Hillel now in Victoria

KELLEY KORBIN

Hillel House at the University of British Columbia is always a bustling place, but this September, Vancouver Hillel executive director Eyal Lichtmann and his colleagues will be busier than usual promoting Israel's case on campus.

In an interview with the Independent, Lichtmann said that, as a result of the recent war in Lebanon, he is expecting what he calls an "active anti-Israel situation" when school begins in the fall. To combat the negative PR, Lichtmann and his staff and student volunteers are planning not only for increased security, but for an intensive program of speakers, displays and posters to ensure that mainstream students have an opportunity to see a positive image of Israel.

More importantly, Hillel is formulating plans to reach out to Jewish students so they will have the confidence to directly confront anti-Israel propaganda, which can come from fellow students and sometimes from faculty.

Lichtmann explained that while third and fourth year Jewish students often have the confidence and capability to become engaged in difficult discussions about Israel, younger, less experienced students typically do not. In fact, he said, "When the situation gets really bad in Israel, we find that first and second year students start dropping off. They tend to hide. They'd prefer not to deal with it because they don't know how to deal with it. So we have an even bigger challenge of engaging them during these times."

The good news is that Hillel now has an opportunity to engage more students than ever, as its membership on B.C. campuses is enjoying an unprecedented rate of growth. Lichtmann said there are now 400 Hillel members at UBC, a ten-fold increase from four years ago. As well, Hillel launched a successful expansion to Simon Fraser University last year, attracting 200 students there, and is opening a site at the University of Victoria this fall.

"We were approached by students at the University of Victoria with a request to establish Hillel over there – it's actually been a request of theirs for many, many years. They really, really want to be involved," said Lichtmann. He added that there are already 150 students, mostly from the Lower Mainland, ready to join Hillel in Victoria.

Gordon Brandt has been hired as the Hillel director for UVic. Brandt, who grew up in Victoria and has three brothers who were very active in setting up the Jewish Student Association (JSA) at UVic, has been a student leader at Hillel UBC for the past four years. This past summer, Brandt was in charge of the counsellor-in-training program at Camp Miriam.

Hillel focuses on attracting Jewish students who may never have had any formal Jewish education or experience. According to Lichtmann, "Ninety per cent of our students are unaffiliated – we want to reach out to those students who didn't belong to a youth group or go to Hebrew school or Jewish day school. That's our role. Our role is not to reach out to the affiliated students. That's why our programming here focuses on being as diverse as possible.

"We don't need to put on Orthodox programming, because those students find those needs serviced already by community [programs] and that kind of programming might scare off the unaffiliated student. Most of our students are cultural, not religious, Jews who don't want to be insular, who want to integrate with the rest of the community."

Hillel has to compete with myriad other clubs and services on campus for students. As a result, it offers a huge range of services and programs, including sports, environmental studies, Hebrew and "whatever people are interested in," said Lichtmann. Perhaps even more importantly, he added, Hillel provides, "the best place to hang out on campus."

For more information, visit www.vancouverhillel.ca.

Kelley Korbin is a freelance writer living in West Vancouver.

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