Profile : Jacob E.
“I love the fact that Hillel Arts in the Loop is multi-campus so that Jewish students from all over, from different campuses, can connect with each other and together explore who we are as Jews in an artistic way.” Jacob was raised Jewish, though not religiously observant. In a small town with a very small Jewish population, he identified as Jewish. After a trip to Israel with his youth group and a post-high school year program in Israel during which he also visited Jewish communities around the globe, Jacob’s interest in his own Judaism and his relationship to Israel was ignited. When he decided to head to college in Chicago, he wanted to continue exploring his own Jewish identity and his connection to the community. Jacob came to Columbia College and majored in product design. He very quickly met Jewish students at Columbia and involved himself in Hillel. In his first year, Jacob took part in Hillel Arts in the Loop, which, like Columbia’s Hillel, is a program of Hillels Around Chicago. Through Hillel arts programming, Jacob met Jewish students from other Hillels Around Chicago schools downtown. He created a piece for “Hai Art,” an art exhibition in which students from various schools expressed their Jewishness through a variety of works. In his second year at Columbia, Jacob returned as Hillel’s student president. Deeply connected to Israel and Hebrew language, Jacob continues his own Hebrew learning. Among his plans as a Hillel student leader, Jacob is starting a casual, peer-led Hebrew class with other students. Committed to continuing his own Jewish growth, Jacob is also excited about helping grow his Jewish student community, which reaches across campuses in the city. “There’s a feeling that Jewish students here are growing as a community. If I can help keep that candle burning that would be great.” |
Hometown: Bethel, CT
