Hillel of San Diego was also honored with the privilege of speaking at the Combating Antisemitism Symposium hosted by AJC San Diego and the Jewish Federation of San Diego County this past Sunday. Student leader Jake Rendler spoke about how he continues to be a voice of young Jewish empowerment in the face of adversity and called on partners to help make a difference. It was incredibly powerful to see University leadership from UCSD, SDSU, and USD participate in the symposium and demonstrated a fortified commitment and partnership to the work. 

There is a lot happening to make our campuses better for Jewish students and really for all students. Thank you for being a part of it. 

In 2021-2022, Hillel of San Diego was a part of the second cohort of Hillel International’s Campus Climate Initiative (CCI) with San Diego State University. The program connects senior university administrators and Hillel Executive Directors of the same campus, with extensive education on antisemitism, a comprehensive external audit of policies and procedures, a survey of students, policy recommendations, and the tools to implement an action plan. The results of SDSU participating in the program include; Jewish Heritage Month, bolstering the mandate of the Presidential Task Force on Addressing Antisemitism, and countless revisions to how the university addresses biased incidents and supports Jewish students. You can read more about that proactive work here. CCI now has 100 participating universities but we were one of the first. 

We are now a part of the Campus Climate Initiative again with our administration partners at UCSD in a UC-specific cohort of the program. Mandated by President Drake and the UC Regents, this program will help our effort on campus tackling the systemic problems we continue to face. Our partners in the UCSD administration are equally committed to this work. 

At the Annual Meeting last year, I said that we would be implementing a more offensive strategy around combating antisemitism. I meant it. We’ve hired a new Community Relations Director, Jacob Mandel, to do just that. Through his role, Hillel of San Diego is investing in dedicated advocacy for Jewish students and channeling the efforts of aligned partners, faculty, and administrators in driving positive change. Again, we are one of the first Hillels that are implementing this strategy and pioneering this work. 

We will be hosting a Community Briefing on February 12th at 7:30pm on Zoom where we will be reviewing some of our strategies and you can hear directly from students about our proactive efforts. You can register for it here.

This past weekend reaffirmed our commitment to student leadership. 20 student leaders from all four of our campuses participated in a weekend-long leadership retreat where they learned about advocacy, program planning, and how to build their own Jewish community. This is a part of our strategy of teaching students to be self-advocates and empowered to face the world’s challenges.

Hillel of San Diego was also honored with the privilege of speaking at the Combating Antisemitism Symposium hosted by AJC San Diego and the Jewish Federation of San Diego County this past Sunday. Student leader Jake Rendler spoke about how he continues to be a voice of young Jewish empowerment in the face of adversity and called on partners to help make a difference. It was incredibly powerful to see University leadership from UCSD, SDSU, and USD participate in the symposium and demonstrated a fortified commitment and partnership to the work. 

There is a lot happening to make our campuses better for Jewish students and really for all students. Thank you for being a part of it.