By Simon Luxemburg
One of the goals of the Nachshon project is to introduce us to the wide range of career opportunities available in the Jewish communal professional world. For many of us, the most familiarity we have had to Jewish communal professionalism prior to this fellowship comes from either our Jewish sleep-away camps or Jewish educational institutions such as day schools. In line with Nachshon’s goal of career development, and the fellows’ interest in learning more about post-college opportunities, Rabbi Yoni Kaiser Blueth came to Jerusalem to speak to us about working for Hillel on Campus. Rabbi Yoni is the Executive Director of George Washington University Hillel in Washington D.C. He walked us through his professional career path and explained to us how he got to the position that he is in today. Then, after introducing us to his beautiful family through pictures, he explained to us the responsibilities of an Executive Director of a medium-large Hillel. Many of the fellows on the Nachshon Project are active in Hillel on their respective campuses, but don’t have a clear understanding of the behind-the-scenes technical processes that are undertaken in order for the institution to run successfully. For most of us, concepts such as fundraising, board of directors operation and management, and strategic planning are completely foreign concepts. Thus, Rabbi Yoni’s slow and careful explanation of these tasks proved to be extremely valuable. Furthermore, Rabbi Yoni’s talk provided us with the opportunity to ask difficult questions of him that we potentially feel uncomfortable asking our Hillel staff on our own campuses. Some fellows posed thoughtful inquiries to Rabbi Yoni in order to gain deeper insight that could then be transferred and applied to the campuses in the states.
Rabbi Yoni Kaiser Blueth’s talk proved to be so intriguing for fellows, that many of us continued the conversation with him over lunch at the Frank Sinatra dining hall on campus. There we continued to learn from his vast experiences in order to gain a better understanding of how we as future Jewish leaders could fit into the leadership structures of Hillel professional staff. We walked away knowing different professional opportunities for students coming out of college, along with what a future career in Hillel could look for us 20-30 years down the road. As juniors in college, we are frequently worried about the next step we will take after graduation. So far in our lives we have had a rather clear cut path lined out for us. At the end of Rabbi Yoni’s talk, my fellow participants and I felt empowered to chart our own path in Jewish professionalism and not overly worry about the next step. We came to understand that many opportunities will arise, and like Rabbi Yoni, we will find the one that will work for us.
