 | Meet Emmie During her first year, Emmie realized how ‘at home’ she feels around other Jewish students. She explained: “There’s a common language and a common humor that exists among Jews.”
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 | Meet Joey “If there wasn’t Hillel on campus, every Jewish kid who comes to ISU would feel lost, and maybe lose a part of their identity. There are churches everywhere, and we only have one synagogue in this city, and it is a couple of miles away. Hillel provides the unity for us to meet each other and support each other.”
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 | Meet Greg "Hillel empowered me to really find out what it meant to be a Jew, and to have a Jewish community"
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 | Meet Dana "I love to go to Hillel, because it is my second home on campus. Because we have this big, new, beautiful building people flock to it because they know they will see their friends there. And at our Hillel, we embrace every kind of Jew . . . if you want that Jewish connection, you know you can find it at our Hillel."
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 | Meet Jennie "I don’t know if I would have found a home here at Northwestern if it wasn’t for Hillel. Socially and religiously, it is the center of campus for me. Literally the center of campus! I find myself walking to Hillel every day."
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 | Meet Ari "Here with Hillels Around Chicago, I have not only my campus to work with, but all the others across the city. Finally I feel as if I am a contributing member of our community, with the ability to shape our future."
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 | Lexi "Being involved in Hillel has made me realize how essential community is to Judaism and my personal Jewish identity."
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 | Cary “Hillel helped me grow into the person and professional I am today.”
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 | Jeremy “Being involved in Hillel not only keeps me connected with the other Jews on campus, and in the Chicago region, but it allows me to share my people’s beliefs and customs with my peers and professors.”
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 | Amy “After college—wherever I am—I’ll feel more comfortable. I’ll seek out a Jewish community, and be a part of it.”
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 | Jacob E. “I love the fact that Hillel Arts in the Loop is multi-campus so that Jewish students from all over, from different campuses, can connect with each other and together explore who we are as Jews in an artistic way.”
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 | Jane “Throughout the whole Hillel experience, you see that there’s so many other people your own age involved in the Jewish community. It’s good. It unites us.”
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.jpg "Meet Abby") | Abby “It was what I wanted in a leadership position; it encompasses so much—to enlighten the student body about all the beautiful facets of Israel”
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 | Andrew “Hillel helped me connect with this community on campus that I might not have been comfortable with before, because I wasn’t comfortable with what it meant for me to be Jewish.”
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 | Nathan “Being involved at Hillel has been very important. When it comes to Israel, Northwestern definitely has the pro-Palestinian and even anti-Israel perspectives. It’s important that Hillel and students are there to support Israel and level out the debate… Frankly, we need as many Jewish voices on campus as possible to deal with issues so we have a variety of perspectives.”
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 | Nathalie "Because Israel is so personal, it’s just bizarre to see it attacked and talked about so hatefully in the public sphere here... I think Hillel staff goes out of its way to make our student community feel supported."
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 | Ellen “Being a part of Hillel here made me realize what my past is about, what my people are about…. It’s the basis of who I am.”
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 | Zach "Hillel staff helped me out with signing-up for Birthright and we talked about Israel. And then I went on the trip and I was like, 'Oh, this is amazing, the best time ever.' And then spring semester--bam--I was all over the place at Hillel. I felt a lot more connected spring semester."
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 | Melanie “I’m learning a lot, and definitely broadening my perspective.”
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 | Julie “These Jewish ideas running through my head, talking to Jewish people, hearing from rabbis, hearing from all sorts of Jews from the community--that was very good for me.”
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 | Irina “Russian Hillel gave me an opportunity to see what Jewish community life was like.”
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 | Jacob “Whether it’s being a social worker or not, I want to do something now where I can finish a day and say I helped someone.”
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