The president and international director of Hillel, Richard Joel, met with leaders of Duke's Hillel chapter and President Nan Keohane Wednesday to discuss the current state and future goals of the University's Jewish community.
Joel decided to visit the campus partly as a result of a meeting with Trinity sophomore Tammy Duker, the University's chapter president, at a December national conference for Hillel staff. Duker stressed to Joel that he needed to visit the University to reinforce support for the group on campus.
"It's no secret that the level of Jewish life on this campus is not as high as it is at comparably situated universities at other places in the country," Joel said.
Steps are being taken, however, to improve the level of Jewish consciousness at the University, including the eventual construction of a Center for Jewish Life. The center, to be built in an area bordered by Campus Dr., Oregon St., Alexander Ave. and Duke University Rd., will include a sanctuary, a kosher kitchen, a library and a mikvah, or ritual bath.
In November the CJL was $1.8 million short of its fund-raising goal of $5.2 million; only a few hundred thousand dollars more have been raised since that time. "Progress is steady but slow," said Judith Ruderman, vice president of the CJL and director of continuing education and summer programs for the University.
An independent corporation, the Jewish Center Support Fund, is responsible for the planning, funding and management of the center, which was not a project initiated or funded by the Hillel organization. "The center will have a Hillel affiliation but the affiliation is not yet defined because the CJL is not built," Ruderman said.
In a press conference Wednesday, Joel emphasized that Hillel is more than just another Jewish organization to be housed by the new center. "Hillel is not a club," Joel said. "Hillel's role is to be the organizational infrastructure for Jewish life on campus."
The CJL would actually be a Hillel center, Joel said, and would serve as an important facet of Jewish programming on campus. "The center will be an appropriate locus for provoking Jewish life and something that will ...make a statement about the place of Jewish community within the Duke community," he said.
Michael Landy, director of Duke's Hillel and chaplain for religious activities at the University, agrees with Joel's philosophy. "The concept that the [CJL] would be a place for all Jewish groups to have a home is exactly what Hillel does," Landy said. "It used to be that Hillel was seen as the campus synagogue--that was the Hillel that was for the student who automatically walked in the door."
Hillel is now trying to change on a national scale and become more of a resource for Jewish campus life, rather than its only home, Landy said.
In Joel's meeting with Keohane Wednesday, the CJL was discussed as one of many elements in the development of the Jewish community. Overall, Joel was extremely optimistic about Hillel and the Jewish leadership at the University, Keohane said. As for getting the CJL up and running, "it is important to get on with it and realize these dreams," she said.
Part of the new philosophy for Hillel discussed by Joel includes an accreditation policy, which is the only one of its kind among national Jewish agencies. Each Hillel affiliate will be professionally reviewed and accredited every five years, Joel said. Each Hillel affiliate would then be responsible for creating a plan of action to improve or develop those areas pointed out by the review. The Hillel organization here at the University should expect this review to occur sometime within the next three to five years, Landy said.
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