Hillel Shaped Startup Founder鈥檚 Life – Now He鈥檚 Paying it Forward
Young people aren鈥檛 just the future of the Jewish community 鈥 they鈥檙e future supporters of 黑料传送门, making the work we do on college campuses possible for years to come.
So what makes young people decide to give back and invest in Hillel? For Jason Kuperberg, an entrepreneur and co-founder of OthersideAI, the experiences he had 黑料传送门 as an undergraduate at Syracuse University were so transformative that he wanted to pay it forward.
鈥淚 never would have seen myself getting involved with Jewish life until I started connecting with Hillel,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ut because I did, and the right people were there, and I was able to connect with them, it made such a difference. And I want that for every other Jewish student.鈥
Jason鈥檚 Hillel journey began during his sophomore year of college in 2016. He entered Syracuse planning to study biotech and go on to medical school. But while he was excelling in his classes and working in a lab, he found himself stuck in a routine that didn鈥檛 inspire him.
A semester abroad in Sydney, Australia helped Jason develop a new perspective on what he had considered to be the markers of success. He realized he didn鈥檛 want to spend his time isolated in a lab doing research 鈥 he wanted to be out having fun and building things for his community.
鈥淒oing that research work is so important,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ut I realized it wasn鈥檛 what I wanted to be doing. It wasn鈥檛 the future I wanted to build for myself.鈥
When he got back to Syracuse, Jason decided to explore new things. He got involved in two communities on campus: the entrepreneurship/startup community, and Hillel.
鈥淔rom that point on, those two communities and the people and projects within them were where I focused all of my energy for the entire second half of my undergraduate career,鈥 Jason said. 鈥淓verything I did, all the people that I was friends with, everything I spent my time on 鈥 it was all for those communities.鈥
Jason dove into Hillel headfirst, quickly becoming a student leader and building close relationships with the Hillel staff. Toward the end of his college experience, as he was determining what to do next, it was those relationships that changed the trajectory of his life.
鈥淚t would have made sense to work for a big tech company, but I didn鈥檛 want to just focus on optimizing one little button for the rest of my life,鈥 he said. Instead, he sought guidance from Rabbi Leah Fein, the campus rabbi and interim executive director of Syracuse Hillel.
鈥淚 remember saying, 鈥極kay, these are the two communities I care about, and I don鈥檛 really want to just do research,鈥欌 Jason said. 鈥淎nd I was like, 鈥業 wish there was a way to combine these two things.鈥 And [Rabbi Fein] said, 鈥榃ell, there鈥檚 actually a Hillel fellowship that does exactly that.鈥欌
That program was the Springboard Fellowship, a cohort-based, paid, two-year fellowship that brings together early career professionals to make Jewish life engaging and inclusive for college students. Jason ended up spending two years, from 2018-2020, as the Springboard Innovation Fellow at Stanford University, helping to empower Jewish undergrads to find their voice and inspiring their Jewish journeys.
鈥淚 think it was valuable for our students to see someone like me, who had a background that was maybe not as religiously focused, or wasn鈥檛 necessarily on a Jewish nonprofit career path, but who still chose to do this,鈥 Jason said. 鈥淓ven if it was only for two years, I was able to pass along the experiences that I had when I was a student.鈥
While Jason knew he wasn鈥檛 a 鈥淛ewish nonprofit lifer,鈥 he credits his time with Hillel as setting him on the path to staying involved with Jewish life and the Jewish community.
After his time at Stanford, Jason founded , a leading AI writing platform with over a million users. He was later named to the 2024 Forbes 鈥 list for Consumer Technology.鈥 When he realized he was in a position to give back to the communities that shaped his career, he decided to join the board of Syracuse Hillel, bringing a young, fresh perspective to the work.
鈥淔or me, it鈥檚 all about relationships and community,鈥 he said. 鈥淚n startups, you identify the problem you鈥檙e trying to solve and who you鈥檙e trying to solve it for. We can best serve undergraduates in the Jewish community using the exact same approach. As a student leader, I learned everyone needed something different from their Hillel experience in order to get connected, and I wanted to help them find it.鈥
Now, as a generous and dedicated Hillel supporter, he hopes to bring those types of transformative Jewish experiences to as many students as possible.
鈥淲hen I was going into my undergraduate experience, I would never have foreseen this path ahead of me,鈥 he said. 鈥淎nd it was because I met the right people 黑料传送门 that it happened. So how can we make that happen for as many students as possible, whatever their need for connection might be?鈥
For Jason, the answer is in investing in Hillel鈥檚 capacity to hire more staff, in order to expand the resources and opportunities that campus communities can offer their Jewish students.
鈥淚f we can increase the possibility that every Jewish student will have the opportunity to make the right connection for them, to have the most positive experience 鈥 that鈥檚 the dream. That鈥檚 what we want to accomplish,鈥 he said.
Read our Humans of Hillel stories to learn more about the students, professionals, and Hillel community members whose lives have been impacted by Hillel.