Hillel at Santa Barbara promotes campus harmony

Hillel of Santa Barbara is located in the unincorporated community of Isla Vista

 

Story by Donald H. Harrison; site photos by Shor M. Masori

Donald H. Harrison
Shor M. Masori

ISLA VISTA, California – The news media often finds it easier to focus on bad news than on good news.  Bad news is more dramatic.  It’s easier to tell.  It makes more compelling reading.  Take the weather for instance.  A storm will make headlines.  Day after day of moderate temperatures and sunshine will be noted only in passing.  Yet, it’s the lure of good weather in Southern California that has made the region one of the most populous in the country, drawing migrants and weather refugees from across the United States.  Overall, the long-lasting good weather is a more important factor in the lives of most Southern Californians than the occasional storm, or mudslide, or earthquake.

The same might be said about campus violence and hate activity.  In 2014, a deranged student, using knives, guns and his car went on a rampage that killed six people and wounded or injured 14 others before he turned his gun on himself.  The incident shrouded the adjacent UC Santa Barbara campus in mourning.  Just this last  April 1, in the same community, which is populated mainly by students, some person or persons stuck anti-Semitic leaflets into mailboxes and onto cars, drawing immediate condemnation from university and community leaders.

If this article stopped there, the facts would be right, but the impression it left would be all wrong.  The untold story of UC Santa Barbara is neither one of violence nor hate, but one of student harmony, inter-group understanding, outreach, and kindness.  These are not the kind of activities that make headlines, but they have enduring impact on the lives of the students privileged to learn in such an atmosphere.

UC Santa Barbara sits behind a lagoon and looks out upon the Pacific Ocean.  Being a place where one can go surfing before or after classes, it long ago developed the reputation as a party school, a place where one could be mellow in the sun.  However, academics have caught up, and in some cases, surpassed the school’s reputation for social life.  U.S. News and World Report this year ranked UC Santa Barbara as the fifth best public university in the country surpassed only by UCLA, UC Berkeley, University of Virginia, and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.  The magazine based its rankings on 16 criteria, including retention of first-year students, graduation rates, and the quality of its faculty.

Hillel of Santa Barbara plays an important role in this mix. Surveying students on a variety of issues, including religious preference, the University of California found that the Santa Barbara campus attracts more Jewish students than any other in the 9-campus system.  Rabbi Evan Goodman, executive director of Hillel of Santa Barbara, estimates that there are 2,800 Jewish undergraduates currently enrolled at UC Santa Barbara out of a total student population of 23,000.  At the 40,000-student Santa Barbara City College, there are approximately another 700 Jewish students, bringing the total of Jewish undergraduates served by Hillel to approximately 3,500.

While Santa Barbara itself is not a hub of Jewish population, it is geographically located within driving distance of two areas that have large Jewish populations – the Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego communities to the south, and San Francisco and the Bay area communities to the north.  For students from these areas, UC Santa Barbara is far enough away from home for the students to experience living on their own, yet is close enough to provide ample opportunities for home visits over vacation breaks and long weekends.

Recently Hillel International evaluated the operations of its affiliates around the world.  Hillel of Santa Barbara, located in the Milton Roisman Jewish Student Center at 781 Embarcadero Del Mar in Isla Vista, was rated best in the world for “increasing students’ involvement in Jewish life and connection to Judaism.”

For the last 10 years, Rabbi Goodman has been at the helm of Hillel of Santa Barbara.  Before him there was Rabbi Allison Conyer, who served between assignments in Australia, and some interim directors, and preceding them was Rabbi Stephen Cohen, who directed Hillel of Santa Barbara for 19 years.  Today, Cohen is the spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai B’rith in Santa Barbara, a Reform temple.  As one might expect, Goodman and Cohen have a close working relationship.

Julianna Friedman
Rabbi Stephen Cohen
Rabbi Evan Goodman
Rabbi Allison Conyer

A striking feature of the 10,000-square-foot Jewish Student Center building is the Jeffrey L. Friedman Sanctuary, donated to Hillel by Friedman’s widow, Julianna.  The day her husband died in 1996, Julianna Friedman searched for a rabbi to help her with funeral arrangements.  It was Rabbi Cohen at Hillel who came to her aid, counseling Friedman and her two daughters in their time of grief. In response to his kindness, Friedman subsequently made a major gift to Hillel and also hosted a large fundraising event at her home in suburban Montecito attended by World Jewish Congress President Edgar Bronfman Sr.  Eventually, sufficient funding was raised to purchase the block on which the Jewish Student Center was built, and to create for students a spiritual and social home.

Friedman describes Rabbi Cohen as “so special, so warm, smart and kind – he really is an amazing human being.  He made the kids feel really special, built a culture that was safe for the kids, a place where there was someone there to hear them and help them.”

“Evan (Rabbi Goodman) does an amazing job,” she added.  “He really cares about the students.  The community respects them, and everyone feels good about Hillel. … The community really loves them because they bring people together.  When you hear the kids talk about their experiences there, it is just amazing.  They (the Hillel staff) are so dedicated to them.”

Goodman, a Hebrew Union College graduate who worked 16 years as a congregational rabbi in New York and the San Francisco Bay area before joining Hillel, described a typical week at Hillel of Santa Barbara while the university is in a quarter session.

In the mornings, he said, staff members (there are six including him) may meet with students informally over coffee to learn in what ways they would like to engage with Hillel.  In the afternoons and evenings, there usually is some sort of programming.  For example, on the day I spoke with the rabbi, one staff member had organized a “Bagels and Jewish Conversation” session on the campus, in which she spread a blanket on a lawn, rolled out the Hillel sign, and invited students to sit down to discuss any subject while enjoying a bagel snack.  The previous night, Hillel had sponsored a kosher cookout.  On other nights, he said, there may be social events, or Bowling for Birthright at which students register to participate in the free 10-day trips to Israel offered by the Birthright Israel Foundation.  Each year Hillel of Santa Barbara helps put together three or four Birthright trips.  “Typically we do one trip in December, two trips in June, and one in September,” Goodman said.  Each trip takes a full bus load, typically 40 or more Jewish students.

Library at Hillel of Santa Barbara

A well-stocked Jewish-interest library provides a place where students may study.

“We also have ‘Challah for Hunger,’ in which students bake challahs in the Hillel kitchen,” with some proceeds from their sale going to local causes and some going to national causes.

During the recent spring break, Hillel of Santa Barbara sponsored two trips for students.  One group of 28 students went to Germany for a program sponsored in concert with the German government, to learn about that country’s history and to candidly discuss the Holocaust and how Germany has conducted itself in the aftermath.  Meanwhile another group of 22, led by Goodman, went to Washington D.C. to attend the conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which was addressed by political luminaries from the United States and Israel.

“Many of our events focus on different aspects of Israel,” Goodman said.  “We had an Israel trivia night at a local pizza place.  We will also be bringing to campus Lian Najami, the first Arab Israeli woman to become a Rhodes scholar.”  Last quarter, former U.S. Ambassador Dennis Ross came for a lecture sponsored by the university.

“There is something going on all the time,” said the rabbi.  “Our students use our centrally located space in Isla Vista as a home away from home.  Student leaders have 24/7 access to the building,” – those leaders being members of Hillel’s student board as well as officers of other organizations such as Tamid, which focuses on Israeli investment.  Tamid, interestingly, draws most of its membership from the non-Jewish community, according to Goodman.

Outreach to other faith and ethnic communities is an important part of Hillel’s mission, Goodman said.  “Some people are surprised by just how much we reach out and are embraced by a broad cross section of the UCSB community.  Sometimes classes come here on field trips, to learn more about Judaism.”

For the last four summers, Goodman has led a group of 25 students – 20 of them non-Jews – on a tour of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, “so they can see things with their own eyes.”  The tour participants come “from all different backgrounds, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindu…”  This activity helps to build a positive campus climate, according to Goodman.  While resolutions to foster Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel have been proposed six out of the last seven years, each time these BDS resolutions have been defeated by the student government.

Jeffrey L. Friedman Sanctuary at Hillel of Santa Barbara

Friday night Shabbat services in the Jeffrey Friedman Sanctuary typically draw about 100 students, with the largest group ever being 200 students.  The services are student-led, and they are followed by free Shabbat dinners in the social hall.  There are traditional blessings over candles, wine and challah, and occasionally announcements are made during the multi-course meal.  Goodman, himself, leads services during the High Holy Days.

He also takes on pastoral duties, providing rabbinic counseling for the students, while other staff members are also sources for nurturing, guidance, and providing a friendly ear.  “The academic needs are met on campus; for the social and emotional needs, we are here, ready to give extra.”

When that mass killing occurred in Isla Vista in 2014, Rabbi Goodman was called to speak at the memorial service, even though none of those slain or injured was Jewish.   He also has been called upon to officiate at the weddings of Hillel alumni, some of whom met in the Jewish center.

Goodman is aided by an associate director who focuses on fundraising and related activities; and three staff members whose responsibilities are divided into the spheres of leadership development, outreach, and Israel activities.  Finally, there is an operations manager who worries about building maintenance and Hillel’s current $900,000 yearly budget.

Besides Rabbi Cohen at Congregation B’nai B’rith, Rabbi Arthur Gross-Schaefer of the Community Shul of Montecito engages with Hillel at various events.  So too do Rabbi Gershon Klein and his wife Miri, who are the Chabad emissaries in Santa Barbara.  Goodman noted that a number of Persian Jewish students attend UC Santa Barbara and that they, in particular, gravitate to Chabad for traditional learning, while also being involved at Hillel.

“We have a joint Shabbat service with Chabad, which is coming up in May,” Goodman said.  “We work together in Israel-related activities, and we try to coordinate activities so students don’t have to choose one or the other.”

Congregation B’nai B’rith draws on many Hillel students to teach in its Hebrew school and Sunday religious school.  Hillel and Congregation B’nai B’rith, with some participation as well from the Community Shul of Montecito, hold joint Tashlich services the first afternoon of Rosh Hashanah.

“We’ve grown a lot in these past 10 years,” Goodman said. “We’ve tripled our annual budget to over $900,000.  We would love it to be more.  To serve this number of people, the staff should be larger.  They are stretched pretty thin currently.”

One reason that Hillel continues to grow, he added, is because every generation of students brings new ideas, “telling us what is important to serve them.  Hillel is constantly growing and evolving, and that is what I love about what we do.”

 

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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com

 

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