Hillel Impact Stories

The Social Impact Series began as an effort to bring different religious groups together. C3 (Campus Christian Center) is next door to Hillel yet we haven’t had many recent opportunities to collaborate.  This series has allowed us to learn about one another as religious individuals and as organizations. I appreciated being at the Palm Tree event with representation from every major faith! It was a moving experience to have meaningful conversations at Freedom Shabbat as we looked deeper into incarceration and its relationship with religion. 

I hope that the Social Impact Series can continue to grow and be a platform to engage in conversations to ease disagreements between faith groups. We can create a more united ASU community and build allies who truly understand one another. I am grateful to Hillel at ASU for helping to expose me to new people from different backgrounds. 

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It had been a VERY long time since we hosted a huge social gathering and we wanted to bring as many people within our community together as possible before the end of the semester. We are thrilled to have successfully hosted our largest event in Hillel at ASU history with over 200 students in attendance at our Food Truck Fest. 

By creating this low-barrier social opportunity, we were able to bring an incredibly diverse group of students to Hillel to just enjoy being together. Our staff personally texted an invite to nearly 800 students, we raffled off prizes to students who brought friends, and ran an entire social media campaign to help spread the word. We had students from nearly every social sphere including music, Greek life, athletics, social justice, Israel education, and advocacy, as well as many non-Jewish students who are an integral part of our community.  

Unfortunately, there were antisemitic fliers found on campus just days before the event. While the Food Truck Fest took weeks of intentional planning, it wasn’t initially meant to be a community-building opportunity so soon after our students experienced antisemitic acts on campus, but it succeeded in doing so. Our students were appreciative of the safe space we provided where they could celebrate their Jewish identities and be with their friends.

This event was immensely popular with students, as you can tell from our overwhelming attendance, and we’ve heard from students that it re-solidified their love for Hillel. It was an integral part of building back our presence on campus as we’ve seen a full return from COVID and created a spike in attendance for all our programs, including Shabbat.

Every week Hillel at ASU hosts a Shabbat experience, complete with services and a free meal, for all students. We create opportunities for those in attendance to connect with their Hillel community and different groups across campus through collaborative efforts led by our student leaders. Earlier this month we partnered with Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) and Alpha Epsilon Phi (AEPhi), the Jewish fraternity and sorority on campus, to host Shabbat in the Hillel parking lot. They both worked with our staff to offer a unique ‘camp-style’ service for those in attendance. Everyone then came together for an Italian-inspired dinner catered by Hillel at ASU alum Chef Amber Sampson. We were thrilled to welcome both Greek chapters, especially the over 20 students who joined us for the first time at Hillel. 

​“Hillel helped establish AEPhi at ASU and the partnership between the two is still strong today. It was so fun for AEPhi to host Shabbat with ASU Hillel! Most of our chapter members were able to attend which provided a great reminder of how impactful the relationship between AEPhi and Hillel can be. The sisters of AEPhi know that if they ever need anything, from chapter development to personal development, the Hillel staff and community are always there for us. I have no doubt that the important relationship between Hillel and AEPhi will continue to grow and flourish for years to come.” - Bella Schneider ‘23

​​“AEPi had a great time cosponsoring Shabbat with Hillel. Having the opportunity to gather our brothers for a Shabbat experience with other members of the ASU Jewish community in a COVID safe way was amazing. Hillel has always been supportive of our brotherhood, helping us grow and strengthen our organization, and we’re always excited for the opportunity to continue partnering with Hillel to create social and educational programs. I am grateful to be a member of AEPi and that Hillel is invested in us as an organization and as individuals.” -Ian Lockwood ‘22

There was a lot of built-up energy and momentum for students returning to campus this year and Hillel at ASU took the opportunity to capitalize by providing not just one welcome week, but a full 6-weeks of programming, called ‘The First Six’, focused on showing that we were ready to welcome all students back in full swing.  One of the highlights was our annual Street Fair where we had nearly 100 students gather in our parking lot to socialize and enjoy free food all while collecting SWAG and getting to meet the many student groups and campus partners that make up our Hillel community. With the lifting of campus restrictions, we’ve also been able to return to tabling and programs around campus where over 300 students have already connected to Hillel, both on the Tempe and Downtown campuses. 

Our staff and student leaders felt moments of shock and adjustment when we all returned to campus, but they also continued to show resiliency and jump back into things despite the sense of ambiguity that we all face as a result of  the pandemic. There was a communal sense of relief to being back in person and feeling the impact of connecting without a screen in between us. 

This is a semester all about experimenting, what does our new normal look like? To Hillel at ASU this looks like learning from the last 18+ months that students are open to new things. We had over 20 first-year students show up to pizza by the dorms. We had many students join us for high holiday meals and services (you can read about one of them, Liora, here), and others join us on campus for ‘Bagels and Shofar’ during Rosh Hashanah and yoga during Yom Kippur. A Yom Kippur meditation followed by break-fast rounded out the holiday.

We are constantly innovating and iterating to meet students’ needs as we all learn what those needs are. We are excited to keep you updated as we all evolve together. 

​Liora Hyman ‘22 helped lead Hillel at ASU’s High Holiday services this semester. She first became involved through one of our virtual classes  last year and has since grown her connection not only to the Hillel community but to her Jewish identity. While reflecting on her experiences this holiday season she shared, “Working with Hillel was such a spiritually strong experience. Both of my parents are clergy, so I have always struggled to find my own place of leadership within the Jewish community.” 

Liora’s role in the High Holidays not only gave her the platform to be a Jewish leader but allowed her to re-explore her personal connection to Judaism. She worked closely with Rabbi Suzy leading up to the fall semester to find her confidence in praying so she could feel empowered to lead a group of students in prayer. 

She is proud of her accomplishments and appreciates the privilege she was given to lead services. But when thinking about the entire experience she said, “looking back I would do it all again, everything but fasting. Leading prayer services and fasting is a new level I had never experienced before that left me emotionally and physically exhausted. However, I would do it all again for Hillel at ASU.”

Imagine spending your first semester of college at home, while other first-year students are on campus doing what they can to safely meet new friends and adjust to this new chapter in their life.  That’s what the first 5 months of my life as a college student were like. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but without Hillel it would’ve been nearly impossible. Having now completed my first year of college, I can say that I am a proud Sun Devil, thanks to ASU Hillel!
 
Before fall semester started, Hillel staff members reached out to me for a virtual ‘get-to-know-you’ and I could not be more thankful for that opportunity. Zoom fatigue made it challenging to connect with people outside of my ASU classes. There were times when it felt like it would be impossible to make friends and feel a part of the greater campus community during my virtual semester. Because of that one Hillel call, I joined two Hillel classes that helped me build deep connections with students and the Jewish  community at ASU. Hillel constantly reminded me that being virtual might have made things harder, but not impossible.

I loved learning more about life’s big questions and about Israel through the two classes I took, the Jewish Learning Fellowship (JLF) and the Engage Israel fellowship. Both classes were structured differently than my academic classes; they gave me the chance to talk with other students one-on-one and in small groups. Having this weekly commitment with students who were there for the same reasons I was made building friendships easy. These classes allowed me to build real relationships with other ASU students and I can confidently say that I feel a part of the community because of Hillel.

I honestly believe that there’s no other space or community that makes such a real effort to reach out to someone new and to make sure that every person feels comfortable. I am so grateful for the amazing and generous donors who make it all possible.

Allison Thompson ’23 is one of many students at ASU who helped read names as part of our 24-hour Holocaust memorial program. 

Reflecting on her participation, Allison shared that “the Yom HaShoah name reading was one of the most powerful moments I’ve ever experienced. I read during the middle of the night, during the day while people passed by to attend class and was the final reader to end the event. Each time felt so powerful because I was able to honor those who passed. It was also devastating since we hardly put a dent in the number of names that we were able to read for 24 hours. This event was a reminder of how important it is to continue to memorialize the victims so the Holocaust can never happen again"

Allison’s participation in not one, but three different reading shifts allowed her to experience this emotional act in different environments.  We are proud of our students, like Allison, who took time out of their day, and night, to be a part of this meaningful reading. 

Allison also serves as the VP of Marketing for the newly established Jewish Greek Council and is a Hillel Birthright alum.