Editor’s Note: This is the eighth chapter in Volume 2 of Editor Emeritus Donald H. Harrison’s 2022 trilogy, “Schlepping and Schmoozing Along the Interstate 5.” All three books may be purchased from Amazon.com or at any of the lectures that Harrison delivers to groups around the county. Harrison may be contacted to speak to your group via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com
Schlepping and Schmoozing Along the Interstate 5, Vol 2: Exit 26A (La Jolla Parkway): Hillel at UCSD
From northbound Interstate 5, take La Jolla Parkway exit to the first right turn, which takes you onto La Jolla Scenic Drive North. The Beverly and Joseph Glickman Hillel Center is located at 9009 La Jolla Scenic Drive North.
LA JOLLA, California — Some nine months before the Beverly and Joseph Glickman Hillel Center’s projected opening in late September 2022, Karen Parry could give you a detailed virtual tour of the place, even with her eyes closed. That’s how well that Parry, executive director of Hillel of San Diego, could conceptualize the project.
Parry oversees Hillel operations at UC San Diego, San Digo State University, Cal State San Marcos, and the University of San Diego. She recalled that while she was a Class of 2008 political science student at UC San Diego that the proposed center had been opposed for a long time by neighbors in La Jolla. At least some of them were motivated by the same kind of antisemitism that delayed construction of an eruv by Congregation Adat Yeshurun. With City Hall appeals, environmental reviews, and court battles, the opponents were successful delaying construction for 20 years, but eventually the courts gave Hillel the go-ahead to build on the land it had purchased.
On September 19, 2021 a celebratory groundbreaking ceremony was held for the $18-million, three-building facility that occupies slightly less than an acre on a triangle of land bounded by La Jolla Village Drive, La Jolla Scenic Drive North and La Jolla Scenic Way. Among dignitaries shoveling earth were San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla.
“So,” said Parry, “you come through our parking lot which is covered in solar panels and you come to the gate and you enter our first building. You will be greeted by a student intern – we do internships to train students how to have jobs – and when you walk to your left you will see students studying together. There is a Wisdom Wall, which features a diversity of Jewish students and their experiences, which will regularly populate with new students and student stories.” That first building will be named for Sandra and Arthur Levinson in memory of Lori (Levinson) Bolotin, a former development director for Hillel of San Diego.
“Then you will turn and go into the courtyard,” Parry continued. “There you will see one of our staff, perhaps, having a meeting with students over coffee that they’ve gotten from our coffee bar. You may see the Jewish acapella group practicing there.”
One must pass through the partially covered courtyard to go from one building to another. One might go next into the Joan & Irwin Jacobs Community Building where, according to Parry, “we have our industrial kitchen and you will see Challah for Hunger, one of our Hillel programs making challahs to sell and the proceeds go to homeless shelters. Or, you will see students playing ping-pong or pool, or playing on our piano that we will have there.”
“Then you will go back out and go into the Leadership Building,” Parry said. “On the bottom floor is the library.” Nearby, “you will go into the conference room, where we do our Jewish Learning Program where for ten weeks students get an immersive experience, small cohort-based studying Jewish texts and using those texts to help figure out what is happening to them in their lives. Or you will make your way up in the leadership building where the director’s and staff offices will be along with another conference room. Somewhere you might hear about our Allyship Program factfinders that send non-Jewish leaders and Jewish leaders to Israel together to explore and grapple with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the ground.
“Then you will head back down and (if it’s on a Friday), you’ll see people setting up tables and chairs as we do a community-wide Shabbat that will be able to support 100-200 Jewish students.”
The Beverly and Joseph Glickman Hillel Center includes 6,500 feet of indoor space, a 1,500-square-foot courtyard, a covered parking area, and the Melvin Garb Foundation Community Park.
Parry said the $18 million capital campaign was nearing completion at the end of 2021, with about $2.5 million pending. At that time, Hillel was planning to sell a nearby home donated by the Potiker family that had been used since 2000 as a temporary headquarters.
The Glickmans, who have since died – he at age 102, she at 99 – donated $5 million as a lead gift for the Hillel Center in keeping with their shared belief that the best ways to perpetuate Judaism are through school programs, overnight camps, and trips to Israel. Previously, they had made a major donation for the establishment of Camp Mountain Chai, an overnight Jewish camp in the San Bernardino Mountains that is overseen by members of the San Diego Jewish community. Hillel sponsors different trips to Israel in association with the Birthright Israel program and its own Allyship program. The Glickmans, whose fortune was made in banking, also were large contributors to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, known popularly as the “Joint:” which reaches out to Jewish communities throughout the world.
Among the participants of the groundbreaking ceremony was the chair of the capital campaign, Laura Galinson, granddaughter of the Glickmans and daughter of Elaine and the late Murray Galinson, who were also advocates for the Hillel Center. “The physical structure will provide a space for learning, for community, for traditions, for celebrations,” she said. “There will be a kosher kitchen, there will be a coffee bar, and a phenomenal library.”
Her grandfather purchased two Torahs for the center, Galinson said. “He purchased both of them on eBay. One Torah is from Romania, a very old Torah. The other one is a modern Torah. Both these Torahs he donated to Hillel along with all of my grandfather’s prayer books and other Jewish theology books. In 2018 he planted a pomegranate tree in the courtyard. It is now huge and bears fruit.”
There’s an avian theme to the Glickman family. Beverly Glickman was named “Birdie” as a child, and Joseph was named “Chicken Little” as a youngster, a name which became simply “Chickie” over the 77 years that the Glickmans were married. Beverly came from Canada, Joseph from Romania, and they met in Minneapolis.
Today, four generations of Laura Galinson’s interrelated families can say they played a part in the development of the Hillel Center. Beverly and Joseph Glickman made the lead gift. Elaine Galinson is chair of the honorary capital campaign. Elaine’s second husband, Herb Solomon, raised money for the Melvin Garb Hillel Center at San Diego State. His son, Steve Solomon, works on the capital campaign, which Laura Galinson chairs. Laura’s wife, Jodi Diamond, also serves on the Hillel board. Jodi’s daughter, Syvan, serves as an associate with Laura on the capital campaign. “So, we’ve got Glickman-Galinson-Solomon-Diamond, and all of us are trying to do this, to make it happen,” Laura Galinson said.
Back in the early years of the millennium, the proposed Hillel Centers at San Diego State University and at UC San Diego were on parallel tracks. However, the one at San Diego State did not run into the kind of community opposition that the one at UC San Diego did. Opened in 2014, the Melvin Garb Hillel Center was named at San Diego State for a philanthropist who made his fortune investing in restaurant chains. That center made a big difference in the lives of students, Parry said.
“Participation and engagement skyrocketed because there was a place to go, a place to have group meetings, and feel like you could just come in and hang out and be with other friends,” she said. “We also saw our advocacy and allyship work significantly change the Jewish experience for students. We rent out the space to other student organizations, fraternities and sororities and even the administration on occasion. Non-Jewish students come into our center, and then they stay because we are having a movie night, or we are having a Shabbat dinner – ‘Cool! Freed food! – and then they learn about Shabbat. They become friends with Jewish people. There are lots of times that non-Jewish students come in and say, ‘We don’t know anyone Jewish’ but they get to come into Hillel. They get a free bagel. They connect, and all of a sudden, we now have an ally. It is very organic and has actually served us very well at SDSU.”
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Donald H. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com