One Month In, Inspired by Our Students

Dear fellow member of Harvard’s Jewish community,

I hope my message finds you well, and that Rosh Hashanah was joyous and sweet.

So many of you have expressed such deep concerns and high hopes for Jewish life at Harvard: what is it like to be a Jewish student at Harvard nowadays? Are students fearful about displaying their Jewish identities? Are there enough Jews to build and sustain a thriving community in the college? Are students isolated? What is Hillel doing to build students’ Jewish identities at this formative moment in their lives?

After one month in this role, and my first Rosh Hashanah, in this community – I want to share my initial impressions. The first thing that strikes someone who enters the Harvard Jewish community is students’ eagerness eager to personally invest in Jewish life. Ours is a community filled with, and built by, people who want more than just participating – they feel the excitement and promise of building, creating, and shaping something meaningful, together.

Throughout Rosh Hashanah, this empowered ethos was on constant display. While Harvard Hillel’s full suite of services – Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox – are distinguished from one another by amounts of Hebrew, gender roles, and interpretations of Jewish law, each of them is built by the contributions and efforts of countless students. From leading songs and prayers to offering original interpretations of Jewish ideas for a new time, to organizing forty-person holiday dinners – Harvard’s Jewish students worked closely with our rabbis to create something you would have been moved by, and proud of. Seeing so many different students find ways to offer their own talents and perspectives filled me with a sense of what not only this year can hold, but of the Jewish life they can create together throughout their adult lives.

Thinking about the trajectory of our community over the coming years, it’s critical to note that nowhere did this energy shine brighter than among first-year students, the class of 2029. Again and again – from their first Shabbat to a Hillel-sponsored outing to Fenway, to filling Rosh Hashanah services – I’ve seen them showing up with curiosity, enthusiasm, and a real desire to find, and to make,their place in this community. One first-year student has been working to make her dream of an Israeli cooking class into a reality. All those skills that you’ve read or heard that today’s students lack – she is deploying, and building, as we plan this event together: researching options for chefs and menus, designing  a space where people will connect over a delicious meal, planning and recruiting – step by step. Nurturing this idea, and this student, reminded me about what lies at the heart of Harvard Hillel: partnering with Jewish students to bring their creativity and passions into full expression as Jewish life, building a Jewish community  from their dreams and their efforts.

As we move through this season of repentance and prepare for Yom Kippur, I find myself looking ahead already to Sukkot: its image of building the home we inhabit together, captures what this work means, and what this place means. Thank you – your ongoing connection and concern for this place are the next chapter, and even the culmination, of what is beginning right now in Cambridge.  I can’t wait to build a Sukkah and so much more with these students, and to share with you how the newest members of our community are joining on the path you have led, week by week and year by year.

With gratitude and excitement – and wishes for a sweet new year,

Rachel Eilbaum

Senior Director of Jewish Student Life