Hillel Israel Announces Rabbi Noga Brenner Samia as New Executive Director
WASHINGTON – Hillel International today announced that Rabbi Noga Brenner Samia is joining Hillel Israel as Executive Director.
“Noga has spent decades devoted to strengthening pluralistic Jewish life in Israel and building bridges between Israel and global Jewish communities,” said Hillel International Interim President and CEO Adam Lehman. “Given her deep experience as both a Jewish educator and organizational leader, she is the perfect leader to bring Hillel Israel to the next level of success as part of the world’s largest and most dynamic Jewish campus movement.”
Brenner Samia will lead the Hillels at seven university centers throughout Israel: Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, Sapir College, Tel Hai Technical College, Haifa University, The Technion, and Ben Gurion University. She and the Hillel Israel staff reach thousands of students each year, building a pluralistic Jewish identity among Israelis and connecting them to their counterparts in Jewish communities and at Hillels throughout the world.
“I am proud to be joining the Hillel movement,” said Brenner Samia. “I have dedicated my career to strengthening pluralistic Jewish identity and a sense of Jewish peoplehood among young Israelis. The future leadership of Israel is on university campuses now and raising their awareness of these issues today is crucial to the Jewish character of Israeli society tomorrow.”
Brenner Samia joins Hillel from BINA: The Jewish Movement for Social Change, where she served as deputy director and a teacher at the Secular Yeshiva of Tel Aviv for the past 13 years. She worked in the military and pharmaceutical industries for 10 years before joining KolDor as executive director in 2006.
Brenner Samia holds Rabbinic ordination from Rabanut Yisraelit, HaMidrasha B’Oranim and the Shalom Hartman Institution. She earned an M.A. in Pluralistic Jewish Education from the Hebrew University and Hebrew Union College and a M.B.A. from the John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University.
Brenner Samia graduated with a B.S. from the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology and is a veteran of the Israel Defense Forces, where she served for two years as a Sergeant in a highly selective Intelligence unit. She also leads pluralistic Jewish cultural programs in Tel-Mond, where she lives with her husband and three children.
About Hillel Israel
Through exploration of the variety of Jewish life abroad, and significant encounters with Hillel students worldwide, Hillel Israel seeks to emphasize the relevance of Jewish life to today’s Israeli students and young adults, inspiring them to explore their Jewish identity and to feel a sense of belonging to “The Global Jewish People.” Hillel Israel, headquartered at the Edgar Bronfman Center in the Hebrew University, operates in eight major University and college campuses throughout the country and engages over 20,000 Israeli students per year in meaningful Jewish experiences.
About Hillel International
Founded in 1923, Hillel has been enriching the lives of Jewish students for 90 years. Today, Hillel International is a global organization that welcomes students of all backgrounds and fosters an enduring commitment to Jewish life, learning and Israel. Hillel is dedicated to enriching the lives of Jewish students so that they may enrich the Jewish people and the world. As the largest Jewish student organization in the world, Hillel builds connections with emerging adults at more than 550 colleges and universities, and inspires them to direct their own path. During their formative college years, students are challenged to explore, experience, and create vibrant Jewish lives.