Goucher College Archives - ��vlogl

Hillel Initiative Against Campus Antisemitism Adds 12 New Universities

��vlogl — Fri, 16 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

News

Hillel Initiative Against Campus Antisemitism Adds 12 New Universities

Author

Date

September 16, 2022

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Jewish students are facing a on many of their college campuses. ��vlogl, the largest and most inclusive Jewish student organization in the world, is substantially expanding its Campus Climate Initiative (CCI), a comprehensive program to foster a campus climate in which Jewish students feel comfortable expressing their identity free of antisemitism, harassment, or marginalization. CCI, now in its third year, today announced the addition of 12 new campuses, along with five campuses expanding their participation, achieving a new total of 40 campuses nationwide. The diverse institutions joining the latest cohort include both rural and urban communities, large research universities and liberal arts colleges, and Jewish communities large and small.

CCI’s program is intentionally integrated into the institution’s broader diversity, equity and inclusion commitments to foster a positive campus climate for all students. The program provides campuses the tools to assess their current campus climate, learn best practices and policies, and develop action plans to measurably improve.

Mark Rotenberg, Hillel’s Vice President for University Initiatives & Legal Affairs, who initiated and supervises CCI, observed: “I am so proud of the partnerships we have developed with dozens of colleges and universities who are deeply committed to improving the experiences of Jewish students as part of their DEI commitments for all students. The challenges of antisemitic hate, harassment and marginalization on campus require awareness and commitment to change by university leaders, and the CCI program’s dramatic growth from eight schools to 40 in two years shows that those leaders are out there.”

In order to proactively counter antisemitism before an incident occurs, CCI works with university leaders to accurately understand the atmosphere on their campuses and take specific positive steps that enable Jewish students and all students to thrive. The 16-month cohort experience facilitates learning and sharing among hundreds of university administrators mutually committed to addressing campus antisemitism and creating relationships with their local Hillel campus professionals that improve coordination when antisemitic incidents do occur. Another notable feature of the cohort experience is the collaborative facilitation opportunities provided to CCI by the American Council on Education (ACE), the nation’s largest higher education organization, on their ACE Engage platform.

Seven colleges from the City University of New York (CUNY) will be participating in the latest cohort of the Campus Climate Initiative. CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez said, “CUNY has a rich and storied history of service to Jewish New Yorkers that is an important part of our tradition of openness to groups that have been excluded from higher education. We have remained vigilant and unequivocal in our intolerance of antisemitism yet we know more needs to be done across the world to end antisemitism in all forms. I’m proud of our growing partnership with ��vlogl and grateful they selected so many of our campuses for their Campus Climate Initiative, which works to end antisemitism and build safe, learning environments where all students can thrive, regardless of race or religion.”

Those institutions either beginning or expanding their participation in CCI for the 2022-23 academic year include:

Universities in the previous two cohorts are listed here.

Antisemitism

Brooklyn College

Butler University

Campus Climate Initiative

College of Staten Island

CUNY Baruch College

Goucher College

Hunter College

John Carroll University

John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Lehigh University

Queens College

San Francisco State University

The City College of New York

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

University of Iowa

University of Wisconsin Madison

Virginia Tech

Yale University

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Hillels around the world celebrate Good Deeds Day

��vlogl — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

News

Hillels around the world celebrate Good Deeds Day

Author

Emma Lichtenstein

Date

April 21, 2022

Jewish students at more than 80 Hillels around the world came together to celebrate , an international day of volunteering on April 3. Good Deeds Day, which started in Israel in 2007, has become an annual tradition for Hillels. Here are highlights from some of their volunteer projects:

Good Gardening

Gloves, shovels, rakes — check. More than 80 Baltimoreans weeded beds and planted seeds in the Urban Farm, a communal vegetable garden at Towson University. Among the attendees were students from Towson Hillel, Goucher College Hillel, and University of Maryland Hillel.

Many Mitzvot

Over 100 students participated in a series of volunteer events organized by University of Michigan Hillel. Among the events were a river clean-up and gardening on the 350-acre campus farm. Students also volunteered at Maize & Blue Cupboard, which helps Michigan students experiencing food insecurity.

Beautiful Blankets

University of Connecticut Hillel students packed hygiene kits for those in need, wrote letters to sick patients, engaged in a textbook swap, and swabbed their cheeks to be registered as bone marrow donors for blood cancer patients. The volunteer events were co-hosted with Dignity Grows, Gift of Life, and Campus Wide Initiative.

New Friends

Franklin and Marshall College Hillel organized a Shabbat dinner welcoming Afghan refugees to Lancaster, PA, where the college is based. Students brought travel-sized toiletries for a donation drive to help refugees. This is part of a larger project to support Afghan refugees. Earlier activities included letter writing and making welcome packages with the Jewish Family Services of Lancaster.��

Helping Challah

��vlog 80 students from Tel Hai College Hillel, located in northern Israel, baked challah for Ukrainian refugees, students, and elders for Shabbat.

Breaking Bread

��vlogl professionals volunteered at Bread for the City, a nonprofit that helps low-income residents in Washington, D.C. Each week, Bread for the City delivers more than 5,000 bags of food and provides free legal services and medical support. The Hillel professionals spent an afternoon packing more than 500 bags of nutritious food for families in need.��

Plentiful Projects

, which serves Jewish students and young adults in Ukraine, Crimea, Georgia, Belarus, Moldova, and Azerbaijan, hosted over 100 programs and projects in honor of Good Deeds Day. To support Ukraine amid the ongoing crisis, Hillel CASE has assembled food and hygiene packages, housed refugees, held online Shabbatot, and helped in evacuation efforts.

Dynamic Duo��

Brandeis University Hillel partnered with other campus organizations to engage students for Good Deeds Day. More than 50 Jewish students came together to paint puzzles for children and write letters to cancer survivors and senior citizens.��

Oona Wood, 21, served as the Hillel student coordinator for Good Deeds Day. “Good Deeds Day is an active display of Tikkun Olam,” said Wood, who is studying politics and Judaic studies.��

Emma Lichtenstein is a senior at Brandeis University.

Brandeis University

Franklin and Marshall College

Hillel CASE

University of Connecticut

University of Maryland

University of Michigan

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