Paying it Forward: The Incredible Journeys of a Family’s Shofars
The shofar’s sound is unique to this season of the High Holidays. Blown on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the shofar is an integral part of the communal and personal experiences of those days. Ahead of Rosh Hashanah, we are honored to share the story of over a dozen special shofars that have found their way to different college campuses to help Jewish students celebrate these holidays.
In the fall of 2023, Ira Blum, director of Hillel at Muhlenberg College, received a very special gift from his parents, Rabbi Barry and Amy Blum: a collection of 13 shofars.
The shofars were family souvenirs, gathered over decades of visits to Israel. A congregational rabbi and a religious school principal, the Blums found that bringing a shofar back from each trip they took to Israel to share with their family and community became something of a tradition.
“They loved to share the Jewish technology of the shofar with their students, and give them the spiritual experience of its piercing sound,” Ira recalled. The shofars had a place in their family home, as well. “My sister Shoshana and I would try blowing them, and our yorkie Zelig would howl whenever he heard it,” he said.
In his role at Hillel, Ira knows how powerful it can be to hear the shofar blown — whether for the first time or the hundredth. So he decided to pay the gift forward.
“I emailed the Hillel directors listserv to see if anyone needed a shofar, and heard back from 30 campus Hillels,” he said. Ira decided to prioritize Hillels that didn’t have a shofar of their own. He shipped some out to their new homes across North America, and hand delivered others. Last, he sent the final one to California — where the recipient would smuggle it into Russia.
Sending Judaica to Jewish communities in Russia is another Blum family tradition. In December 1983, Philadelphia’s Jewish Community Relations Council sent Ira’s parents to the Soviet Union to visit Refuseniks, Jews who were refused permission to leave the country.
“It was a secret mission, and we were not allowed to tell people where we were going,” Amy wrote to Ira, recalling the experience. “Our suitcases were full of items designated for specific Refusniks, from falafel mix to necklaces with Israel charms and letters and books signed by Jewish activist Rabbi Arthur Waskow and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.” Barry was detained when they entered the country and his bags searched, and the couple was later interrogated by the KGB at their hotel in Kyiv.
Eventually, they were able to complete their mission. That experience inspired their collection of shofars and their love of sharing Jewish ritual items with others. Today, the Blum family shofars have new homes all around the world, giving Jewish students a connection to a tradition that goes back centuries. Below are a sampling of voices from campus Hillels that are using these shofars during the High Holidays this year.
UCLA Hillel
Reflecting on the place this shofar holds for the Jewish community at UCLA, Executive Director at UCLA Hillel Dan Gold shared, “Our Hillel is one of many that opens up to the community for the High Holidays. This is even more reason why we have such appreciation and pride in being able to use a shofar from Ira’s Muhlenberg Hillel collection. It shows the strength of our movement and our enduring commitment to the Jewish people all across the world.”
Claremont Hillel
At another California Hillel, the gift of the shofar from Ira Blum was a game changer for a growing Hillel community. “When I began as a new Hillel leader in fall 2023, our small Hillel didn’t even have a shofar or the budget to buy one,” said Dr. Bethany Slater, executive director at Claremont Hillel. “Receiving a shofar as a gift from Ira was a powerful act of solidarity from across the country. That shofar has become both a symbol of our ancient rootedness in Torah and of the truth that all Israel is responsible for one another.”
Hillel Waterloo & Laurier
Welcoming students to a new building with a shofar from another Hillel was a dream come true for Jessie Greenspan, campus director at Hillel Waterloo & Laurier. “Being able to ‘ring in the New Year’ while moving into a brand new Hillel space by blowing the shofar was a goosebumps moment for all of us in the space,” Jessie said. “We were building furniture with exec members and to be able to make an intentional moment like that with the shofar was a signal that we were ‘home.’”
Hillel at Southern Methodist University
For another Hillel, Ira’s gift became their first shofar and a campus-wide tradition. “We were so grateful to receive the shofar from Ira at Muhlenberg College,” said Rabbi Heidi Coretz, director of Hillel at Southern Methodist University (SMU). “The shofar that was sent was our Hillel’s first shofar, and it started off a great tradition of blowing it at services, but also publicly out on campus for the holiday. We can’t wait to hear its beautiful sound this year, uniting us as a Jewish community in prayer and reflection.”