illinois or the JUF;
• Distributions must be made directly to the charitable organization through the plan administrator; and
• IRA charitable rollover distributions may not be made to a philanthropic fund, supporting foundation, split interest trust or charitable gift annuity. 

Even though the requirement to make a minimum distribution has been suspended for 2009, it may still be beneficial to make a withdrawal since the IRA charitable rollover provision ends this year. We encourage you to consult with your professional advisor and to contact the Federation’s Agency Endowment Program at (312) 357-4853 to learn more about this legislation and how distributions from your IRA may fit into your charitable giving plans.

Hillel at Loyola continues to take the lead with some unique intergroup programming that once again brings together students from diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds. 

Hillel and the Hindu students started the new school year by co-hosting a fast-breaking vegetarian/kosher iftar meal for the Muslim student community at Loyola.  The event, which brought together a group of over 125, was an incredibly moving experience for students who came together for the event and some have already planned to make this an annual event. “There was such a visceral sense of community,” said Loyal Hillel director Patti Ray.  “It is really hard even for me to put into words that intangible sense of being part of something very special.  When all the Muslim students who had been fasting all day had taken their dinner, the Jewish and Hindu students got their dinner and sat among their Muslim peers and shared their dinner together.”

In another program that Ray believes also demonstrates Loyola’s unique intergroup dynamics, hundreds of students gathered in the student union building for “Rosh HaShanah Mazanas Y Miel,” a celebration of Rosh Hashana and Mexican Heritage Day, which kicked-off Latino Heritage Month (two students from the event pictured).  For over 20 years, Loyola Hillel has distributed apples and honey, as well as hot fudge and caramel, to the Loyola community.  This year there was an addition of kosher Latin food, as well as a mariachi band introduced by a rabbi blowing a shofar. “Now that’s a Loyola story,” said Ray.