Leadership, Patches for Peace garner recognition for Tufts Hillel

Hillel International recognized Tufts Hillel with two awards at its annual conference in Princeton, NJ in December.

Hillel International awarded Tufts Hillel the William Haber Award for the organization's innovative "Patches for Peace" program. Tufts Hillel executive director and Jewish Chaplain Rabbi Jeffrey Summit was honored with the Richard M. Joel Exemplar of Excellence Award for his leadership and role in the growth of the organization.

Tufts Hillel organized Patches for Peace during the 2001-2002 academic year as a response to the September 11 attacks in New York. The organization had originally planned for a general interest meeting on Sept. 11, 2001 but instead cancelled the meeting and invited students to discuss the day's events. The discussions resulted in the launching of the Patches for Peace project.

Patches for Peace united 88 Tufts student organizations for dinner, discussions, and the ultimate creation of a patchwork quilt that combined the work of each participating group. The quilt now hangs near the upper entrance to the Mayer Campus Center.

"Too often Tufts students fail to branch out to different people simply because they lack a manner in which to do so," Richard Kalman, former Outreach Vice President for Tufts Hillel and co-organizer of Patches for Peace, said. "Intercultural programming allows us to cross those bridges, and take full advantage of the fantastic diversity here."

Summit stressed the importance of including non-Jewish groups in Hillel activities. "An essential part of Hillel's role is to work together with different religious and cultural groups to create a sense of community on campus," Summit said. "If we can't do it on a university campus, then where are we going to do it?"

According to Summit, Hillel looks to build a relationship between the Jewish and Muslim communities at Tufts as a response to current international conflicts. "We have an opportunity to model behavior here that we would ideally like to see in the world," Summit said.

As Tufts Hillel's executive director for the past 25 years, Summit led the initiative to construct what is today the Granoff Family Hillel Center, now both a hub of Jewish life on campus and a center for campus-wide activities.

"[Summit] took this organization and built it from a tiny group of students into the campus presence it is today," Leonard Goldstein, associate director of Tufts Hillel, said. "He, more than anybody I know, is able to bring people together in the community."

Hillel student leadership and staff seem to agree that Summit has a talent for uniting people.

"Rabbi Summit has an uncanny ability to make people feel welcome at Hillel and at Tufts," Kalman said. "As a leader, Rabbi Summit excels in pushing those around him to meet any challenge, no matter how insurmountable it might appear."

The Exemplars of Excellence award was named in honor of Richard M. Joel, former President and International Director of Hillel, who left in 2002 to become president of Yeshiva University. It is given to those professionals who "inspire and provoke a renaissance of Jewish life on their campus and serve as models for the entire Hillel community," according to a 2002 press release.

The Haber award is named after Dean William Haber of the University of Michigan, who served as Chairman of the Hillel Commission from 1955 to 1963. According to Hillel International, the Haber award honors "programs of quality for the Jewish campus community."