After a yearlong process, a nine-member search committee on Wednesday named a new director of Northwestern’s Hillel.
The search committee, composed up of students, faculty and board members, chose Michael Mishkin from three finalists, each of whom they met during late January and early this month. Mishkin will take over in July.
Hillel has been without a permanent director since Rabbi Michael Balinsky, who served a 20-year tenure, retired in June. The interim director, Jonathan Wolf, left in November.
Rachel Spiro, Hillel’s program director, said Mishkin was the search committee’s unanimous choice. Students swayed the final decision in his favor, she said, because he was the top selection of many of the students who spoke with candidates during their visits.
“All three candidates were great,” Spiro said. “But it was the students’ input that really helped make the decision. We wanted someone who would connect with the students.”
Mishkin, who will be ordained as a rabbi in May by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, said NU’s Hillel felt right to him from the beginning.
“By the end of two days, I had a very strong feeling this was where I would end up,” he said. “I could tell people cared about each other and the community.”
Mishkin, who also was considering positions at Brown University’s Hillel and several Jewish day schools, said he thought a college campus was the best fit for him. He said his experiences working with college students at Jewish camps in Wisconsin and in a Chicago suburb helped him make his decision.
“I developed some nice relationships with some of the counselors,” he said. “They had some struggles, and some were searching for identities. I enjoyed talking with them and advising them.”
Mishkin said he hopes to build on the foundation Balinsky built during his tenure as director. He said his goals include building a respectful community at Hillel, creating “exciting and diverse” programming and helping students create a fulfilling spiritual life on campus.
Getting input from members of the NU community is key in formulating a vision for Hillel, Mishkin said. He and his wife will visit campus before his graduation from the seminary to interact with students and staff. In June he plans to move to Evanston permanently.
Later that month, Mishkin will accompany 40 NU students on a trip to Israel.
Alla Karagodin, cultural chairwoman for Hillel Cultural Life, met with Mishkin for about half an hour during his Feb. 1 visit. She said she was impressed with Mishkin’s interaction with students.
“He seemed charismatic and enthusiastic about being a part of Hillel,” said Karagodin, a Weinberg sophomore. “He was confident and he made us feel confident.”
Karagodin said Mishkin’s youth will give him an advantage over former Hillel directors, who have been more experienced but older.
“I think it will be great to have a young, vibrant director,” she said. “The fact that he’s young and just out of rabbinical school will bring a totally new perspective.”
