Hillel International’s Student Cabinet Begins a New Year of Leadership
As thousands of Jewish students head back to campus for the start of the fall semester, Hillel International gathered its 10th cohort of Student Cabinet members in Washington, D.C. for an annual summit, marking the beginning of their leadership as trusted advisors to Hillel International and ambassadors of the Hillel movement. The four-day gathering offered an opportunity for students to build meaningful relationships, deepen their understanding of Hillel International, strengthen their leadership and communications skills, and prepare for their role in the cabinet for the coming academic year.
The 20 student leaders in this year’s cabinet represent Hillels across the United States, Canada, Israel, Brazil, and Poland. As an advisory body, they will lift up the voices of nearly 200,000 Jewish students from over 850 campuses around the world, providing perspective on the communities, relationships, and opportunities this generation of students is seeking, as well as the challenges they’re facing. This year’s cabinet members are among the most engaged student leaders in the Hillel movement, often planning Shabbat dinners on their campuses, leading interfaith and multicultural programs, and finding new opportunities to connect their peers with Jewish life.
The summit began the next stage of their Hillel leadership. Together, graduate student at the University of Oregon Rachel Lennard and fourth-year student at the University of Pennsylvania Ben Small will co-chair the new cohort to share their unique voices and perspectives in support of Jewish college students worldwide.
For Small, the work is personal.
“Hillel is my everything. It’s my religious life. It’s my social life. It’s where I find community. It’s my spiritual home,” Small said. “I don’t know where I’d be without Hillel.”
Nurturing relationships forms the core of Hillel’s work. With that in mind, cabinet members and co-chairs began the summit with a focus on building trust, participating in icebreaker activities and reflecting on their shared values. Once they developed a strong rapport, they began to engage in roundtable discussions and strategic planning, grounded in those shared values and goals.
“One of the most special moments of the Fall Summit was seeing student leaders from across the world come together, build relationships, and begin thinking about the kind of leadership they want to exercise this year,” said Elmira Tarivierdiieva, Hillel International’s advisor to the student cabinet. “”My hope is that they leave feeling inspired by one another, confident in the value of their own voices, and ready to bring the student perspective into Hillel International’s work.”
Leadership growth remained central to each summit session, with particular attention paid to curiosity and collaboration. Students built relationships with Hillel professionals and senior leaders, contributing thoughtful ideas to inform and strengthen the work of Hillel International. They also identified their goals and commitments for the coming year, and honed the communications skills they’ll need to represent their peers.
During a meeting with President and CEO Adam Lehman, students learned more about Hillel International’s vision for continuing to grow thriving Jewish life on campus. Lehman described the critical role the student cabinet plays in advising Hillel International professionals and took questions from the student leaders.
By the third day of the summit, students had vision-mapped the school year ahead, identifying the questions they want to raise with Hillel International and the ways they’ll carry student perspectives into decisions that shape Jewish life on campuses worldwide.
For Ashley Mason, a student at the University of Pittsburgh, the cabinet is the latest in a series of experiences Hillel has opened for her.
“Hillel gave me my first friends on campus, and opportunities that really pushed me to become a student leader in spaces I never thought I would be in,” Mason said. “It gave me that home on campus.”
Building on days of ideation and conversation, the final day focused on commitment. Students reflected on their summit experience and prepared to bring their learnings back to campus. Joseph Joffe, a student at Brown University, chose to focus on the aspect of his Hillel journey that was most meaningful to him.
“Hillel created a home away from home. I come from South Africa, so it’s pretty far away,” Joffe said. “Arriving on campus, Hillel really created a space where I could connect to people on my campus, find a safe space where I could make friends, meet people, become part of programming, but also be a part of a broader Jewish community across North America.”