Hillel breaking ground

PAT JOHNSON

When Hillel opened its doors in a decommissioned military hut at a far end of the University of British Columbia in 1947, Audrey Goldberg was the vice-president and Marcelyn Steiman was the student education chair of the first student board. Two months ago, that old hut was demolished and, when a celebration was held to officially break ground on a landmark new Hillel House in the same location, Goldberg (now Jaffe) and Steiman (now Smordin) were on hand for the festivities.

The presence of the two Hillel pioneers lent an even deeper sense of continuity and history to the groundbreaking, which took place June 14. Also on hand were dozens of current Hillel students, who flanked the podium as Alan Marchant, president of the Vancouver Hillel Foundation, put into perspective the impact on campus life Hillel has had over more than 60 years.

Under an agreement with the University of British Columbia, Hillel is permitted to remain at what is now the heart of UBC's campus until at least 2084. The university is undertaking a massive renovation of the area around Hillel, putting the once-remote location in the middle of the planned new pedestrian-oriented plaza and grand ceremonial entrance to the university.

"It is an unbelievable agreement we made with the university," said Eyal Lichtmann, Hillel's executive director. "We have at least 75 more years in this location, which is now the most desirable real estate on campus. And we're constructing a facility to match the quality of the location."

Replacing the 2,000-square-foot old building will be a three-storey, 13,000-square-foot landmark. At the groundbreaking ceremony, Isaac Thau, who led a successful $9 million capital campaign to realize the new building, thanked supporters and the university administration for recognizing the importance of engaging Jewish students on university campuses. An estimated 85 per cent of Jewish young people attend a post-secondary institution, putting Hillel in a unique position to strengthen continuity by reaching erstwhile, unaffiliated Jews.

Pending approval by UBC, the building, slated to open by September 2010, will be called Hillel House: The Diamond Foundation Centre for Jewish Campus Life. It will serve as the operations centre for Hillel, which also operates facilities at Simon Fraser University and the University of Victoria.

Mark Ostry, the architect whose firm designed the new house, said, "The site and Hillel's program requirements really influenced the design." Ostry's other works include Har-El in West Vancouver, King David High School, a major redesign of UBC's Sauder School of Business and many other campus buildings and places of worship.

The exterior of the new Hillel will reflect the style used during the university's building boom of the 1950s and '60s, employing glazed brick, concrete and glass. And, while Hillel's lot is long and thin, abutting a large parkade and the student services building, the rectangle proved ideal for the kind of structure Hillel needs, said Ostry.

"What influenced the form of the building, or the architectural design, was really the student spaces, the large student lounges," he said. "Two big rooms really became the primary spaces around which support spaces were planned."

The building will have two towers, with staff and student offices, a library and other administrative space. Between the towers will be sprawling open spaces, the main floor housing the student lounge, the second floor offering a kosher dining space and the third floor being a huge open-air patio. A basement will house a games room and offices for Alpha Epsilon Pi, the Jewish fraternity.

For Ostry, whose institutional work tends to be academic and places of worship, the Hillel project was a unique mix of forms.

"This seemed like a great marriage of the two types of buildings," said Ostry, who is now working on the redevelopment of Beth Israel and Vancouver Talmud Torah. "It's always an honor and a privilege to work on a Jewish institutional project. It's very meaningful to be involved in a project that combines that with students and campus life."

At the groundbreaking, Rabbi Philip Bregman, spiritual leader of Temple Sholom and head of the Rabbinical Association of Vancouver, offered a brachah, a blessing, joined by Rabbi Dr. Mordehai Wosk, whose association with Hillel goes back decades.

Moira Stilwell, who just three days earlier had been appointed the province's new minister of advanced education and labor market development, joined the celebration, helping to ceremonially launch the construction phase of the project.

Updates on Hillel and the construction project will be available on the soon-to-be-unveiled, all new vancouverhillel.ca website. Fund-raising continues for an endowment to permanently fund operations in the new house and across the province.

Pat Johnson is, among other things, managing director, programs and communications, for the Vancouver Hillel Foundation.

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