Team Spirit and Jewish Joy at the 15th Annual National Hillel Basketball Tournament
This past weekend, over 700 students gathered for the 15th annual National Hillel Basketball Tournament, hosted by the University of Maryland Hillel. More than 60 teams from 31 U.S. Hillels competed in the men’s and women’s competitions, with many Hillels participating for the first time ever.
“It’s such a cool thing to have all these different types of Jews in the same place,” said Avi Baruch (University of Maryland ‘27), a member of the NHBT executive board “This is just a great opportunity to bring together so many groups of people who wouldn’t normally be in the same room. It really speaks to [Hillel] being there for all kinds of Jewish students, regardless of their background.”
The National Hillel Basketball Tournament grew out of an idea conceived by former University of Maryland, College Park student Rachel Klausner in 2010. What started as a small local basketball tournament, originally called “Dribbler on the Roof,” has now evolved into the biggest student-run Jewish sports competition in the country.
“Basketball [is something] you never even associate with Jewish community or Hillel, on the obvious level,” said Ben Marcus, a member of the Brown RISD Hillel Men’s Basketball Team. “But when you look a little bit deeper into it, it’s all interconnected. It’s really all about forming community and finding home, which is what Brown RISD Hillel has done for me over the past four years, and what Hillels around the country are doing for a lot of other students.”
The National Hillel Basketball Tournament is organized by the NHBT Student Board (more than 30 students strong!) and supported through collaboration with Maryland Hillel staff and Hillel International. Students handle everything from marketing to fundraising, recruitment to logistics — they even developed an original app to help manage registration and attendance for the tournament.
Basketball was what brought everyone together for this year’s competition, but this four-day event brought so much joy and connection on and off the court. Kicking off on Thursday evening, students spent Friday moving between Jewish ritual time, tournament games, and delicious meals before transitioning into the celebration of a Hillel Shabbat.
After October 7th, Matt Levine, a student at The Ohio State University and a member of the Hillel International Student Cabinet, sought out NHBT as a haven for Jewish belonging and community. “Here, we just get to build ourselves up internally,” he said. “We get to talk about our community and then we get to play sports.”
NHBT has also become a yearly opportunity for students to see friends from Hillels across the country. “One of the highlights for me was seeing students from across the country connect and reconnect with each other. They traveled near and far to be in community with each other and to enjoy the friendly competition,” said Michael Kagan, Hillel International’s director of student engagement and experiences. “This year’s NHBT left an impression on everyone in attendance.”
“There’s some good competition here,” added Alan Mashensky, a varsity basketball player for New York University and the president of the Jewish Athlete Alliance. “And I think what’s really beautiful here is that we have Jews from all over the spectrum… And to come into a place where you have sports as that bonding thing is really special.”
Congratulations to everyone involved with planning this year’s tournament, and a special mazal tov to this year’s champions, the Wash U Hillel Men’s Team and the Hillel at Binghamton Women’s Team — we can’t wait to see you next year at NHBT 2027!