In this Issue:

• Meet Andrew.

• Heated environment for DePaul Jewish students

• ASB trips underway

• Passover on campuses

• Transforming life on campus

Save the date: The Hillels of Illinois Benefit 2009 honoring you, our supporters, with a night of smart, funny, interactive improv featuring ComedySportz. Thursday, June 25, 2009, Hilton Chicago. Call 312-673-2354 for more information.

Hometown: Frankfort, IL
School: University of Illinois at Chicago
Majors: Theater; Economics
Graduation date: 2011
Hillel involvement: Levine Hillel at the University of Illinois at Chicago

“Hillel helped me connect with this community on campus that I might not have been comfortable with before, because I wasn’t comfortable with what it meant for me to be Jewish.”

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Hillel students and staff were shocked to discover swastikas and other hateful markings defacing their Hillel flyers earlier this month. Following the recent conflict with Gaza, Hillels across the country are falling victim to rising tensions on college campuses, and DePaul University is no exception. Hillels Around Chicago staff along with the Jewish Federation’s Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) have been working together to address students needs as the environment continues to show signs of hostility.

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With Hillel, more than 1,200 Jewish students are engaging in social justice projects over their spring breaks. With the support and encouragement of JUF, students from campuses within the Hillels of Illinois system are this month enjoying various Alternative Spring Break experiences, connecting Jewishly through social service and tzedek. This spring:

• Fiedler Hillel is bringing 28 students to Cuba for humanitarian work and 23 more students to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• Eleven students from the University of Chicago are off to New Orleans with the Newberger Hillel
• Ten students are currently in New Orleans with Hillels Around Chicago
• Eleven students from the University of Illinois at Chicago are currently in New Orleans with Levine Hillel
• Hillel at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is sending seven students to New Orleans, with another 12 headed for Uruguay.
  

Hillels across the state are celebrating Passover and providing meaningful opportunities for Jewish students to experience the holiday. In addition to large community-wide seders and holiday meals at a number of campuses, some Hillels will also be providing resources for students to host their own seders, or take part in student-led meals and services on and off campus.
To learn more about opportunities available on our campuses, and to make sure that a student you know has the information to sign up for programs through Hillel, please visit the Hillels of Illinois' campuses page for websites and contacts for various campuses. For Passover on campus opportunities outside the Hillels of Illinois system please search Hillel.org for contact information or visit the Passover resources page.

When Daniel Libenson describes his vision to a group, detailing an intricate plan to transform Jewish life on campus, he gets excited. Happily making his pitch with diagrams and figures, explaining how Hillel can more effectively connect students to Jewish life in a lasting, meaningful way, Libenson himself inspires as he illustrates Hillel’s potential to impact Jewish lives.

This year, under Libenson, the Newberger Hillel at the University of Chicago has implemented the first phase of the Jethro Initiative, a four-year model for engaging students in Jewish life as well as facilitating their growth and connection to Jewish life in adulthood. The program and the thought behind it are gaining much attention in the Hillel world and the Jewish community at large.

In a one-on-one conversation, Libenson talked about Newberger’s work with the Jethro Initiative.

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