Destination JEWISH FUTURE PRIOR TO TRAVEL, PLEASE FILL IN THE INFORMATION BELOW Name HILLEL: THE FOUNDATION FOR JEWISH CAMPUS LIFE Place of Birth URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS Date of Birth 1923 Vision HILLEL SEEKS TO INSPIRE EVERY JEWISH STUDENT TO MAKE AN ENDURING COMMITMENT TO JEWISH LIFE. Mission HILLEL’S MISSION IS TO ENRICH THE LIVES OF JEWISH UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE STUDENTS SO THAT THEY MAY ENRICH THE JEWISH PEOPLE AND THE WORLD. Values HILLEL PURSUES ITS MISSION BY: * CREATING A PLURALISTIC, WELCOMING AND INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENT; * FOSTERING STUDENT GROWTH AND THE BALANCE IN BEING DISTINCTIVELY JEWISH AND UNIVERSALLY HUMAN; * ADVANCING TZEDEK (SOCIAL JUSTICE), JEWISH LEARNING AND SPIRITUALITY; * EMBRACING ISRAEL AND GLOBAL JEWISH PEOPLEHOOD; AND * DELIVERING EXCELLENCE, INNOVATION, ACCOUNTABILITY AND RESULTS. Signature of Bearer NOT VALID UNTIL SIGNED IN CASE OF EMERGENCY PLEASE CONTACT Name HILLEL: THE FOUNDATION FOR JEWISH CAMPUS LIFE Address CHARLES AND LYNN SCHUSTERMAN INTERNATIONAL CENTER ARTHUR AND ROCHELLE BELFER BUILDING 800 EIGHTH STREET, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20001 Phone 202-449-6500 Fax 202-449-6600 E-mail [email protected] Web WWW.HILLEL.ORG JOURNEYS AND HOMECOMINGS A young man recently walked into a Hillel building and asked to speak with a rabbi about converting to Judaism. His Jewish journey had begun years earlier when his parents divorced and he went to live with a Jewish relative. Now, as he prepared to graduate from college, he wanted to formalize his commitment to the Jewish people. Judaism wasn’t just a destination for him, it was also a homecoming. And he turned to Hillel to help him on his path. Every day, Hillel professionals help tens of thousands of Jewish students to chart their own unique Jewish journeys. Regardless of their origin or their destination, each student is treated with compassion and care. Working around the world, Hillel professionals are finding new ways to engage Jewish students in meaningful Jewish experiences. Our vision is to inspire every Jewish student to make an enduring commitment to Jewish life. The year 2007 was another milestone in Hillel’s history. Under newly-elected President Wayne L. Firestone, Hillel began to implement its Five-Year Strategic Plan. Hillel opened new branches in Argentina and Israel. We undertook new programs to fulfill our mission: To enrich the lives of Jewish undergraduate and graduate students so that they may enrich the Jewish people and the world. Higher education is a crossroads. Hillel helps students to make fulfilling journeys and to find meaningful homecomings. Edgar M. Bronfman Chairman, International Board of Governors Julian Sandler Chairman, Board of Directors Wayne L. Firestone President “OUR OBJECTIVE AT THE CHARLES SCHUSTERMAN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT LEADERS ASSEMBLY WAS TO SUPPORT THE YOUNG PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN OUR HISTORICAL MAINSTAYS WHILE ADVANCING OUR STRATEGIC PLANNING GOAL OF DOUBLING THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS INVOLVED IN JEWISH LIFE AND INCLUDING JEWISH STUDENTS WE HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE.” Wayne L. Firestone, President, Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life DATE For the first time, Hillel’s Charles Schusterman International Student Leaders Assembly featured separate tracks for students with extensive and limited Jewish involvement. Through experiential learning, Hillel taught students to create welcoming environments on their campuses. Young people with strong Jewish backgrounds were encouraged to experience different approaches to Jewishness. Those with limited backgrounds were introduced to the range of Jewish experiences for the first time. “Our objective was to support the young people who have been our historical mainstays while advancing our strategic planning goal of doubling the number of students involved in Jewish life and including Jewish students we have never seen before,” explained Hillel President Wayne L. Firestone. The University of Arizona Hillel created “Shabbat Uncensored,” an innovative Shabbat program that allowed students to create their own meaningful Shabbat experience in their residence halls, fraternity houses or apartments. Students received a take-home kit equipped with all the essentials for a do-it-yourself Shabbat. The kit included Hillel’s new “Shabbat Information Cards” created by Hillel’s Joseph Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Learning to provide a student- friendly introduction to Shabbat. USEFUL LANGUAGE English Spanish Russian Hebrew HELLO HOLA ZDRAVSTVUITYE SHALOM GOODBYE ADIOS DA SVIDANYA SHALOM YES SI DA KEN NO NO NIET LO PLEASE POR FAVOR PAZHALSTA BVAKASHA THANK YOU GRACIAS SPACIBO TODAH JOURNEY I DATE Nearly 1,100 Jewish students from 32 campuses joined more than 20,000 activists in New York’s Central Park on Sunday, September 17 to rally in solidarity with the people of Darfur. American University Hillel, which organized two buses for the rally, returned to campus to learn that the university’s Board of Trustees voted to divest from companies doing business with Sudan. More than 1,500 members of the Cornell community participated in Hillel’s Shabbat 1000 event. Cornell President David J. Skorton attended the event a day after his inauguration. “JUDAISM IS A MULTIPLICITY OF OPINIONS AND A MULTIPLICITY OF WORLD VIEWS.” Cornell President David J. Skorton “‘JUST FOR A DAY’ DEMONSTRATED THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF TZEDEK WORK IN THE COLLEGIATE COMMUNITY, A FUTURE THAT EXTENDS FAR BEYOND THE COURSE OF A DAY — BUT INTO A LIFETIME.” Michelle Lyon, UCLA Student Activist DATE Gadi Goldwasser, brother of kidnapped Israeli soldier, Ehud Goldwasser, visited Queens College Hillel during an international tour to rally support for his safe return. “Ehud was working on his master’s degree in environmental engineering. He wanted to help the planet. He was the type of person the world really needs,” said Goldwasser. For many college students this year, a succah was more than just a temporary space for celebration: it was a place to help others in need. At Butler University, Jewish students teamed up with Gift of Life to organize a bone marrow donor registration drive in their succah. At the University of Virginia and Ball State University students raised money for local charities by spending the night sleeping inside their succahs. In Israel, students from Tel Aviv University and Haifa Hillel volunteered to build and decorate a succah for women and children staying at a domestic violence shelter in Haifa. “One little 4-year-old girl described to me, with tears running down her cheeks, how she used to watch her father hit her mother knowing there was nothing she could do to stop it,” said Alexandra ben Ari, a graduate student at Tel Aviv University. More than 50 women learned basic self-defense techniques that could save their lives at TAKE the Hill, a program sponsored by Hillel at the University of Kansas. The program was co-sponsored by KU’s Sigma Delta Tau chapter and the KU Emily Taylor Women’s Resource Center. TAKE the Hill was run by The Ali Kemp Educational Foundation (TAKE), an organization founded in response to the 2002 rape and murder of Ali Kemp, a Kansas State University student. The organization promotes self-defense and safety awareness programs and provides an online listing of self-defense courses for women across the country. DATE Two Hillel facilities, a continent apart, debuted in October with a common goal: provide a welcoming space for students. After nearly three years of careful planning and strategic fundraising, the Hillel at the University of Denver opened the Merage and Allon Hillel Center. Across the continent in Quebec, Canada, the Hillel of Montreal re-opened its Jack Reitman Hillel House after thoroughly renovating the nearly 100-year-old building. JOURNEY II “THIS IS OUR GENERATION'S CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT. YOUNG PEOPLE CAN GET A JOB IN ANOTHER CITY AND BE BORED SITTING BEHIND A DESK OR THEY CAN COME TO NEW ORLEANS, HAVE AN EXCITING OPPORTUNITY, TAKE A LEADERSHIP ROLE, AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE.” Nathan Rothstein, Former University of Massachusetts Amherst Hillel Student Activist DATE Inaugurated in the summer of 2006, The Everett Family Tzedek Initiative promoted Jewish ethics and student leadership development. The Everett Initiative provided a package of training and grants to 12 Hillels to strengthen their social justice work. The program was created by Edith Everett, a member of Hillel’s International Board of Governors and Board of Directors. The program provided social justice Margot Stern, a University of Florida training to Hillel professionals, an educational alumna, represented the World Jewish curriculum to familiarize students with the Jewish Congress and Hillel at a press conference approach to social justice, as well as grants to for the UN Human Rights Council special support tzedek programs on campus. session on Darfur in Geneva, Switzerland. JOURNEY III DATE More than 200 guests attended the opening of the new home of Hillel of Broward and Palm Beach, the Mildred Weinberger Jewish Life Center. “I think that a physical space truly strengthens and solidifies the students’ identity,” said Hillel of Broward and Palm Beach Executive Director Darin Diner. “For many years we truly were wandering Jews. We operated out of backpacks and the trunks of cars. And yet that never deterred us. There is now a sense of pride and ownership and, I think, real prestige because of the prominence of this location.” DATE Determined to show solidarity with Israel, a group of 20 New York-area college students took to the sky for the first “Jump for Israel.” This daylong skydiving event was an opportunity for the students to raise money and awareness for Israel. They asked friends and family to sponsor their tandem jump and donated the proceeds to the American Friends of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). “This definitely was a real action-based, out-of-the-box idea, but it got the students excited and involved,” acknowledged Elit Goldberger, Israel Fellow at Queens College. This Chanukah was particularly memorable for more than a dozen Hillel students who celebrated the holiday with President and Mrs.