I miss getting to see all the students in person dearly, but oddly in some moments, the work feels even more empowering.

Recently, I hosted a Jewish Mindfulness and Meditation Zoom session in honor of the High Holidays. I taught six students, from all different campuses, to how to support their mental and emotional health using the ancient wisdom and traditions of our ancestors.

Afterwards I stayed on the Zoom with one student whom I had never met before, who basically said, “Wow that was amazing. So can you explain to me, like, what is Hillel? I haven’t done anything Jewish in many years but lately I’ve been feeling a bit lost and feel like I need to try something new.”

I have a socially distant coffee date set up with him on Friday. For students like this one, and anyone else craving some new perspectives during the High Holidays, we have events almost every evening from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur.

Right now, I’m planning on refocusing more of my time on those one-on-one relationships and support until we can have socially-distant in-person gatherings outdoors.

Empowering Student Leaders to Take Charge

We will continue having some Zoom events for those students who are coming. But instead of leading them myself, I’m empowering our student leaders to get more involved and take charge. I have 10 student leaders who are driven, passionate, and prepared to take off creating their own programs/initiatives for the semester. We had a lovely virtual leadership retreat before the High Holidays, inspiring them to reflect on themselves as Jewish leaders, brainstorm their plans for the semester, and arming them with all the strategies they need to be as successful as possible.

Mitzvah Mondays

Two programs are already in the works that I can explain as examples. In one, I have a student passionate about community service hosting “Mitzvah Mondays,” interactive community service projects over Zoom. Yesterday we created DIY face coverings to donate in our care packages to the homeless, alongside the food we collected when students picked up their High Holiday gift boxes. We also had a speaker from JFS educate us on homelessness in San Diego and ways they can safely get involved.

Mentorship Program

Another is a First Year Mentorship program called FYSH, pairing new students with upperclassmen mentors, so they can make a new friend during this challenging time, specifically a Hillel friend with whom to virtually attend events.

Students with COVID Got Hillel Welcome Bags

Our new students this year don’t already know each other. They’re not yet all best friends. When some of them got COVID before their second Shabbat on campus, I hand delivered their welcome-to-Hillel gift bag stuffed with a lot of extra food plus a get-well-soon challah. They know they have a Hillel community that’s here for them.

We had a great virtual retreat the other day and I feel confident that they will be thrilled to get more involved once we’re in person.

Being virtual has also been a unique opportunity to connect students from different campuses. Because I work partially at USD as well as at SDSU, I realize how much the campuses would benefit from a more thorough connection. Often I’d get to know a student on one campus that I just knew would be thrilled and inspired by a friendship with a student I knew on the other campus, or would thrive at the kind of event another campus offered.

QuaranTeams

At the same time, as I was calling students throughout the summer, their main outcry was their lack of social connection and craving the opportunity to make new friends. So to solve both these issues at once, a couple months ago, I created QuaranTeams. Jewish students from across all 4 campuses and some community colleges, grouped together on “teams” based on interest.

I assigned two student leaders to each group, from different campuses, strategically picking ones whom I perceived to have strong leadership potential but had yet to take initiative.

Now five weeks in, six groups have been meeting over Zoom once a week for an hour, bonding over activities they are genuinely interested in. They’ve experimented with everything from virtual yoga classes, to Rosh Hashanah apple pie baking, to deep discussions about Jewish values.

Over 40 students are currently involved in developing friendships, their connection to Judaism, and their love of Hillel every week guided by fellow students who are now emerging Jewish leaders.

Of course, we’re still all feeling impatient to transition to in-person socially distant gatherings. Every time I meet with a student one-on-one, they express how deeply they crave being in the same physical place as their peers, even if it’s all spread out outside, and they have to wear masks, and even if no food is served. I’ve made sure they’re all aware of the headache of the logistics and protocol we’re going to have to follow as soon as we’re in person, but the feeling across the board is that anything is worth it to physically be together at Hillel again.

I think once we are able to start back up a bit more, we’ll see even more students than before, because students are coming out of this pandemic experience with a newfound appreciation for community and togetherness.

Thank you to our generous donors who are investing in the future Jewish community. Shoshana’s care for our students is only possible because of you.