I am the rock against which the surf crashes. Nothing can break me. – Sarah J. Maas
By Karen Parry
LA JOLLA, California — This year marks a turning point, as the strength, resilience, and fortitude demonstrated by our students over the past two years begin to shift the tide across our campuses.
We know this to be true because we are seeing it in real time. We are already seeing our students show up time and time again to be together in Jewish community. In fact, our preliminary numbers of students participating in Jewish life are, once more, higher than before. In the first month of school at SDSU, CSUSM, and USD—and not even a week into school at UCSD—we already have nearly 600 Jewish students actively participating.
But the truly exciting metric is that over a quarter of those students have participated more than six times! That means they are coming to Hillel more and more, just in the first few weeks of school. Our Rosh Hashana dinner at UCSD (before school even started) was the largest one we’ve ever hosted.
We are seeing new young allies show up seeking partnership, wanting to show support, and an openness to learn. Every year, we send interested non-Jewish student leaders to Israel with a few of our Jewish student leaders with the purpose of moving hearts and minds. It makes a world of difference because it builds on developing real relationships. For the first time, post-trip, we are seeing those same non-Jewish students continuing to show up at Hillel with their Jewish friends. We are seeing them talk about building out joint programming with their non-Jewish clubs and our clubs.
The tide is starting to show some signs of changing.
We are seeing administrators take our calls for change seriously. SDSU has again renewed its Antisemitism Task Force charge for the fourth year in a row, UCSD has launched a working group, and CSUSM and USD continue to meet with our team to make things better. It is tireless work, but it is happening.
And just like the continuous crashing of waves, we know there will be more challenges. We are seeing those too. We’re already starting to see incidents of bias and antisemitism coming in at a steady pace.
But we are the rock. Nothing can break us.
May your 5786 be a year of strength and fortitude.
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Karen Parry is the chief executive officer of Hillel of San Diego