Meet Melanie

Hometown: Bethesda, Maryland
Major: Communications Studies
High School: Walt Whitman High School
Current School: Northwestern University
Graduation Date: 2011
Hillel Involvement: Fiedler Hillel at Northwestern University 

“I’m learning a lot, and definitely broadening my perspective.”

In her first year of school, Melanie was unsure about Hillel. “I was kind of intimidated at first,” she said. However, she soon found a niche with AskBigQuestions, a student-run initiative that began at Northwestern’s Fiedler Hillel (see article below).

Growing up in Bethesda, Maryland, Melanie connected mainly to the cultural aspects of Jewish life. She attended a Reform summer camp where she enjoyed sharing an environment with her Jewish friends.

AskBigQuestions promotes public discussion on campus about important life questions, like “Are we free?” and “What are you thankful for?”. “It just sounded so cool. That’s how I’ve made my way into Hillel,” she said. Melanie connected to the program’s focus on intellectual conversation. She was interested in the idea of meaningful interaction with other Jewish students, as well as students from other backgrounds. Only in her second year at Northwestern, Melanie is now AskBigQuestions’ director of development, in charge of expanding their program to other campuses, and acquiring grants and funding. Through her involvement with AskBigQuestions, Melanie has asserted her own personal connection to Jewish life. “It makes me realize more and more that thoughtful discussion is important to me as a Jewish person,” she said.

“I define my Judaism in a cultural way. AskBigQuestions is a way for me to connect with the ideas behind being Jewish--which I love.”

Northwestern students looking for answers

A group of students at Northwestern University would like to have a conversation.They want to talk, and they want to get their entire campus community talking.

The AskBigQuestions initiative, a student project of Fiedler Hillel at Northwestern, aims to promote civic engagement and discourse. The initiative does exactly what its title suggests, asking questions of universal concern in the university setting and stimulating discussion.

The initiative has three parts: A colorful website (AskBigQuestions.com), with space for bloggers and readers to respond to weekly questions (like, “Why are you here?” and “What should we sacrifice to change the world?”), man-on-the-street videos, and links to explore questions further; a print campaign, including posters, banners and post-its; and an on-going series of salon sessions with popular professors on campus.

“It gets us talking beyond our academic divisions and our specific communities about human questions. We don’t necessarily intersect even when it comes to talking about these important life questions. AskBigQuestions allows for that and gets us thinking together,” said Sam Schiller, a Jewish student in his senior year. Schiller was among the first students involved with AskBigQuestions when it began last year.

Hillel Campus Rabbi Josh Feigelson, who conceived the idea of the program and supervises students running the initiative, noted that in a university environment everyone is specialized. “There are not so many places to go where you can discuss these concerns common to us all. So I think we’re filling a void,” he said.

“It’s sparking conversation. It’s getting people to think about what really resonates for them and then channeling that curiosity. And that’s what we’re here for. We’re here to help Jewish students explore and connect to our heritage while doing so,” said Fiedler Hillel Executive Director Lisa Kudish.

Hillel’s survey and anecdotal evaluation of the project show its results on campus, with students on campus noticing, and talking about, provocative banners. Students--and professors--who participate in the initiative’s more intensive programs reported great satisfaction in being engaged in this kind of discussion on campus.

Rabbi Feigelson explained how the initiative provides for a Jewish experience for students in addition to promoting campus-wide discussion. “It allows and facilitates conversation. Then we can see how Jewish thought, ritual and tradition elaborate these questions.” Jewish tradition, among others, he continued, explores these questions.

Feigelson explained that AskBigQuestions reverses the traditional way of connecting to Jewish students. “We don’t just immediately show students how Jewish life is important to them. We’re showing students how they’re important to Jewish life.” Students become part of a Jewish conversation about life questions, he explained.

Schiller’s involvement in AskBigQuestions has been a Jewish experience, affirming both his religious identity and civic identity. AskBigQuestions’ conversations combined for him a sense of civic responsibility, his concern for maintaining public discourse, and the “space that religion allows us to think spiritually about our place in the world.” He added, “I see myself as an engaged participant in this world, and that ultimately reinforces my own religious, Jewish identity.”

In keeping with AskBigQuestions’ notion of inter-group relations, he worked in its first year to get co-sponsorship of programs, for instance, with a feminist group on campus. “I wanted the conversation to be relevant to everyone,” he said. He now contributes online and involves campus personalities from various backgrounds with online content, including videos.

Alexandra Komisar, AskBigQuestions’ managing director and a senior at Northwestern, said that AskBigQuestions allows for one to fit their own Judaism into a larger, global perspective. “Seeing how others reflect on their faith lets me reflect on mine,” she said.

People answer questions drawing from various personal experiences, said Komisar. Her time with AskBigQuestions has shown her that the various ways by which we identify ourselves are intimately connected, though we commonly think they are not. Her Jewish and civic identities, she affirmed, are not isolated.

Komisar works with over ten students actively involved in implementing the initiative, set up like an editorial board.

Another big component of the project is its distinctive appeal. AskBigQuestions looks good. When you visit its website or see its printed banners, with questions put in simple script against a very bright background, it is immediately attractive, and, then, thought-provoking.

By creating a unique brand identity, AskBigQuestions responds to the reality of ubiquitous branding in our culture. It promotes civic engagement in an attractive, and very current, way.

“The initiative really catches the imagination of those who come into contact with it, and so it’s gotten a lot of publicity,” said Feigelson. “The appeal of the media component ideally drives students to more human interaction, and, for Jewish students, to meaningful Jewish dialogue on important subjects,” he added.

With its great appeal and aim to promote public discussion, it’s no surprise that AskBigQuestions is growing. In addition to offering the program on other campuses, its student board plans to become independent of Hillel and embrace not only the Jewish student community, but the various groups that comprise their campus. Komisar explained that they plan on creating a diverse advisory board with faculty and religious leaders.

AskBigQuestions furthers students’ Jewish identities because it aims to engage all students in life’s big questions, said Feigelson. “It becomes a Jewish project by being a human project. So as the initiative expands and ultimately outgrows its original home in Hillel, we see it as a gift that Hillel is giving the university community.”

Bringing Sukkot to students

Hillel often connects students with their first experience celebrating Sukkot. Take a look at just a few photos and see how students experienced the holiday with friends on campus. 

High Holidays on campus

This past Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, Hillels on campuses throughout the state provided opportunities for more students and community members than ever before to take part in celebrating the Jewish new year.

In just two of the largest campus services, Northwestern University’s Fiedler Hillel served about 1200 community members and students, while DePaul University Hillel, a division of Hillels Around Chicago, held services for 700.

Illinois Hillels aimed to connect students to meaningful experiences and conversations through their services and other holiday programming.

A New Home for Jewish Students at the University of Illinois

UIUC Hillel is thrilled about their new home The Margie K. & Louis N. Cohen Center for Jewish Life Hillel on the UIUC campus. Since moving in this past January, more students are participating in Hillel events than ever before. Students come from diverse Jewish backgrounds, but work together on the student board and gather together at Hillel for events. They participate in educational programs, Shabbat dinners, High Holiday services and social justice activities.

The dedication ceremony took place on March 30, 2008 with more than 400 donors, alumni, and students attending the event!