Tufts Hillel has added to its ranks this year Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg as its senior Jewish educator, a new position that is part of a nationwide initiative to engage more Jewish students on college campuses.
The role of a senior Jewish educator is to forge connections with students who are interested in embracing their Jewish roots, but who have not found a niche within the on-campus Hillel organization, according to Ruttenberg.
"Tufts Hillel is one of the best Hillels in the country," Ruttenberg said. "But one mothership can't be everything to everybody. Some students haven't found their scene. The idea is to have someone on campus who can facilitate the Jewish experience based on what they want to have."
Hillel's international parent organization created the senior Jewish educator position two years ago as part of a national Hillel movement to provide Jewish students with more individual attention and resources, according to Jeff Rubin, associate vice president of communications for the parent organization.
"What we found is that on many campuses where there are Hillels, Hillel professionals are so busy doing so many things that they don't have the opportunity to go into depth with students," Rubin told the Daily. "Rather than just give these Hillel professionals even greater responsibilities than they are already doing, we created these positions. This enables these individuals to really spend quality time with individual students."
As a member of Hillel's international board, Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, Tufts Hillel's executive director and a 30-year veteran at the university, is up to date with Hillel's national ambitions and was able to incorporate these new endeavors into the Tufts organization.
"Because the international center values the work that we do here at Tufts, they realized we were a good place to be part of the pilot campuses that were involved in this," he said.
Summit said that while Tufts Hillel offered a wide range of opportunities for student involvement, he believed many Jewish students have not found their place at the center. He thus brought the position to campus as a means of engaging a larger sector of the Jewish on-campus population.
The hope, he said, was for the center to become a resource "not just to the students who are very actively involved, but also to students who have Jewish questions and concerns and don't necessarily, for any number of reasons, walk through the doors of the Hillel center."
There are currently 10 senior Jewish education positions nationwide, according to Ruttenberg. Six of the 10 who currently hold the title just started their jobs this year.
"It's a fairly new shift," she said. "It's exciting and experimental."
Ruttenberg molds her approach according to students' comfort levels. She explained how her interactions with Tufts students range from one-on-one coffee dates at the Danish Pastry House to larger group gatherings.
"It's about getting to know people and figuring out what they want and letting something grow organically out of that," Ruttenberg said. "I want to give people the chance to walk in the door and look around to see if there are any treasures they want to take home."
Ruttenberg engages students in deep discussion on various topics, from Jewish spirituality in the Torah to relationships and dating. Her aim, she said, is to place topics that often arise in students' lives in the context of Jewish culture.
"We use a Jewish lens on the stuff they're already thinking about and struggling with," she said.
Hillel's parent organization has embarked on other efforts to connect with students who have not found a haven in their respective campus Hillel. In line with its creation of the Jewish education position, the organization also designed the Campus Entrepreneurs Initiative and the Peer Network Engagement Internship. These programs hire student interns to engage their Jewish peers, according to Rubin.
"There are just amazing people on campus who have not found the right way to become involved," Summit said. "These initiatives are trying to provide more resources to engage more people as they want to become engaged."
Ruttenberg agreed that the senior Jewish education position and the center's other programs offer different opportunities for student involvement within the campus Jewish community.
"This Hillel has a strong base," added Ruttenberg. "The base is strong and active and vibrant, but it doesn't have to be the only way that Jewish life plays out."
So far, Ruttenberg has been pleased with her time on the Hill.
"Tufts students are incredible," Ruttenberg said. "They blew me away with curiosity and are engaged in the world. People find ways to integrate all the parts of who they are. It's been a real honor."
