Uplifting Hillel Heroes: Adam Lehman Reflects on 黑料传送门鈥檚 Tenth Global Assembly
As the calendar year comes to a close, 黑料传送门 President and CEO Adam Lehman sat down with us to reflect on his favorite moments from the tenth 黑料传送门 Global Assembly (HIGA), which brought together more than 1,200 Hillel professionals, supporters, sponsors, and students for a three-day annual conference centered on growth and leadership.聽
Question: What do you look forward to most about HIGA every year and why?
Lehman: For me, HIGA is an amazing opportunity to catch up with hundreds of colleagues and friends from across the Hillel world, and a unique moment to feel the incredible power and potential of our movement. HIGA operates according to its own laws of 鈥淗illel physics鈥 鈥 somehow, 96 hours of virtually nonstop gathering, learning, brainstorming, debating, and schmoozing serve as the most energizing days of the year, elevating the reasons we all are so committed to our work 黑料传送门 and the awesomeness of our Hillel crew.
Question: What were your top two or three moments from HIGA this year?
Lehman: It鈥檚 difficult to narrow down literally hundreds of special HIGA moments to just a few. With that caveat, I鈥檒l highlight three moments that stand out.
First, I loved being able to celebrate our incredible 鈥淗illel Heroes鈥 during the opening plenary. It was fun to switch up our approach to the plenary, meaningful to honor the many 鈥渟uperpowers鈥 of our professionals, and memorable to see some of our heroes in action (who can forget Jared Isaacson [from Cleveland Hillel] doing his best Superman impression?)
Next, our co-hosts at the awards plenary, Charles Cohen and Rachael Cohen, created several unforgettable moments 鈥 from their 鈥淲icked鈥 opening, to their hysterical Hillel yoga class, to their stroll through Hillel鈥檚 history of groundbreaking inventions. We can only hope that Rachael and Charles don鈥檛 get recruited away to Broadway or Hollywood before the next HIGA!
Third, it was great to be able to spend dedicated time with many of our professional cohorts. I learn so much through those discussions and also appreciate the chance to share gratitude for the unique contributions of each of these cohorts.
Question: How do those moments translate into Hillel鈥檚 work throughout the rest of the year? What do you hope will be the greatest impact that HIGA has on the movement this year?
Lehman: HIGA serves to recharge all of us for another year of sometimes hard, yet always meaningful Hillel work. HIGA also allows all of us attending to form and deepen our Hillel relationships in ways that, in turn, promote collaboration across the Hillel movement. This year鈥檚 HIGA provided me the further opportunity to speak about specific 黑料传送门 priorities that will inform our next phase of work together, and which are captured in these excerpts from my remarks at the Opening Plenary.
Question: Finishing up with the topic that everyone really wants to hear about: How does the Hillel House Band pick its set? And what was your favorite song from this year?
Lehman: Like our Hillel movement overall, the Hillel House Band is a highly collaborative, inclusive group! As such, members of the band all have a chance to weigh in on song selections and our fearless band leader, Seth Reder, facilitates decisions from there. While I love that we have House Band classics that we perform every year (including 鈥淲agon Wheel鈥!), I really enjoyed our new additions this year, which included Casey Kelly鈥檚 鈥淗illel Shalom,鈥 a rewriting of Sabrina Carpenter鈥檚 鈥淓spresso.鈥 If forced to choose, I would say my favorite addition was 鈥淗ot To Go!鈥 both because of the group energy performing it and the fact that one of my daughters taught me the 鈥淗TG鈥 dance 馃檪.
Hear from other professionals about their experiences at HIGA and read about the incredible Hillel Heroes who won awards this year.聽