Hillel's 80-year history comes alive in "The Road to Renaissance: Hillel 1923-2003," the first comprehensive retrospective of the Jewish campus organization.

The 20-page booklet includes rare documents and photographs uncovered in Hillel's archives. Among the treasures featured are an original telegram from Hillel founder Rabbi Benjamin Frankel, as well as photographs of Hillel students being sent to War in World War Two, a pro-Israel demonstration at CUNY Queens College in 1947, a Hillel-sponsored "inter-racial" meeting in the segregated South in 1948, and a delegation from Havana Hillel in 1948.

The publication is made possible by a grant from Hillel Board of Directors Member Sharon Ungerleider and her husband Steven. "We hope that the story of Hillel's birth and renaissance will encourage others to invest in the Jewish future through Hillel." The booklet is dedicated to departing Hillel President and International Director Richard M. Joel "whose visionary leadership inspires students, professionals and lay leaders to make history."

"The Road to Renaissance" recounts Hillel's history from its birth at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in 1923, through the years of World War Two and the Holocaust, to the campus unrest of the Sixties, and the Renaissance that began in 1988. The booklet reviews such recent achievements as the creation in 1994 of Hillel's independent International Board of Governors and Board of Directors; the founding of Hillel in the former Soviet Union, Uruguay and Argentina; and the inauguration of Hillel's Charles and Lynn Schusterman International Center in the Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Building in Washington, DC.

The booklet, written by Hillel Director of Communications Jeff Rubin, was based on archival documents as well the work of former Hillel International Director Rabbi Benjamin Kahn, former Associate International Director Rabbi Samuel Fishman and Hillel Executive Vice President Jay Rubin.

The Road to Renaissance (PDF file 500Kb)
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Print copies of "The Road to Renaissance: Hillel 1923-2003" are available for $3 each from the Communications Department, Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, Charles and Lynn Schusterman International Center, Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Building, 800 Eighth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001-3724, or by contacting Aviva Perlman, communications associate.