Student leaders at Northwestern’s Fiedler Hillel Center hope to unite the Jewish community by restructuring the Hillel-affiliated groups under a new body called the Kol, planning committee members said Monday.
“We’re hoping for a more unified community,” said Shira Bergstein, a member of the Kol’s planning committee. “We’re looking for a venue to bring everybody together.”
NU Jewish groups not affiliated with Hillel, such as Tannenbaum Chabad House, an international Orthodox Jewish organization, and Alpha Epsilon Pi, a national Jewish fraternity, will not be included in the Kol because they cater to more specific audiences than Hillel does, said Jonathan Powell, a planning committee member. Hillel will continue to collaborate with the groups with publicity and sponsoring of events.
“We want to be involved with AEPi and Chabad as much as possible because they do represent Jewish students on campus,” said Powell, a Weinberg junior. “That’s a future step that might happen, but not necessarily at the beginning.”
Jewish community members always have recognized the Hillel community’s fragmentation and its need to be restructured, said Bergstein, an Education sophomore. The groups within the Hillel community include Students for Israel, the klezmer band WildKatz and Students Helping to Organize Awareness of the Holocaust.
Late during Winter Quarter, a committee of seven Hillel organization members, with the support of professional staff, began discussing plans for change in the Hillel community. The committee sought input from leaders of all Jewish student groups throughout the process.
Members of the Jewish community were invited to offer suggestions for how to structure the Kol at a meeting on May 10. A follow-up meeting for leaders of Hillel-affiliated student groups was held May 12 and another will be held this Thursday.
Currently there are 16 primary Hillel-sponsored groups on campus, including Hillel Cultural Life, which sponsors much of the Jewish student programming, and the Jewish Theatre Ensemble, a non-profit theater company. These groups receive Hillel resources, such as advising from Hillel staff or use of the building, and most receive Hillel funding.
Under the Kol these subgroups will continue to function separately. The Kol — Hebrew for “voice” — will attempt to bring members together by holding weekly meetings and planning events to ensure there are no scheduling conflicts.
The new body also will have a four-member executive board. Members will be upperclassman with leadership experience who will provide programming advice to heads of the student groups.
Bergstein said the Kol’s constitution should be finalized by the end of the week. Unresolved details include funding, structuring of leadership seminars and executive board elections.
Committee members hope to implement the Kol by the end of Spring Quarter.
Jason Spitz, a Communication junior who leads Friday night Reform Shabbat services at Hillel, said he hopes the Kol will be a means for the Shabbat regulars to reach out to other members of the Jewish community.
“It will be a more efficient way of getting the different groups within the Jewish community to interact,” Spitz said.
But Jon Wood, a member of First Year Students at Hillel and AEPi, said he is disappointed that AEPi will not be part of the Kol.
“If they’re going to try to include all the Jewish groups on campus, they should do so by making sure no groups on campus are left out,” said Wood, a Weinberg freshman.
Wood added that he will only join another Hillel-affiliated group after his term with FYSH ends if the Kol becomes all-inclusive.
Members of Chabad, the other Jewish student group not included in the Kol, declined to comment.
AEPi President Eric Farbman said his fraternity supports the changes taking place. AEPi and Hillel have overlapping membership and will continue to support each other’s events, he said.
“I truly believe strengthening Hillel only strengthens the larger Jewish community, which also strengthens us,” Farbman said.
