I started Cooking with Brian, a video series on creating simple, nutritious Israeli dishes.

“When I took on a leadership position at Israel on Campus, a club at Western Hillel, our members made a goal to connect Hillel and Israel to the Jewish community. And we knew what we needed to make that happen — food. So I started Cooking with Brian, a series of short videos that teach viewers how to create simple and nutritious Israeli dishes. I had my work cut out for me. We had to film videos without a production facility, adequate lighting or cutting-edge video editing software. But we quickly discovered I didn’t need any of that. We used elastic bands and tissue paper to hold my phone on a makeshift stand, and we climbed on top of bar stools to make sure the video angle was just right. To date, we’ve reached more than 16,000 people on social media. And it was all because of the support of Western Hillel. Hillel gave us a platform to connect to Judaism and Israel as well as work with staff and students to create a meaningful impact on our campus.” — Brian Friedman, Western University ’20