On Giving Tuesday and Sunday Mornings
I hope my message finds you, and those close to you, well.
Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday, and I’m reaching out personally to explain how and why this matters for all of us.
Everyone who has been to Rosovsky Hall on a Sunday morning knows what Bagel Brunch looks like: for two hours, students streaming into Hillel’s doors – lining up for bagels and schmear, settling into conversations that stretch well past the last everything bagel. It’s loud. It’s crowded. And it’s the foundation of friendships, and of an entire community.
The real magic is what happens beneath the surface: A sophomore who walks in alone and leaves with plans to come back to Hillel for Shabbat dinner. Two students who discover a shared hometown, interest, or concentration. A first-year who arrives at Harvard not knowing anyone – and by October, has a standing table.
There is no more effective antidote to the specters of isolation, loneliness, and alienation that haunt today’s youth – than the warmth of community that is formed every week, over bagels and lox, capers and coffee. Your support is what makes this happen – not just bagels, but the connective tissue of Jewish life at Harvard.
Tomorrow, our goal is to raise $40,000 to keep Bagel Brunch going strong for another academic year – to enrich hundreds of lives and nurture thousands of friendships. I’m thrilled to share that a Harvard Hillel Board Member has offered to match every gift, dollar-for-dollar, up to the first $40,000. That means your contribution will go twice as far toward building the community our students count on.
I hope you’ll join us tomorrow. Watch your inbox for a short video from our students – they’ll tell you in their own words, far better than I can, what this community means to them.
Thank you for being part of this.
Brachot,
Rabbi Jason Rubenstein
Executive Director