The conference room in Campus Ministry buzzed with conversation Nov. 14 as the members of Hillel gathered for bagels and brainstormed how to bring their culture to their peers on campus.
Cookie decorating, music, dreidel games and chocolate gelt coins, were ideas discussed for their upcoming Hanukkah party on Dec. 5, followed by discussion from students around the table about how they can teach others about their faith and what has been happening in their daily lives.
“My favorite part about Hillel here is when everyone is just chatting with each other, just being themselves,” said Abby Kirshbaum, Minnesota Hillel Director of Outreach and Engagement.
The St. Thomas chapter of Hillel, an international on-campus Jewish organization, aims to bring together a community of Jewish and non-Jewish students through conversations, support networks and events.
Hillel first came to St. Thomas last year when Kirshbaum came to campus and scoped out the community by connecting with students and hosting two events. This year, however, there has been consistent weekly programming led by St. Thomas students and Kirshbaum.
“What’s important to us is that everything is created with students in mind and for students. I can’t plan a program that they don’t come up with because it’s not going to be what they need,” Kirshbaum said.
Kirshbaum and Hillel work out of Campus Ministry to provide community for Jewish students. She said that previously there had not been interest or infrastructure at St. Thomas for consistent meetings.
One of Kirshbaum’s jobs is to support students. She is on campus Thursdays and is available by text, email or phone call any other day of the week.
“There’s a fear: ‘Should I wear my Jewish star? Should I say I’m Jewish? There’s no one Jewish here. How are they going to respond?’” Kirshbaum said. She said that many campuses have had a lot of antisemitism over the last year, but said she feels “St. Thomas has been a really safe place.”
May Zeroni, a first-year student in Hillel, said that the Jewish community on campus is small, but the students involved find their faith to be an important part of the diversity on campus as well as within their education.
“Our mission statement is to create a sense of Jewish community on campus for Jewish students and to educate those who are interested in Jewish culture and tradition,” Zeroni said. “We say, ‘A small community is better than none.’”
“There’s very few Jewish students here, and being able to come to somewhere where there are other Jews, and being surrounded by people who see eye to eye, who support you through whatever issue, is really beneficial,” first-year student Max Segal said.
Hillel meetings and events are open to everyone, no matter what faith they identify with, Kirshbaum said. Leila Montoya, a first-year student who is not Jewish but still attends Hillel meetings, said the connection surpasses religious affiliation.
“I would say that it’s nice to just come here to a welcoming community and just spend an hour a day where you don’t worry about homework or anything else going on and just to get to hang out with people,” Montoya said.
Hillel has a bigger presence at the University of Minnesota, and Kirshbaum said students from St. Thomas are welcome to go to their programming. Campus Ministry provides $40 in Lyft credits per month to each student for transportation to Minnesota’s campus. Minnesota Hillel hosts a Shabbat dinner with traditional blessings every Friday, as well as events for Jewish holidays.
Shabbat is the weekly Sabbath that starts Friday at sundown until dark on Saturday. Traditional observance means Jews do not work on Shabbat, Kirshbaum said, but most students she works with do not observe at that level, instead having a Shabbat dinner with family and friends.
“Shabbat is great because it’s really the only place you get to be surrounded by a lot of Jewish people,” Segal said. “We make up 0.2% of the world’s population and it’s hard to find others. So being in a space like that once a week is really refreshing.”
At their meeting Thursday, the members of Hillel were not only excited to brainstorm ideas and plan for their Hanukkah party but also for the table they are hosting Dec. 12 for World of Celebrations, an event for students from different cultures to showcase their holidays and traditional celebrations, in Anderson Student Center.
From Hillel, students Zeroni, Segal and first-year student Steven Anderson will be teaching about Hanukkah. They will have dreidel spinning, and Zeroni will be offering to write students’ names in Hebrew. Zeroni said that though the organization is small, they still want people on campus to know that they are here and to learn what being Jewish means.
“We’re still trying to figure out who else is Jewish on campus, and how we can support them, but it doesn’t happen if you don’t try and be visible,” Kirshbaum said. “What we need is to open the doors for our people, but also to let other people in, one because we love them, and two, because building allyship organically is really important.”
Elaina Mankowski can be reached at mank2823@stthomas.edu.