Repair the World and Hillel International Expand Bridging Service Fellowship For Second Year, Connecting Jewish Students With Peers Across Campus
New Fellowship Builds Empathy, Mutual Understanding, and Community Across Campus Lines
After a successful pilot year, Hillel International and Repair the World will expand the Bridging Service Fellowship, bringing Jewish and non-Jewish students together through shared volunteer service, learning, and bridge-building experiences. The cohort-based program is designed to build relationships, deepen dialogue and service skills, and create shared impact on campus and in the broader community. This year’s cohort will include 218 fellows across 16 campuses, growing from the inaugural year, which included 111 fellows across 10 campuses.
This program builds on years of partnership between Hillel and Repair the World, which has trained over a thousand service engagement interns and catalyzed tens of thousands of Jewish students to serve. The initiative is informed by Repair the World and Hillel International’s commitment to sharing the deep Jewish traditions of service and diversity of thought with campus communities.
The year-long Bridging Service Fellowship is a partnership between campus Hillels and other campus or student organizations, such as campus departments of religious and spiritual life, student affairs, and interfaith councils. Staff from Hillel and the partner organization co-facilitate the cohort of fellows from both communities.
Each week during the seven-to-ten week program, fellows participate in three core components:
- Ethical Volunteer Service: Fellows volunteer with local nonprofits on campus and in the larger community, addressing pressing needs. These volunteer opportunities include serving meals, tutoring students, and packing care kits, among others.
- Cohort Learning: All cohort members join facilitated sessions rooted in Jewish values, identity exploration, and dialogue across lines of difference. Fellows are encouraged to share their perspectives and experiences on campus. Co-led by two facilitators — one from Hillel and one from the partner organization — sessions build students’ capacity to engage in dialogue that invites participants to see how their efforts connect to the week’s themes.
- Peer & Small Group Bridge-Building: Between full-cohort sessions, one-on-one conversations, and small-group discussions, fellows build trust, deepen understanding, and develop the self-awareness and leadership skills that they will carry throughout their lives.
“The Bridging Service Fellowship equips students to lead with empathy, confidence, and curiosity in an increasingly divided world while actively serving their community” said Dani Levine, Hillel International’s senior director of social impact. “Judaism values hitchazkut, strengthening each other, teaching that working together across differences leads to a stronger outcome. Hillel believes this effort advances a core priority, building bridges between Jewish student communities and other faith and identity communities to promote understanding and empathy on campus. As students learn more about what matters to each other, they can work together to create campus environments where all students can thrive.”
“Participating in the Hillel Bridging Service Fellowship was one of the most meaningful and rewarding experiences I have had,” said a fellow at the Lester and Jewell Morris Hillel Jewish Student Center at Michigan State University. “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. One of the biggest lessons I gained from this experience was understanding how differences within a group can actually become strengths when approached with empathy and openness.”
At Hillel at Virginia Commonwealth University, one student described how the fellowship transformed her understanding of service itself, writing, “I will always seek to make an impact beyond just serving, but connecting with the people I am serving.” A Christian student in the VCU cohort shared how this program transformed her approach to volunteering at her church. By getting to know clients more personally, she learned that several are unhoused and began preparing ready-to-eat food packages that better meet their needs.
Research shows that serving together builds understanding that conversation alone cannot. When people work toward a shared goal, they can form lasting connections across backgrounds.
“The Fellows have built relationships, deepened their dialogue and service skills, and created a shared impact on campus and in the broader community,” said Anyu Silverman, Senior Director of Bridge-Building at Repair the World. “The Fellowship is also a natural entry point for the Jewish service movement. We heard that serving for a semester has inspired students to continue volunteering beyond the bounds of the program. Repair is excited to support students in their service journeys — on campus and beyond.”