Hillel International Invests in Student Leadership and Community Across Campuses
This summer, Hillel International is awarding grants totaling nearly $3.7 million to more than 180 campus Hillels, funding student leadership development, Shabbat experiences, regional gatherings, and more. The goal is simple: give students the tools, the community, and the confidence to build thriving, joyful Jewish life on campus. Two of the major grant categories – supporting leadership initiatives and regional gatherings – are projected to engage around two thousand students, with thousands more benefiting from wellness, service, multifaith, bridge-building, and campus-connection initiatives.
Ruach Fellows
This year-long fellowship is empowering students to become confident, creative hosts of Jewish ritual – successfully reimagining and curating Shabbat as a vibrant, welcoming experience that deepens belonging and transforms campus culture. Fellows gain skills in liturgy, spiritual hospitality, and guiding and growing Jewish communities.
The Ruach Fellows Initiative is part of Hillel International’s commitment to deepening Jewish joy and connection on campus for every student. We believe that cultivating student leadership in this space creates vibrant campus communities and empowers students to carry spiritual leadership forward into their lives beyond college.
Shabbat Surge
Shabbat often serves as one of the most powerful opportunities for students to experience community, hospitality, friendship, and meaningful Jewish connection. To help campuses maximize this opportunity, Hillel International launched the Shabbat Surge Grant Initiative, a movement-wide investment in strengthening and enhancing Shabbat experiences during the first six weeks of fall 2026.
The initiative is designed to help campuses create Shabbat experiences that are even more welcoming, memorable, and impactful for students. Whether through enhanced meals, beautiful ritual and table settings, student host stipends, creative engagement strategies, expanded ritual resources, or innovative approaches to hospitality and belonging, Shabbat Surge Grants are designed to help campuses invest in the aspects of Shabbat that encourage students to return again and again.
Regional Gatherings
Hillel International has demonstrated that community spans campus and even national borders. Thirteen Regional Gathering Grants, up from 11 last year, are connecting Jewish students across the United States, Canada, and Europe. These gatherings will range from a New York City food and culture festival for commuter campuses to a resilience-focused Shabbaton bringing together Jewish students from Germany, Poland, and the European Union of Jewish Students. Eight of the 13 gatherings are being piloted this year, and organizers expect them to reach as many as 1,400 student leaders.
The eLEVate Conference and Shabbaton, a cross-regional experience powered by Hillel Ontario that brought together 350 Jewish students, staff, and guests from more than 25 campuses, is one of the successful events that will be returning. “The friendships formed over Shabbat dinner, the confidence gained by standing publicly as a Zionist, the experience of being seen and supported as a Jew, these are not fleeting moments. They are foundations,” said Hillel Ontario Chief Advancement Officer Jay Solomon of last year’s conference in an eJewishPhilanthropy op-ed. “This Shabbaton reinforced a truth we both know well: Investing in Jewish campus life is not about four years. It is about the next 40.”
Similarly, the 2027 Texas Summit will expand a past regional leadership summit by incorporating new campuses and providing leadership development for student leaders across the state. “The Texas Hillel Summit showed how powerful community can be,” said Carly Fleck, associate director of Houston Hillel, following the February 2026 summit. “Watching friendships form and seeing students from smaller colleges finally feel that sense of Jewish belonging was incredible and invaluable.”
Hillel Leadership Institute (HLI)
HLI, a cohort-based program that pairs a seven-week curriculum with a hands-on campus impact project, is equipping students with skills to lead and create meaningful change on campus. Hillel International will award HLI grants to 62 campuses, including six global Hillels, marking the program’s first year going global. Thirty of those campuses are brand new to the program. Combined with returning campuses, that mix reflects both fresh momentum and proven staying power. Hillel expects HLI to reach more than 880 student leaders this year, nearly tripling last year’s total.
“Whether exploring strengths, collaboration and feedback, belonging, or leadership purpose, students develop skills [through the Hillel Leadership Institute] that not only help them lead more effectively today, but also prepare them to thrive as professionals and community leaders long after graduation,” said Hillel International Senior Director of Student Leadership and Engagement Corinne Janet.
Meyerhoff Cohort Learning
The Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Experience’s Cohort Learning partners with campuses to create transformative Jewish learning experiences that deepen Jewish relationships, foster belonging, and empower students to integrate Jewish wisdom into their lives on campus and beyond. Hillel International’s grants support these multi-session, 4-10 week learning experiences that reach more than six thousand students every year.
Meyerhoff Center flagship programs include the Jewish Learning Fellowship, Kol Yisrael, Shabbat Hosting Lab, and Four the Moment. Through high-quality curriculum, educator training, and grant support, campuses operating Meyerhoff Center cohort learning programs are positioned to cultivate vibrant cultures of Jewish learning on campus.
Ripples of Resilience
The Ripples of Resilience Student Wellness Grants are helping Hillels turn Jewish tradition into everyday wellness practice with programs that build connection, community, and support for students. The funding is supporting culinary and cultural programming, as well as rest, creativity, and career resilience.
Some past examples of programs supported by Ripples of Resilience grants include the design and production of “Unapologetically Jewish” sweatshirts at York University Hillel; dance and movement programs in Hillel Israel that brought students of diverse backgrounds together; and culinary skill-building programs teaching Jewish students to cook traditional dishes on a budget. “Students who hadn’t known each other before became friends. The skills, confidence, and community they created mattered even more than the menu,” said USC Hillel Wellness Director Elli Rao.
At their core, the Ripples of Resilience grants are a reminder that student flourishing is about feeling cared for as whole people. “These initiatives reflect how thoughtfully campuses responded to distinct student needs,” said Grace Baker, director of development and communications at Hillel Israel. “We are so proud we were able to support staff and students across the country.”
Multifaith Relationship Building
Hillel International believes strongly in the value of building and strengthening relationships across faith communities, helping Jewish students build bridges, engage in respectful conversation, and contribute to a more positive campus climate. Forty-one Multifaith Relationship Building grants are helping Hillels partner with other faith communities on campus to host events that include storytelling projects, coffee chats, holiday-focused programs, and internships.
“When Jewish students and students of other faiths sit down together, cook together, serve together, the abstractions and assumptions that drive a lot of campus tension just don’t survive contact with an actual person across the table. Students get to know each other without any prejudice. That’s not a small thing, it directly shapes whether a Jewish student feels safe and proud being visibly Jewish on campus,” said Stevens University Hillel’s Dennis Vink.
Service Engagement Internship and Bridging Service Fellowship
Meanwhile, more than 400 Service Engagement Internship grants, powered by Repair the World, have been awarded. These student leaders – including at international campus Hillels – will be charged with connecting their peers to ethical volunteering and service learning.
And 16 Bridging Service Fellowship grants are supporting students who build relationships across difference through shared service and learning. The Bridging Service Fellowship, a partnership between Hillel International and Repair the World, pairs campus Hillels with a partner student organization, such as campus departments of religious and spiritual life, interfaith councils, and others. “Participating in the Hillel Bridging Service Fellowship was one of the most meaningful and rewarding experiences I have had,” one student shared. “Throughout the fellowship, I learned that building strong relationships does not require everyone to think the same way or share identical backgrounds. Instead, true connection comes from listening, respecting differences, and finding ways to grow together.”
Campus Connections
Similarly, Campus Connections grants are helping Jewish and non-Jewish students build relationships through a structured three-program series. Campus Connections was created in partnership between Hillel International and Blue Square Alliance Against Hate to bring together students across lines of difference and to cultivate understanding and empathy. This program fosters curiosity and conversation around topics like belonging, stereotyping, and how to build relationships.
Taken together, these grants tell a story of real growth. They’re about what happens when a Jewish student walks into a room, whether that’s a leadership cohort, a Shabbat retreat, or a multifaith dinner, and finds people who see and believe in them. That’s what turns a program into a memory, and a memory into a sense of belonging that lasts long after the program ends.