An Israeli band and platters of pastrami sandwiches celebrated the merger of Georgetown University’s Campus Ministry with the Jewish students’ foundation Hillel at a picnic Tuesday evening.
With the start of the new year, the Jewish Students Association, the Georgetown Israel Alliance and the Jewish fraternity AEP formally came under the joint umbrella of the two groups.
The organizations united last April in a landmark partnership after three years of negotiations.
“Part of it was that Georgetown was so proud of its Jewish community and didn’t want to give it up,” said Julie Fishman, Jewish program coordinator for Campus Ministry. “But now Hillel and Campus Ministry are working together.”
Fishman said the affiliation with Hillel, which has chapters abroad and on college campuses across the U.S., will contribute to a stronger sense of community and identity for the University’s Jewish contingent, about 10-14 percent of the undergraduate population.
“Our JSA is now affiliated with a larger network,” Fishman said. “They’re no longer just a bunch of Jews on a Catholic campus.”
JSA President Scott Weinstein (CAS ‘06) saw the affiliation as a step toward relationships with other schools in the area. American University, George Washington University and George Mason University all have Hillel chapters.
Under the new partnership, Jewish students will have increased opportunities to attend conferences and will be able to draw on the resources of both the University and Hillel for program funding.
Georgetown students will also be able to reserve more spots in the Birthright Israel program, which sponsors free trips for young Jews visiting Israel for the first time.
Rabbi Harold White, who has witnessed an impressive increase in Georgetown’s Jewish population during his 37-year tenure with Campus Ministry, believes the University has found a unique way to reconcile its own strong religious infrastructure with the need for national affiliation.
“Nowhere else does Hillel have an affiliation with a campus ministry,” White said. “Basically Jewish life at Georgetown is still the responsibility of the University.”
With the arrival of Hillel on campus came Abby Schneider, hired as the first Jewish Campus Service Corps Fellow for Georgetown.
“My task is engagement,” Schneider said. “My goal is to reach out to the Jewish Georgetown students who are interested in the kinds of programs Hillel does.”
At Tuesday’s picnic, White expressed his enthusiasm with the new state of Jewish life at Georgetown over the din of trumpets and guitars.
“Campus Ministry and Hillel both agreed it would be a good thing,” he said. “We decided it was something we really wanted.”
