COMMENTARY

Jewish students today have what it takes

DR. GARY COLEMAN

Special to the CJN

Who are university students today? Do they have what it takes to be leaders of the next generation? What can we do to make sure that our Jewish students will care about and be involved with the Jewish future?

In many ways, this was the gist of the questions that editor Cynthia Dettelbach asked in her column “Generation Q too quiet for its own and everyone’s good” (CJN, Oct. 19). These also are questions that have been asked for years, maybe even generations. We are always concerned that our young people might not “have it.”

After being a Hillel professional for the last six years at Binghamton University and now as executive director of the Cleveland Hillel Foundation, I can say that yes our students do “have it.” They are passionate, concerned young people who want to make the world a better place. Is everyone like that? No, but has any generation had that distinction?

Students today also understand the value of studying, and sometimes our programming needs to take a pause because studying rises to the top of their agendas. This is especially true before mid-terms and finals.

Today, as in the past, there are students who care deeply about their Judaism, are connected to Israel, and want to develop new ways of connecting to the Jewish world. We welcome the Cleveland Jewish News’s decision to sponsor the Write On For Israel program. It will hopefully better prepare some young people for the university campus and encourage them to become activists.

Our job at Hillel and at other organizations involved with university students is to work with them to develop programs and opportunities where they are enriched so that they can enrich the world. The variety of student interests and their willingness to be involved amazes me.

Maybe one difference between this generation and past ones is that students today often look to adults for advice, so our job at Hillel includes suggesting different ways of getting involved.

This student/staff partnership has enriched campus life and the community through programs that have brought Israel advocacy, culture, and education to campus through multiple speakers and events and by students’ experiencing Israel on birthright israel and longer-term programs.

Most recently Hillel prepared students to ask questions when Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer (authors of the controversial book The Israel Lobby were guests of Professor Bach. With our help, students responded to an act of bigotry by creating a handprints-for-peace mural at the center of campus.

Students in Cleveland and Oberlin cook Shabbat dinners every week for their fellow students. They lead Shabbat services; celebrate holidays; are involved in Jewish learning; participate in bone-marrow drives, AIDS prevention, and advocating for a solution to the crises in Darfur.

I do not want to leave the impression that everything is working fine. There are many challenges and frustrations, as we have high expectations.

I think the best model for Jewish campus life is that it needs to be student-driven, offer a variety of programs, and create a pluralistic environment that welcomes diversity and questioning.

One might also ask why if Hillel knew that with upcoming mid-term exams few students would be attending the Oct. 14 talk by Sari Nusseibeh (a fact mentioned in Dettelbach’s column), Hillel would co-sponsor it and have it at Hillel?

While our mission is to enrich the lives of students, we also have responsibilities to the community and to the campus. As a Palestinian who believes in a two-state solution, Nusseibeh’s voice is an important one to be heard. As president of a university, where better to speak than on a university campus? And what better place than Hillel, which supports a two-state solution that guarantees a secure state of Israel for the Jewish people and a better future for the Palestinians?

In fact, on Oct. 14 we hosted two events. Immediately after President Nusseibeh spoke, Hillel, as a member of the InterReligious Council at Case Western Reserve University, hosted the dedication of an interfaith mural painted by a local artist. It was placed on the building next to Hillel, which is the temporary home of the Newman Center, UPCaM, and the Muslim Student Association. Its theme is the importance of water to all religions, and at the dedication, there were prayers/readings that reflected this by Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and Protestant speakers.

This discourse of celebrating what we agree on and learning how to respect our differences is what university life is all about. It is also a guide for how we should continue living our adult life.

Dr. Gary Coleman is executive director of the Cleveland Hillel Foundation. He served as director of Hillel at Binghamton in upstate New York, 2001-2007.