| Holidays are the landmarks of your year as a fellow that inform your programming, your schedule, and the general flow of the calendar. In many ways, Hillel functions as a community center, serving our students socially, and emotionally. Holidays are the key element in making what we do different from that of the average student affairs professional. |
| Shabbat is the hallmark of our holiday programming. Greg often says “if we can’t do Shabbat right, we have no business doing what we do”. Luckily for us, we do Shabbat very well! With the advent of the Shabbat checklist, Fridays have become a well-oiled machine that allows us to create meaningful and enjoyable Shabbat experiences for more than 100 students who regularly attend services and/or dinner. Shabbat responsibilities include (but are not limited to): § Welcoming students from 6-6:30pm § Attending one of the three services we offer (Reform, Conservative and Traditional) § Orchestrating the transition from services to dinner (opening the doors to the big room, helping move chairs to the tables, ushering students in for Kiddush, et. Al.) § Enlisting a student to lead Kiddush, Motzi, and Birkat Hamazon. § Orchestrating announcements, clean-up and inviting people to stay for dessert, or a program if we have one. § Shmoozing with the students and making connections! |
| Z SHABBAT Z |
| HIGH HOLIDAYS |
| The High Holidays help to get your year off to a hectic and busy start. Like Passover, the High Holidays are the most heavily trafficked time at Hillel. We see more than 200 students for meals and services throughout Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. This year, the holidays began very early in the year, and allowed me the opportunity to just go with the flow and learn the ropes of Hillel. Jamie and Andrea are responsible for the logistics that go into making sure we can serve the students who come for dinner on the eve of the holiday and attend one of the two services (Reform and Conservative) we hold. Traditional students often attend Conservative services, led by a guest Rabbinical student from JTS, or may go to the Chabad House. For next year, I hope to be able to create more engagement programming around the High Holidays; the FYI Fellows will be instrumental in making this happen. The holidays are a key time to capitalize on the number of students coming through our doors. However, they can be a very disorienting and overwhelming experience for newcomers. To that end, I think that pre-holiday programming in the Residence Halls will be an effective way to engage students at the very beginning of the year. |
| CHANUKAH |
| Chanukah presents us with a great opportunity to celebrate a Jewish holiday with students in an informal and social setting. We have a menorah lighting each night of Chanukah at Hillel, as well as a big Chanukah party. This year, Matt Lowe and I held Chanukah parties at the Lakeshore and Southeast Residence Halls. This gave us a great chance to meet students who we hadn’t met before, in a relaxed setting complete with latkes, soufganyot, and dreidel games! |
| PASSOVER |
| Passover is the last big Holiday we celebrate at Hillel, and includes 2 big seders, as well as a kosher lunch and dinner each day. As staff, we are responsible for cooking and serving many of these meals, and things at Hillel completely shift over for the holiday. Our main responsibility is to be present, visible and welcoming- so during many days of Passover, you may find yourself in the big room for the entire day! Like the High Holidays, Passover is a time when see a lot of new faces. For next year, I think it would be worth exploring smaller group-interaction programs, with target groups such as Greeks. |
| HOLIDAYS |