Lindsay Biebelberg:
Welcome to our celebration of 73 years of Jewish life at Brandeis. My name is Lindsay Biebelberg and I'm a senior. I've been involved in Hillel since I was a first year, and in 2019, I was Hillel Student Board president. We have a fun evening planned; a chance for parents to see what it's like to be a student at Brandeis Hillel, a chance for students to see what it's like to be a parent at Brandeis, a chance for alumni to remember and have fun and a chance for our Waltham neighbors to have an enjoyable evening. Please take a moment to put in the chat where you're from and say, hello.
Lindsay Biebelberg:
We had people register from this evening from near and far, including Israel, London, Toronto, and Australia. It's very exciting to see all of you. I would like to introduce you to my two co-hosts this evening, Alec Gelman, who was the president of the Student Board this past year and Sarah Bernstein, who is the current Student Board president.
Alec Gelman:
Thank you for that wonderful introduction, Lindsay. We have so much planned for all of you this evening. We are of course marking the one year anniversary of the start of the pandemic and the date which students were sent home, which if you remember, happened very fast. Tonight, we would like to recognize how Brandeis Hillel has thrived during the past year and how it supports Brandeis University's 73 years of Jewish life.
Sarah Bernstein:
You'll need the clapper that you were sent earlier this month, which of course doubles as a grogger. This year, Brandeis was all about hugging our community, keeping us close, even when we had to be apart. So please, get out your clapper. This is our version of a hug tonight. And let us know that you're with us this evening for some fun and send all of us a hug with your clapper. And if you don't have a clapper, please send us a wave.
Ron Liebowitz:
Greetings. I'm very happy to welcome you here tonight to celebrate 73 years of Jewish life on campus. Having an active Hillel on a campus like Brandeis is critical and important for students' life outside the classroom. Hillel offers vital social, cultural and educational opportunities for students that wouldn't otherwise be possible. It offers a place for questions to be asked an answer to pursued for study for a whole bunch of issues related to our students' Judaism. That is a rich environment for learning.
Meyer Koplow:
It is indeed a pleasure to be with you to celebrate Brandeis Hillel under the extraordinary leadership of Rabbi Seth Winberg and Rabbis, Stephanie and Ellen. Brandeis Hillel has become one of our country's exemplary Hillels. Jewish life is such an important part of the Brandeis student experience that it's hard to imagine Brandeis without it. Thank you for joining us this evening and being a part of Brandeis Hillel and thank you for all you do to sustain Brandeis Hillel and support by bringing Jewish life at Brandeis.
Seth Winberg:
Welcome to our celebration. I'm Seth Winberg, the executive director of Brandeis Hillel. This evening, we'd like to share with you what Brandeis Hillel is all about. Ever since the first Hillel was created in 1923, we've empowered young adults to build communities that they and their peers are excited about and passionate about. Talented professionals provide mentorship and guidance so that students can develop as young adults and as leaders. At Brandeis, we're so fortunate to have passionate students and talented staff.
Seth Winberg:
The Brandeis Hillel Student Board knew that it would be a real challenge for new students to connect and make new friends this fall. They knew the physiological and psychological benefits of interpersonal connections. And so, they started the year by sending a video to new students. Here's a shortened version.
Laurel:
Hi, I am Laurel And this is how I hug.Do you want some challah?
Becky:
Hi, my name is Becky and I hug through FaceTime.
Lily Fish:
My name is Lily Fish, and I hug by helping plan Jewish sisterhood events.
Ezra:
Hi, I'm Ezra and I hug by reading.
Aviva:
Hi everybody, I'm Aviva and I hug by calling my friends and telling them that I love them.
Lindsay:
Hi, my name's Lindsay. I'm a senior and this is how I hug. Can't wait to meet you all soon.
Haddasah:
Hi, I'm Haddasah and this is how I hug. I can't wait to see all of you on campus.
Juliana Sherer:
Hello, we're the board of Manginah, an affiliate group of Hillel at Brandeis and the university's Jewish acapella group. Manginah has been such an important part of each of our experiences at Brandeis. And for many of us, it has fostered and strengthened our connection to Jewish life on campus. We are so excited to be a part of this celebration.
Lily Morris:
Tonight, you'll be hearing our mashup of the songs, O by the Israeli pop singer, Eliud and Lights by Ellie Goulding. We've performed this song at fundraisers, celebrations, and Shabbat meals. And now we're thrilled to share what we love to do with all of you.
Rebecca Soslowsky:
We feel that this theme of lights is appropriate for our current moment as we look toward a more hopeful future toward the light at the end of the tunnel. As the weather begins to change and the world slowly finds normalcy again, we know that Hashemesh Tachzor, the sun will return any day now. Enjoy.
Professor Jonathan Sarna:
Brandeis per capita, has trained more Rabbis and Jewish leaders than any secular university campus in the diaspora. And one is always fascinated when you go around the country discovering, oh this one was a Brandeis graduate. That one was a Brandeis graduate, and it's not accident that these folks were able to leave Brandeis and train to be Jewish leaders. It was Brandeis that empowered them to be Rabbis and communal leaders. And in any number of cases, one can see students who were leaders during their time at Brandeis, who then became leaders in the American Jewish community.
Nancy Kaufman:
I became a community organizer, went into the anti-poverty work, and after 20 years working in the secular community, started working in the Jewish community. And I'd say the thread that always carried me through my time at Brandeis and beyond was really justice and truth. And that's really the motto of Brandeis. So for me, I was very proud to have gone to a school that epitomized who I am as a woman, as a feminist, as a Jew, as someone committed to social justice, and I have been privileged to be able to spend my career, since then, pursuing justice.
Raymond Lu-Ming Ou:
It's an honor to be able to greet you this evening. I would like to thank all of you for not only being here, but also to thank Hillel for all that you have done for our community and continue to do. We're deeply grateful to have this collaboration at Brandeis University.
Sarah Bernstein:
We hope people are enjoying the evening so far. Recently, there was a Yiddish category on the program Jeopardy and the contestants were clearly schvitzing. Only two contestants got two right. We don't have Mayim Bialik here right now. You know, she is going to be hosting Jeopardy for a week soon, but we do have the jeopardy question and can see how we all would have done if we were all contestants that evening. When The questions appear, please give your answer.
Sarah Bernstein:
Okay, I'll take Yiddish for 400.
Alec Gelman:
Sometimes in the middle of the night, I'll head to the kitchen and do some of this from the Yiddish for snacking. Your options are A, Gishpellan B, Patchke C, Tance D, Nosh or E, Fleishik.
Sarah Bernstein:
What is Nosh?
Alec Gelman:
That is correct, Sarah. And it seems the folks at home studied Yiddish as well. Everyone did very very well.
Lindsay Biebelberg:
I'll take Yiddish for 600, please.
Alec Gelman:
This verb means to haul or move with effort. Your options are: A, Schimmie B, Schmooze C, Kvetch D, Plotz, Or E, Schlep
Lindsay Biebelberg:
What is Schlep?
Alec Gelman:
That is correct. The competition is heating up and the folks at home are doing great as well.
Sarah Bernstein:
I'll take Yiddish for 800 for 800.
Alec Gelman:
All right. The opening to Laverne & Shirley used these two Yiddish words, one meaning and oaf, and the other, an unlucky person. Your options are A, Moishe & Offnick B, Schlemiel & Schlemazel, C, Schmendrick & Schlub D, Schemata & Schvitzor E, Meshugenah & Schpeil.
Sarah Bernstein:
What is Schlemiel & Schlemazel?
Alec Gelman:
That is correct. And to the folks at home, y'all are doing great as well. This is a landslide victory we got going on here.
Lindsay Biebelberg:
Okay. I'll take Yiddish for a thousand.
Alec Gelman:
This word for cheap and shoddily made goods now usually refers to cheap or shoddily made entertainment. A, Schmutz B, Schmaltz , C, Schmear D, Shtick or E, Schlock.
Lindsay Biebelberg:
What is Schlock?
Alec Gelman:
That is correct. Thank you to our rockstar contestants on stage and to those playing along at home, everyone did excellent. Let's give a big hug and round of applause to our jeopardy contestants.
Seth Winberg:
Brandeis was established in 1948 by a group of individuals with a vision, a Jewish sponsored liberal arts university that would be open to all, and that would counter the antisemitism in American higher education. And these individuals made their vision for Brandeis, a reality, a place where all students could achieve academically and where Jewish students could be proudly and unabashedly Jewish.
Seth Winberg:
As the needs of students have changed, so has Hillel. Pardon me for adding a disclaimer that you've probably heard before, you'll soon see pictures of Hillel events and students, and some of these photos were taken before the pandemic.
Professor Jonathan Sarna:
To have a place where students can truly feel at home Jewishly, is enormously important.
Seth Winberg:
It's really humbling whenever I'm going through old files in my office to see events that were arranged by Yitz Greenberg and Al Axelrad and Alan Lehmann. There's so much history at Brandeis.
Mark Shapiro:
If I asked her, I had to raise the money and arrange for this. So this was all what he saw as part of his responsibility that all Jewish students on campus will have the ability to practice Judaism and to feel at home.
Hadassah Stanhill:
I think it's really nice to be able to have a designated place on campus where I can go and I know that everyone else who's there is also learning Jewish texts.
Professor Jonathan Sarna:
Brandeis Hillel from the very beginning was engaged in training and shaping young leaders.
Alec Gelman:
I'd say the student aspect of Hillel involvement is so essential to what makes Brandeis Hillel or any Hillel that Hillel, because at the end of the day, we're trying to create an environment for Hillel students and the best people to do that are the Hillel students.
Hadassah Stanhill:
I would say that one of the most important things I learned about being on the board is how much of an impact I could have.
Rabbi Elaine Zecher:
I think what Hillel really provides is the active, intentional involvement of students.
Oona Wood:
Growing up I wasn't very traditional and, so I never really got to go to camp. That was really fun to experience that for the first time. My Jewish experience at Brandeis is a lot more varied due to being a part of the route sheet. And so from then on, I had certain connections and I could say hello to people at Shabbat dinner. And I could say hi to people. I'd walk into class and I just had a bit of a built-in community. And that was really comforting as a freshman who didn't know anyone at the time.
Jordan Scheiner:
When I got to Israel, I felt like this is one of the trips I've been looking forward to most of my life. So I just felt like, "Oh, it's finally happening. I'm can't believe I'm here."
Jordan Alejandro Dinerman:
As a Jew of color, it's been a rare thing to be around other Jews of color. So seeing lots of other brown Jewish faces and no one questioning it, that feeling of immediate acceptance for wearing my kippah and not getting a strange look, if I want it to speak Hebrew, no one would look at me twice. That's a feeling I'll never forget.
Seth Winberg:
To visit Israel to understand why that's so important to the Jewish community and to the Jewish people, has also really created stronger bonds and ties between students from different backgrounds on campus. And it's been really inspiring and important for Hillel to be organizing those trips.
Dario Alves:
I went on the Brandeis perspectives trip because I wanted to learn more about the conflict between Palestine and Israel. I wanted to learn from each side what they have to say.
Oona Wood:
Being a part of the Jewish Learning Fellowship you can actually look at tasks that don't always seem very accessible and find ways to apply them to your own life. And that's sort of the beauty of JLF, you know, using 5,000 year old texts to connect to your own situation in the 21st century.
Professor Jonathan Sarna:
Brandeis Hillel is a place where the whole spectrum of Jews are present and interact. From the most religious to those who scarcely know if they want to be Jewish at all, they meet under a single metaphorical roof. If we, in fact, wanted to be one Judaism, one community, then having a place where a wide range of Jews from slots interact, learn about one another, learn from one another, disagree and debate in respectful ways. This is crucial and at its best, that's what Brandeis Hillel engenders, makes possible, and encourages.
Hadassah Stanhill:
Hillel for me has been a place where I can build my community and also has been a space where I can build on my Jewish identity. So I've met a lot of my friends through Hillel, and I've also been able to participate in events related to Jewish holidays or Jewish learning. And that's been a really meaningful part of my college experience.
Seth Winberg:
I hope that we've given you a small glimpse of what Brandeis Hillel is like. So let's talk about this past year. This time, last year we had just hosted hundreds of students for Purim Megillah readings all over campus. And we catered a festive Purim breakfast for the entire school so that every student could experience the joy of the day. And then a few days later, we started receiving emails from the university administration.
Speaker 27:
Some breaking news. Now we are following the Corona virus outbreak. A new case in the United States. It's in Massachusetts.
Speaker 28:
Massachusetts health officials have confirmed five new presumptive. There are now 328 cases of Corona virus in Massachusetts. Again, it's...
Alec Gelman:
It's certainly been one of the most unique challenges that I think myself, anybody on the board and really every single person in the world has ever had to face. Trying to organize events for Hillel, which is really where we shine the most is in-person gatherings, and really just building that community of events in person. We were essentially stripped of our greatest asset, meaning we can no longer have these large in-person gatherings. So, we basically had to not completely rebrand, but restructure our efforts.
Seth Winberg:
Students had to adapt from having three or four high holiday service options to having 60 and the creativity and the planning that went into that to make sure everyone had what they needed and knew where to go and doing it all in a way that was still spiritually uplifting and edifying, but not compromising in any way on health and safety was really special to see students adapt.
Alec Gelman:
We had a huge emphasis on online programming where needed and in-person programming where available. And what that allowed us to do is anyone who unfortunately was not able to join us on campus this semester, we were able to reach them.
Stephanie Sanger-Miller:
One thing that we did that was a really more important shift than I think we realized was the Shabbat market, which gave students an opportunity on Fridays to come by our tent set up by the Berlin chapel and to grab anything from candles to schnitzel, things to read, games to play and to say hello to people, to say "Shabbat Shalom", but it was an opportunity to actually make Shabbat there. So, instead of coming to a big room and sort of receiving a Shabbat experience, they were crafting it themselves.
Julie Grimley:
It's kind of amazing. They were calling kids, individually checking on them.
Jordan Scheiner:
I saw a lot of people taking the staff members up on it more often than in the past because people were just like, "I need someone to talk to."
Oona Wood:
It was definitely a very lonely time for a lot of students on campus.
Stephanie Sanger-Miller:
We did do some additional mental health and student wellness training over the summer, a lot of which was focused on providing a pastoral presence, but also figuring out what are the times when we do need to seek out additional help from our colleagues on campus, in health and wellness and campus counseling
Seth Winberg:
Students tell me that they really appreciate how much Hillel is trying to be visible and be out on campus in all sorts of temperatures and all sorts of climates to really be as visible as possible. So that students know that if they need to talk to someone, we're available.
Julie Grimley:
It's kind of amazing during a pandemic that isn't abating yet that I don't feel worried. I think that's a really says a lot about how much they care and about not just their physical safety, but their emotional wellbeing.
Stephanie Sanger-Miller:
I think we've actually seen an amazing example of respect and kindness this year. I'm not talking about surface level niceness. The students take kindness seriously on this campus, and that has meant keeping each other healthy and safe during a really challenging time. And it's been humbling to see that.
Oona Wood:
I want to give a big thank you to whoever decided to create the Brandeis Shabbat market. I mean, the day that they had locks was honestly a blessing to us all. And I think it's something that we should keep long after this vanishes from the earth.
Faith Leener:
What, I remember most about my experience, being a student at Brandeis, whether it came to my participation in Jewish life or anything else, and has really stayed a lesson for me since graduating 10 years ago, is that our life is just a series of choices. And the more intentional we can be about the life, we want to be living the values that we want to be exuding, the people we want to surround ourselves with, the more rewarding, fulfilling and interesting our lives will be. So my blessing for you as we think about Passover coming up, which is another story of people taking a risk and making a choice and choosing a different life is that you continue to know that there's possibility to change, to evolve and to make new choices.
Rabbi Elaine Zecher:
I think what Abram Sachar started in creating a Jewish sponsored, non-sectarian liberal arts university has given the greater academic community the gift of exactly that. That 73 years of Jewish life has been expanded to all the students who come and are part of the community, and so, whether someone is Jewish, whether someone is another religious identity or whether someone isn't religious at all, or connected to any kind of religion, what Brandeis has allowed is a warm and welcoming environment.
Rabbi Avi Weiss:
What a joy and what an honor, it is to say a few words about the Brandeis Hillel. Wow. I hope you're able to step back and recognize all that you've accomplished. As they say in leadership circles, go to the balcony. When you go to the balcony and you see the whole scene, you see it differently than all the dance floor.
Rabbi Avi Weiss:
What I noticed is second to Yeshiva University that the largest feeder to our rabbinical school over the years has been Brandeis University. I'm thinking about the healthy experience in such formative years; young men and women growing and Hillel giving them the chance to lead. That's the power of Hillel. They might drag from step to step.
Rabbi Avi Weiss:
And that's my blessing. Go to the balcony, step back, recognize all that you've accomplished. But in Judaism, the Mesorah is not a cementing in the past. It's the bridging of the past to the future. To those beautiful words of the Psalmist that some say every morning, Shiru LeAdonai Shir Chadash, sing to the Lord, a new song. Not just song, but a new song.
Stephanie Sanger-Miller:
So Passover at Brandeis is going to be amazing. I know it's a big lift for Hillel and for so many different departments that are helping things happen, from meals and spaces and all of the rest. I don't see how it could be anything but great to have so many Jewish students and all of their friends, finding ways to make this amazing moment on the Jewish calendar happen. I think students are feeling excited about it at this point that this is going to be something once again, that's really theirs.
Lindsay Biebelberg:
Before we end the evening, we have one final activity. Please take a moment to send a special message, or a special wish to students as they continue the semester and get ready for Passover. To do this, please click on the link in the chat. That way, we can see the messages on the screen.
Sarah Bernstein:
We'd like to thank you all for joining us tonight. Thank you again to our amazing staff who have been virtually unstoppable this year and continue to do an amazing job. Thank you to parents who have been providing support to their students and financial support to Hillel. Thank you to my wonderful co-hosts for joining me this evening. And of course, thank you to our fantastic student leaders for all of your hard work and dedication to sustaining Jewish life here at Brandeis. None of this would be possible without all of you.