Help us welcome the Class of 2030
Dear fellow members of Harvard’s Jewish community,
I hope my message finds you, and those you love, well.
The Jewish people are in the midst of the book of Numbers, the story of a community on a long and uncertain journey, full of stops and turns and disappointments, carrying both supplies and a legacy, failing and learning as they go. In the meditations with which he closes his Obligations of the Heart, the great medieval Jewish philosopher Bahya ibn Paquda takes this journey as the paradigm of Jewish history, in every era and every place:
We are like a group traveling a tortuous route to a distant land. They must stop at numerous camps… each carrying a heavy load. The people are few in number, and each one is responsible for multiple animals, which must again and again be loaded and unloaded. If the people assist one another in loading and unloading the animals, and each one endeavors for the good of the entire group, they will arrive at their destination. But if their hearts are divided, if they are unable to agree on a single plan, and if each person works only for her private benefit, most of them will not make it… Therefore, make every effort, my brothers and sisters, to acquire faithful, beloved, and good friends, who will assist you in all areas of life. Friends with whom you can be whole-hearted, and towards whom your conscience is clear. Let them be as dear to you as your own life.
Ibn Paquda captures what we are building with and for Jewish students at Harvard (I quoted this passage in my Rosh Hashanah sermon at Reform services this past year): a place where we travel together, knowing that others have our back, and that we will be called on to aid one another – and will answer that call when it comes.
True to the metaphor of the extended journey of the Jewish people, our students’ journeys neither begin nor end in Cambridge. Each first-year student arrives at Harvard carrying nearly two decades of parents’ and teachers’ investments of care, time, energy, and love. And when they leave Harvard, they will begin to make their contributions, to the Jewish tradition and to the world, in earnest. At Harvard Hillel, we have the honor and great responsibility of building a community of shared purpose during students’ formative college years, their earliest experiments in adulthood.
Right now, with campus newly quiet after commencement and reunions, we are busy preparing for the arrival of the Class of 2030 – and have been for months. Building the community that ibn Paquda describes, the community that each of us longs to belong to and to contribute to, begins with congratulating and welcoming students when they are first admitted, and reaches its peak intensity when students arrive to big sibs, a Jewish learning fellowship where they learn one another’s Jewish journeys and begin to build connections, and find people who will become their cherished friends over freshman year’s first Shabbat dinners, bagel brunches, and trips to Fenway.
We need you to join and support this community of mutual care: a generous family of our community, knowing what this moment means, has offered to match every gift we raise through the end of the month, up to the first $25,000. By supporting Harvard Hillel over the next ten days, you will allow us to do twice as much for the class of 2030 when they arrive and throughout their first year – a gift that will matter in countless moments of connection throughout their time at Harvard, and throughout their lives.
Please help us write the next chapter of our community’s story by welcoming the Class of 2030, so that they will be accompanied by true friends, every step of their journey.
Shabbat Shalom,
