This One Time, at Hillel Convention . . . Getting in Touch with Your Roots

By Amy Lubinski, Copy Editor

The SUNY New Paltz Hillel, the foundation for Jewish Life on campus, held its second annual Hillel Convention this past weekend, Oct. 26 through Oct. 28. This year’s theme was “This One Time, at Hillel Convention . . . Getting in Touch with Your Roots.”

Over 60 students participated in the convention to celebrate Jewish culture, many of which were invited from other SUNY schools including Albany, Plattsburgh, Oswego and Oneonta and were hosted for the weekend in residence halls by other Jewish New Paltz students.

“It’s really cool to hang out with people on campus who are Jewish, but it’s also good to broaden your horizons and meet people on other campuses who are Jewish. This is a good way to do that,” said Jessica Golian, a junior elementary education major.

The convention’s itinerary included many activities, including candle lighting ceremonies, Shabbat (the holy day) and Havdalah (ending of Shabbat) services and Ruach song sessions, but the heart of the convention were the programs held throughout the weekend. These programs were “Media and Culture,” “Israel Through the Ages” and “Jewish Holidays in a Secular World.”

Each program was more of a workshop. Students were broken-up into four groups and were sent into separate rooms. The rooms represented elementary school, middle school, high school and college.

“We thought about what age groups made the most difference in our lives,” said Hillel Vice President Abby Giller, a junior elementary education major. “It was easier to separate the ages into elementary, middle, high school, college than ages six to 11, etc. The point was to see how people’s opinions changed throughout the years.”

After 15 minutes of participating in the planned activity for the particular room, the groups of students would “graduate,” and would rotate to the next “school.”

The programs were formatted to the ages in each school. For example, in the second program, “Israel Through the Ages,” students who were in the elementary school drew flags of they thought should be depicted on a flag for Israel. Junior psychology major and treasurer Michelle Applebaum’s flag had 12 boxes for all the tribes of Judaism. Each box portrayed a different aspect of Judaism. Other students drew the Star of David, camels and even Moses with a “Jew fro.”

In the next room, middle school, students wrote messages of Shabbat. The messages will be placed inside the Western Wall, the last wall standing from the second temple in Jerusalem, by Debora Holdberg a sophomore psychology major and Melissa Rubinstein a sophomore psychology majorwho led the program and will be going there this winter.

In high school, students discussed 9/11 and terrorism and if anyone’s views of Israel changed after the attacks. “This is important to talk about because this is what Israel goes through everyday,” said the leader of the program Faryn Kornreich, a junior psychology major.

Finally, in college, a discussion was held on who had taken their Birthright, which is a free 10-day trip to Israel for anyone who hasn’t taken an organized trip to Israel yet, Giller said. The students who have gone were asked to share their experiences with the rest of the students in the room. Many students have gone very recently, including Hillel secretary Ilyssa Leeper, a junior elementary education major who went on her Birthright this past summer. “It was easily the best 10 days of my life,” Leeper said.

At the end of the weekend, Giller was very pleased with the success of the convention.

“Everyone seemed to have a really good time everywhere,” she said. “I also got a lot of good feedback from New Paltz students as well as students from other campuses and ideas for future programs.”

Hillel has an event planned regularly on Tuesday nights, which range from challah baking to Israeli dancing and services are held every other Friday. Hillel’s mission is “to maximize the number of Jews doing Jewish things with other Jews,” according to the SUNY New Paltz Hillel chapter’s pamphlet.

“Right now, we’re making a transition to a full Hillel program center with a director,” said President Hailey Silverstein, a senior earth science major. “We’ve done all we can do as students. It [becoming a full Hillel center] will expand us to reach different types of people on campus.”

For more information, contact Hillel at Hillel@newpaltz.edu.