Stony Brook JCSC Yearbook > Stony Brook Hillel

Hillel Foundation for Jewish Life Interfaith Center, SB Union 201 Phone 631-632-6565

http://www.stonybrook.edu/hillel Stony Brook, NY 11794-3235 Fax 631-632-6576

· The Hillel Foundation for Jewish Life at SUNY Stony Brook is located in the Interfaith Center on the second floor of the Stony Brook Union. SUNY Stony Brook’s campus is on the North Shore of Long Island, about 60 miles east of New York City (directions, campus map).

· Stony Brook Hillel is part of the international organization Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life with its International Center located in Washington, DC. Visit www.hillel.org to find out about national Hillel events, Hillel Foundations on other campuses, and to use its many resources.

Who’s Who?

JCSC Fellow – Rachel Habush, [email protected]

The Jewish Campus Service Corps Fellow focuses on the engagement and outreach of Jewish students at Stony Brook University. As you will learn during your JCSC training, engagement can mean many things (see section 4 below for more on National Hillel’s “engagement” and “empowerment”). While keeping engagement in mind, the JCSC works with certain target groups of Jewish students - you can read more about the groups I worked with here. In addition to engagement and general programming on campus, the JCSC takes part in national trainings and initiatives through Hillel’s Center for Jewish Engagement (CJE). Before becoming a 2001-2002 JCSC Fellow, I (Rachel) grew up in Los Angeles and went to UC San Diego before moving to New York in July 2001.

Jewish Student Life Coordinator - Joshua Lipshitz, [email protected]

All other programming on campus that is not done by the JCSC fellow is overseen by Josh, the Jewish Student Life Coordinator. He meets with the student board (Hillel Student Club) and other empowered students to create programs in a variety of areas including social, educational, Israel programs, and holiday celebrations. In addition to working hours on end to make Jewish life at Stony Brook great, Josh supervises the Kosher kitchen in Roth Quad. When he does get away from campus, he likes music, the Yankees and spending time with his fiancé Shari (they’re getting married in October!).

Asst. Director for Administration & Development – Kohava Sacks, [email protected] Kohava looks after the day-to-day operations of the Hillel Center. She coordinates the main calendar, Hillel publications, the Hillel webpage, and all reservations for Hillel programs on campus. If you ever need to know where anything is, Kohava generally knows where to find it. If you really want to get on her good side, take her out for a Grande Nonfat Iced Latte at Starbucks.

Development Consultant – Jill Zucker, [email protected]

Jill began working with Hillel toward the end of the year as a fundraising consultant, culminating in the planning of a gigantic dinner in June. Next year she will be around again to do the same thing, plus more. Jill used to work for Hillel several years ago as an Outreach Director, sort of a JCSC Fellow before the fellowship existed. Jill has many creative ideas, which she is more than willing to share if you are at a creative dry spell.

Associate Director for Special Programs – Deborah Menton Peretz, [email protected]

Deb has been on maternity leave this past year but when she was around she worked part-time on Israel and Women’s programming, as well as JCSC Supervision. She now has two adorable sons and stops by Hillel programs now and again.

Executive Director & Jewish Chaplain – Rabbi Joseph Topek, [email protected] Rabbi Joe serves as the campus Rabbi for the university, the hospital, and the Vet’s home. He also oversees the operation of Hillel and fulfills its religious/rabbinical needs. He is happy to talk about anything having to do with the Civil War, old cars and Texas.

Click here for more info on Stony Brook Hillel staff.

Jewish Life on Campus

There are several different Jewish groups on campus, most of which operate under the auspices of the Hillel Foundation. Here is the lowdown:

Counsel of Jewish Student Organizations (CJSO) – This group ideally functions as the umbrella group of all Jewish student groups on campus. Although somewhat inactive this past year, CJSO coordinates all of the different types of programming and has representatives from all of the other groups.

First Year Students of Hillel (FYSH) *

Graduates And Professionals (GAP) *

Hillel Student Club – This club is the student board of the Hillel Foundation and mostly plans programs that are social in nature, under the guidance of the Jewish Student Life Coordinator. It is partially funded by Student Polity, Stony Brook’s student government. Click here to view next year’s student board (this link will only work on the JCSC computer).

Nashim Echad: The Jewish Women’s Network – This women’s group plans programs of interest to Jewish women, or about Jewish women for the general public.

Shelanu: Stony Brook’s Jewish Community Newspaper – Shelanu puts out a few issues a year which often include articles about Israel or Jewish life, poetry, and art. Recently the leadership has been very overlapped with Hillel students, but years ago Shelanu was quite separate.

SB Hebrew Congregation & SB Havurah – These are the orthodox and conservative minyanim (respectively) that meet on campus during Shabbat and other Jewish holidays.

United Jewish Communities Campus Campaign *

Chabad – Chabad is the International Hassidic/ultra-orthodox organization with a chapter in Stony Brook. Located just off-campus, some students enjoy this Jewish alternative because of its “homey” feel (and free-flowing beverages…). Hillel makes attempts at including Chabad in campus-wide Jewish activities but they are not always accepted.

* JCSC Target Group – see the Target Group page for more details.

JCSC Responsibilities

Engagement vs. Empowerment

National Hillel has developed a model for two different types of students who you might come across on campus. Engagement students are “student who are not typically active in Jewish life on campus” (JCSC Trip-Tik, section three) while empowerment students are active in Jewish life and in creating a “Jewish renaissance on campus.”

Programming

The JCSC Fellow is responsible for creating a Jewish connection for engagement students on campus. These students may fall into one of the assigned “Target Groups” or may not fall into any group at all (click here for more info on the JCSC Target Groups). In addition, this connection may be formed in a variety of ways – organized programs, tabling at strategic locations on campus, coffee dates to schmooze with students or any other way you can think of to get to know a student. Visit the Programming page to learn more about programs and tabling. While engagement programming is the JCSC Fellow’s main focus on campus, they are expected to also pitch in with big Hillel programs that are “all hands on deck” (i.e. High Holiday services, Shabbat Across Stony Brook).

Weekly Emails

In order for students to come to programs, they need to know about them! Since college students are generally email addicts, a weekly email is the best way to get to students. The JCSC has been the designated staff member who sends out the weekly events email to all students on the mailing list. The current list of Hillel students subscribed to the Hillel email list is here (this link will only work on the JCSC computer) and is constantly updated throughout the year with new signups, especially in August with all of the new people. To get an idea of what to write in your first few emails, see past Hillel weekly emails here. After you get an idea of what needs to be included, feel free to improvise. One signature element of the emails I added was a Weekly Jewish Trivia Question. I wrote a question about anything and then told the winner they had to come to the office to pick up their prize. It was a great way to get students in here to meet them (sometimes I was somewhat “selective” about who I made the winner so it would be someone new).

Bulletin Board @ the Roth Kosher Cafe

One “unofficial” responsibility of the JCSC has been to maintain the Bulletin board and information table at the Roth Kosher Cafeteria. I made sure to include all new event flyers and publicity we had out for all Hillel programs, as well as information about Jewish opportunities off-campus.

“Think outside the box!”

Aside from those outlined responsibilities, the JCSC Fellow is sort of free to do whatever they want. If there is a program you really want to do or something you are really interested in but it is not specifically engagement, do it anyway! The most important thing is to have fun with the fellowship and learn for the experience.

Return to the JCSC Yearbook!