There is a really beautiful message, “While it’s important to act properly between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, it’s perhaps more important to act properly between Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashana.” As we enter this new year, I am thinking a lot about that quote. About how we show up for our young people at Hillel this year. About how we show up for each other in the community this year.

We are entering this new year at Hillel with so much gratitude. Last year, we opened the Beverly and Joseph Glickman Hillel Center adjacent to UCSD after 23 years. To those of you who helped carry that project from concept to completion, your hard work and dedication paid off. This center has changed the Jewish landscape of our community for the better. Young people are now participating in Jewish life through Hillel in numbers we have never seen before. More than triple the amount of incoming UCSD students have pre-registered to participate in Hillel than the year before. TRIPLE.

We are seeing the impact widely across our entire Hillel community. Over 130 students participated in Shabbat at the Melvin Garb Hillel Center adjacent to SDSU, and over 225 came to the Welcome Back BBQ. We saw double the amount of students at Shabbat at CSUSM and we are expecting similar numbers at our first Shabbat at USD. Our dreaming together, our visioning together, and our effort together is working. We built it and they are coming.

And we can’t stop now. This is just the beginning. What we do now between this Yom Kippur and next year’s Rosh Hashana matters more than ever.

Hillel is planning for the future. The theme of our 5784 is sustainable growth. We have expanded our staff by three professionals whose sole purpose is to work with students – this is simply to meet the increased demand we are already seeing. Young people are clamoring to connect with each other, with Israel, and with their own Jewish identity through Hillel. Because of you and your care.

Over the next year, we are anticipating nearly doubling our participation numbers across all our campuses. But it’s not just about the numbers. That’s just one metric for success. More importantly, we anticipate supporting each individual young person holistically. Whether they are coming to Hillel to find community, whether they are coming to Hillel to be leaders, whether they are coming to Hillel to figure out what it means to be Jewish, or whether they are coming to Hillel for some of their basic needs– whatever the reason, this year, Hillel is committed to continuing to care for each unique young person who comes through our doors.

Each of you are a part of that through your support. At the start of the new year, we want to thank you for continuing to show up for our students. Thanks for helping us take care of so many people. It feels amazing to be in community with YOU!