The end of the 2023-2024 school year at the University of Kansas also marked the conclusion of KU Hillel’s spring 2024 programs.
Throughout the semester, cohorts of students came together weekly to engage in Jewish learning, build community and share a meal as part of KU Hillel’s Jewish Learning Fellowships (JLF).
Each Tuesday evening (when there wasn’t a KU Basketball game), Noa Savir, KU Hillel’s manager of Jewish student engagement, facilitated a cohort focused on philanthropy and social justice combined with text-based Jewish learning. Local Jewish professionals Lauren Hoopes and Hilary Singer were featured guest speakers and shared their experiences with students.
“We engaged in meaningful conversation surrounding ancient Jewish texts and beliefs,” said Evelyn Brand, a freshman student and part of the cohort. “The cohort has helped me realize what kind of life I’d like to lead in the future.”
Also on Tuesday evenings, KU Hillel’s Jewish Family Services therapist Wendy Anderson led the “Sex, Love and Relationships” cohort, which examined Jewish views on intimate relationships, friendships and the spectrum of relationships that college students encounter.
“JLF cohorts are a great platform for students to come together to explore personal, relevant topics both through everyday life examples and through the discussion of Jewish text,” Anderson said. “Facilitating this cohort has allowed me the opportunity to observe the growth of student connections, which also helps me build stronger, more trusting relationships with the students we serve.”
Ben Novorr, KU Hillel’s director of Jewish student engagement, and Mika Kislanski, Kansas City’s community shalicha, co-facilitated a cohort called “Kol Yisrael: Jewish Peoplehood, Resilience, and Antisemitism.” This cohort focused on the experiences that Jewish students feel as part of the larger community, and it worked to teach them concrete skills in facing and overcoming antisemitism in the world around them.
“I always enjoy the opportunity to have the deep conversations with students that ‘Kol Yisrael’ evokes,” Novorr said. “It provides me with the unique opportunity as a Jewish professional to both be a support for students’ vulnerabilities and [be] an educator as I help them develop the skills to confront those same vulnerabilities.”
Topics surrounding Israel were also discussed and included into the curriculum, which became especially important this year.
“The cohort was an incredible opportunity to talk about Judaism and Israel and where they intersect in the everyday lives of our students,” Kislanski said.
Sophomore student Meredith Goldstein participated in multiple JLF cohorts this semester. She said that “the discussions prompted by the content of the [JLF] cohorts this year caused me to not only grow alongside my peers, but allowed me to explore different elements of Judaism to greater depths.”
KU Hillel will be announcing Fall 2024 JLF cohort opportunities for students in August on its Instagram page @kuhillel. More information is available by emailing .
