If you were a Jewish college student in Los Angeles, how would you express your Jewish identity in a meaningful way? Would you participate in Birthright and join the thousands of young adults who are going to Israel each year for the first time? Become a Mazon Hunger Fellow and create social justice programs that would change your campus and the world? Or would you participate in an alternative Spring Break service learning trip? Meaningful opportunities like these are waiting for you on campuses all across Los Angeles.
There are over 20,000 Jewish undergraduate and graduate students in Los Angeles. Thanks to Jewish Federation Los Angeles’s college campus grants and the Campus Activities Committee, campus organizations are enabled to create and implement innovative and collaborative programming initiatives across Los Angeles. The Campus Activities Committee is comprised of both lay leaders and Federation staff that share a common goal to provide sound strategy and recommendations for funding innovative and meaningful Jewish campus life programming in Los Angeles. Through the important work of this committee, over 60 grants were reviewed for the 2014-2015 grant cycle and over $690,000 was given to support programs taking place on campuses throughout Los Angeles.
In an effort to fund a diverse range of campus programs that will engage and entice all types of students, the Campus Activities Committee is funding 20 different programs for undergraduate and graduate students offered by 15 different campus organizations.
Our Federation is proud to be funding a wide range of organizations including: Chabad at CSUN, UCLA and USC; Friends of the Israel Scouts; Hillel 818; Hillel at UCLA, USC Hillel, and Santa Monica College Hillel; Jewish Graduate Student Initiative; Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus; Jewish World Watch; Loyola Marymount University-Office of Jewish Student Life; Mazon; Reboot; and UCLA Center for Jewish Studies.
The programs being funded will enhance the Jewish experiences of undergraduate and graduate students on Los Angeles campuses and help build connections to their Jewish identities and culture. For example, this year, in addition to USC Hillel hosting weekly Shabbat services and dinner at the Hillel building, students can opt to host an in-home Shabbat experience using a Shabbat in a Box kit. Whether it’s reconnecting with friends, lighting the Shabbat candles, relaxing after a busy week, or enjoying a delicious Shabbat meal, students are provided an outlet to experience Shabbat from their own perspective. Over the course of the 2013-2014 school year, 150 Shabbat in a Box meals were hosted by students. Thanks to our Federation’s funding, USC Hillel is hoping to expand to 250 hosted meals this year.
Additionally, Hillel at UCLA is also holding a new program called “f(community)- peer2peer: peer engagement as a force multiplier.” Through this program, 40 student leaders will be recruited as Engagement Fellows in the following areas: social justice, freshman experience, Greek life, leadership and mentorship, Israel, and Hillel’s CEI (Campus Engagement Initiative). These students will be trained through weekly meetings to effectively and confidently build community around their selected groups. The goal of this program is to expand Hillel’s scope on campus, build peer-to-peer relationships, connect students to Jewish life, and create meaningful Jewish opportunities.
Another program called “Thinking Beyond the Canon: Graduate Conference,” hosted by the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies, will engage Jewish Studies graduate students to think outside the box, consider what it means to be a Jewish professional today, and reflect upon the changing nature of the field. The goal of this program is to provide Jewish graduate students a forum for presentations, collaboration, constructive criticism, discussions, networking, and building partnerships with like-minded thought leaders.
Reboot LA hosts a program that has been successful on other campuses called the “National Day of Unplugging.” This is a reinvigoration of the Sabbath focusing on slowing down and encourages students to disconnect or unplug for a day, while reintegrating the values of the Sabbath in their weekly experience. A special highlight of this program is the free cell phone sleeping bags that will be given out to students so they can put their phones away to focus on the Sabbath. The project is also part of an ongoing program called the Sabbath Manifesto which encourages hyper-connected and frantic people to slow down their lives and re-embrace the day of rest by reconnecting with family, friends and the community.
Our Federation is proud to be funding a wide range of campus partners whose programs engage undergraduate and graduate students and provide an array of opportunities to Jewish students on campus. Federation’s grants are helping provide students with experiences to explore their Jewish identity in a variety of ways through immersive experiences, internships, conferences, social justice programs, and Jewish content-based programs.
For more information on our Federation’s campus work, contact Megan Kanofsky, Program Director, Jewish Campus Life at MKanofsky@JewishLA.org or visit our website at /pages/campus-activities.
