What’s happening on campus? Hear from students, professionals, and Hillel community members whose lives have been impacted by Hillel and who impact the world with their voices and stories. Share your story with us!
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Suzy Sostrin, KU Hillel鈥檚 Executive Director, was making coffee when I walked into KU Hillel for the first time. She immediately came over to meet me and then introduced me to the other students who were hanging out 黑料传送门. From that first interaction with a Hillel professional, I felt like I was enough.
But the beauty of Hillel is that everyone is welcome, no matter how 鈥淛ewish鈥 they feel. Through my experiences, I realized that Judaism was a lot more relatable than what I learned in Hebrew school. In general, I started to feel more proud and more excited to be Jewish.
鈥淎s a high school freshman, I stepped into leadership for the first time through BBYO. My passion for grassroots organizing and teen initiative inspired me to run for BBYO鈥檚 International Board, and I started in February 2020 as the international treasurer. With this position, I was given the platform to take action on causes I鈥檓 […]
鈥淭o me, being Jewish means everything. To be Jewish is to have received a higher calling guiding me to dedicate my life to serving the globe鈥檚 neglected communities. To be Jewish means I face struggles and adversity with a smile on my face because I know my ancestors have given me the strength to overcome […]
I was a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh on October 27, 2018, the day of the Pittsburgh synagogues shooting that took the lives of 11 Jewish people. Now, as a senior, not a day passes where I do not wear my necklace, over my shirt, where everyone can see it. I am proud to be Jewish and I am proud to #OwnMyStar.
The place that I’ve gotten to do a lot of my own personal passion projects in college has been Hillel. It’s made me more of an active Jew, to see Judaism more as doing things for other people, with other people, than just an individual practice.
Music has always gone hand in hand with my Jewish identity. I鈥檓 a classical singer, and over the last couple of years, I鈥檝e been adding Jewish repertoire to my list. Some of it comes from liturgical sources, but I鈥檝e also been singing in Yiddish a little bit. Hebrew and Yiddish music is informing a lot of my thesis studies.
I didn鈥檛 come to college with the mindset of, 鈥淥h, time to convert to Judaism.鈥 That wasn鈥檛 on my agenda. But, I do credit a lot of the Rutgers Hillel staff and the student board for the work they did to make Hillel such a pluralistic and accessible space for people like me.
I got an email from GW Hillel saying, ‘Come join us in our vaccine efforts,’ so I emailed the people that run it and the JCC and Hillel. I previously worked for Joe Biden’s campaign on the Voter Protection Team in Florida, so I had that experience with the managerial side of this and told them I wanted to work with them.
I am a disabled, queer Jew with invisible disabilities such as ADHD鈥攁nd I have faced a lot of challenges and successes with my identity. I struggled a lot with self-acceptance and finding a balance between my Judaism and two other identities that aren’t often discussed in the Jewish community.
