What is Yom Kippur?
Imagine taking 365 days of self-reflection, and compressing it into one, single day. That, in essence, is Yom Kippur.

News, stories, and updates from Hillel communities worldwide
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Imagine taking 365 days of self-reflection, and compressing it into one, single day. That, in essence, is Yom Kippur.
“Hope is not a strategy.” Many of you have heard this maxim in classrooms, in board rooms, or elsewhere. And there is of course merit to the idea that a full-fledged strategy requires more than hope.
Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the Jewish calendar, which is entering the year 5784, and is celebrated as the Jewish New Year. The Jewish year begins in the fall with the month of Tishrei, and Rosh Hashanah occurs on the first and second days of the month of Tishrei.
As Jews around the world celebrate the beginning of the new year in the Jewish calendar, Rabba Amalia reflects, “The honey we taste on Rosh Hashanah is the culmination of an incredible landscape of blessing; the soil, the flowers, the rain, the nectar, and the bees. My hope for the new year is that we are also tasting a small moment of the blessings to come this year.”
Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av, is recognized as the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. It is a day of mourning for tragedies across Jewish history, most particularly the destruction and loss of the first and second Temple and Jerusalem nearly 2,000 years ago.
The summer months mark the biggest gap between holidays in the Jewish calendar. They also contain the period of time known as the Three Weeks. Beginning with the Fast of the 17th of Tammuz and ending with the Fast of the Ninth of Av, Tisha B’Av, the Three Weeks are a time of mourning and commemoration of historical loss for the Jewish people.
In partnership with the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, Hillel International’s Social Impact Department offers Interfaith Outreach Microgrants, which support projects that are the outgrowth of collaborative relationship-building between Jewish students and students from other faith traditions, and that result in expanding and strengthening relationships among students from different faith traditions. Below are some examples of […]
Lag Ba’Omer is the 33rd day of the Omer, the period of time on the Jewish calendar between Passover and Shavuot, the holiday that celebrates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.
Over 300 students gathered last week at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) for Israel Peace Week, a celebration of the 75th anniversary of Israel’s Independence. Check out the top three moments from the week:
Many Hillels spent this Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, in conversation with survivors who stressed the importance of remembering the past, living with joy, and addressing injustices in the world.