Aug. 26, 2021 / 18 Elul 5781
What We’ll Keep Bear Claw at Hillel: Students enjoy a hot drink on a cold day with the Bear Claw Coffee Truck at Michigan Hillel.
T
his past year, I took the time to “Marie Kondo” various parts of our home — drawers, closets, our entire basement. Utilizing Kondo’s renowned practice, we put it all on the floor and decided what we truly needed, what brought us joy, what could bring more joy to someone else and what was ready to be tossed for good. For Tilly Shemer those of you who have done this before, you know how challenging it can be to have to let go or to reimagine how to make all the pieces fit. So, too, did our Hillel have to let go of so many things and reimagine how to make our offerings fit into more limited spaces and restrictions due to COVID. Like many other Hillels, all our programming and services had to be laid out and decisions had to be made about what was essential, what could we
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make fit, what could we adapt and what would we simply need to let go of. This exercise invited tremendous creativity around how we ran our programs, often leading to surprising results. For example, we adjusted to limited gathering sizes by running the same program, multiple times, to welcome as many people as we could. What we discovered was by capping the numbers and replicating the program, we actually created a more intimate environment that was more conducive to fostering relationships and encouraging group conversation. We also got creative about space. Rather than hosting one large Shabbat meal in our Hillel space, we supported dozens of meals every week in students’ homes to make the experience more accessible and safer. As a result, Shabbat and holiday meal participation increased last year rather than decreased because students could bring
this Jewish practice into their homes, among friends, and fit Shabbat more seamlessly into their lives. Last year’s restrictions made indoor High Holiday services impossible for our Hillel. As a result, we got creative, even bold, and brought shofar blowing out to public locations around campus. Bringing this Jewish ritual into the public was a moment of pride for so many students, and a safe, accessible way to experience the holidays. As we look to this year, we are not rushing to put everything from our prepandemic time back in place. Rather, we find ourselves approaching Fall 2021 with the same creativity, laying it all out — programming during the pandemic and pre-pandemic — and deciding which model really works that will drive us forward, or could we possibly experiment further with a new hybrid approach. So while we are so excited to return
U-M HILLEL
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