Program Title: Pizza Party in Allen Hall

Program Description: Social program to introduce the student group Jews on Campus and myself to students living in one residence hall.

Goals: To connect Jewish students in Allen Hall, kick-off social programming for Jews on Campus.

Participation: 25-30 students

Time Involved: A week for publicity: e-mails, flyering, word of mouth. At least a week in advance, work with an RA to make a space request for a room in the residence hall. An hour to order and pick up food, a half hour to set up the room.

Campus Resources: Jews on Campus (JOC), Jewish RA, Residence Director.

Strategies for Success: Partnering with JOC for this was great. It allowed me to use their status as a Registered Student Organization, and gave a student primary organizing responsibility. The student leader introduced me, giving me a little more credibility with students I had yet to meet. Also, always have an absolutely kosher option. We ordered pizzas from a non-kosher pizza place, so made sure we had chips and veggies for people who couldnt eat the pizza. Kosher pizza is an option (although more expensive and slightly more time consuming than ordering).

Variations: Pizza and a movie, pizza and parsha.

Impact and Follow-up: This program was a good beginning for JOC and for Allen Hall. JOC and I brought pizza parties to other residence halls (and a park near Illini Tower and Bromley Hall, and an open outdoor space near the Six-Pack), and I was able to continue to do successful programming in Allen for the rest of the year.

Program Title: Going to High Holiday services? Walk with people who live near you.

Program Description: Organized groups of students who live geographically close to each other to walk together to High Holiday services at Hillel.

Goals: To connect students living near each other, to make going to Hillel less intimidating.

Participation: 15-30 students.

Time Involved: Students signed up to receive an e-mail detailing a meeting place and time; I added to the sign-up lists names of students who I had met who lived in the residence halls. I sent out the meeting place/time information the day before each holiday, and put up flyers with the information in the residence halls. (5 hours)

Campus Resources: Residential Life staff.

Strategies for Success: Flyering in the residence halls - get students to help! It's a lot of hard work and very time consuming. It's an easy way to begin to empower students - I wish I had started asking earlier. Also, an announcement can be made toward the end of each service to let students know that there are others walking back to their residence halls and that people will be walking in groups each day. I enjoyed having students come to me or send me an e-mail asking for more information (it was a great way to get my name out there at the beginning of the semester), but there may be students who didn't receive an e-mail who would benefit from the announcement at services.

Variations: Can be organized for any holiday where celebrations take place at Hillel (Passover seders being the most obvious). Could also potentially be organized for students living in nearby apartments.

Impact and Follow-up: This program was a good way to begin working in and with the residence halls, and to get students thinking about doing Jewish with people who live nearby. It also allowed students to meet people to continue walking with to Shabbat services throughout the rest of the semester.

Program Title: Eat Dirt in Allen Hall

Program Description: A Tu B'Shevat feast of fruits and edible dirt in a residence hall.

Goals: To facilitate students learning about Tu BShevat and give a new twist to the traditional Tu BShevat seder.

Participation: 15 students

Time Involved: At least a week in advance, work with an RA to make a space request. A couple hours to shop for fruit and edible dirt ingredients. A half hour to set up the room.

Strategies for Success: Along with bringing lots of fruit and oreos, m&ms, green sprinkles, and gummy worms for making edible dirt, I brought a few fun Tu B'Shevat facts to put out on the table as an informal educational method. Having the facts laying out on the table along with the food prompted students to ask more questions, and we had a casual discussion about Tu B'Shevat and the holidays rituals.

Variations: An Eat Dirt table on the Quad.

Impact and Follow-up: This program was a blast - the students loved eating all the different kinds of fruit, and watching me create dirt out of cookies and candy. For me, it was one of the first programs where students really wanted to delve in a little and learn more about Jewish traditions. It was an important experience for me professionally - I learned that having informal learning opportunities always available is a crucial aspect of my role.

Program Description: Field trip to Curtis Orchard to pick apples, discussion about Eve's role in the story of the Jewish people, informal brainstorming for the rest of the semester.

Goals: To begin to connect Jewish women to each other and to the Jewish story, to plant the seeds for a Jewish women's group (K'hilat Isha) and think about what form the group can take.

Participation: 5-10 students

Time Involved: Planning took very little time, just a call to the orchard to check on times and location. We spent a couple hours at the orchard (theres a petting zoo and corn maze, as well as lots of photo ops). 

Strategies for Success: This program seemed to tap into a need students hadto get away from campus and relax on a Sunday afternoon. The women who came were very excited about doing more programming, and came up with great ideas for the rest of the semester. Listen to them.

Impact and Follow-up: The ideas that the women brainstormed became the rest of the groups activity for the semester, and the success of and excitement generated from this first program continued throughout the semester.

Program Title: Miriam's Cup

Program Description: Students went to a paint-your-own pottery studio to make Miriam's Cups, the cup placed on the seder table in addition to Elijah's Cup to honor Miriam's role in leading the Jewish people out of Egypt.

Goals: To teach students about the different women of the Passover story, discuss how feminism has changed Passover celebrations, learn about the use of a Miriam's Cup as part of a seder, create a ritual object, and connect Jewish women to one another.

Participation: 8 students

Time Involved: Reserve the studio at least a week in advance. Organize people to drive carpools to the studio.

Key People: Owner of pottery studio.

Strategies for Success: Have a good understanding of Miriam's Cup, Miriam's story, and why people might question its inclusion. The idea of adding something to the seder table doesnt always sit well with people, so be diplomatic in describing the reasons why its a possibility. 

Variations: Making seder plates with room for an orange.

Impact and Follow-up: Our Miriam's Cups were used at Hillel and home seders, and opened the door for many conversations about a feminist view of the Passover story, for both women and men.

Program Title: Orange on the Seder Plate Women's Seder

Program Description: A women's seder using a haggadah specific to women's Passover celebrations.

Goals: To connect Jewish women to each other for a unique celebration of Passover, educate about women's roles in the Passover story, and work to establish Jewish women's programming as a part of Jewish cultural and religious programming.

Participation: 5 students

Time Involved: Start planning several weeks in advance with a group of students. A week for creating and collating a haggadah. Two hours for organizing all the seder materials. An hour to set up the room. 

Campus Resources and Key People: Women who have been active and interested in Jewish women's issues as seder planners. 

Strategies for Success: Involving students in the planning and coordinating was the success of this program - the students who worked on the program and attended the seder were really proud of what we had created together. They enjoyed learning about what can be special about Jewish women's lives and celebrations.

Variations: Freedom seder with other historically oppressed groups.  

Impact and Follow-Up: The hype surrounding the planning of a women's seder got people talking: Why a women's seder? Is it only for women? Who are the women of the Passover story? Women's stories were incorporated into the large communal seder; the women's seder has the potential to become a new tradition at the U of I.

Program Title: Havdalah Candlemaking

Program Description: Women gathered at one students apartment to create havdalah candles.  

Goals: To connect Jewish women to each other and to the havdalah ritual, to enable women to create a ritual object. 

Participation: 5 students 

Time Involved: The process of making taper candles and then re-heating the wax and shaping the candles is time-consuming - this program may work better on a weekend afternoon than on a weeknight. 

Key People: Student with an apartment kitchen that can get a little waxy. 

Strategies for Success: Informality is the best - let students let loose and create candles that have multiple wicks in whatever way they want. It was amazing to see what the women came up with. A casual atmosphere is more conducive to community-building than a serious, planned-out program. 

Impact and Follow-Up: The women who participated were really excited about what they had created and didnt mind too much that it took hours and made a big mess. It connected them socially and personally in a way that is more difficult to achieve at the Hillel buildingan apartment is more personal. The student who hosted the event got to take on a leadership role that really motivated hershe felt even more strong about her commitment to Jewish women after the program.

Program Title: Recreating the Shabbat Table: Challah Covers, Wine Glasses and Candleholders, and Shabbat Candles

Program Description: A three-part series of programs offering Jewish women the chance to create their own ritual objects.

Goals of Program: To connect Jewish women to each other and informally educate them about Jewish women's role in tradition.  

School Type: Large public (36,000 students, 3,000 Jewish students) 

Participation: 10 students 

Time Involved: A week to publicize with flyers, through e-mail and by word of mouth. An few hours per program to shop for materials: challah covers: paint, foam paint stamps, yarn, thread, needles, handkerchiefs; wineglasses: dollar-store wineglasses, glass paint, paintbrushes, glass candleholders; candles: beeswax sheets, x-acto knife. A half hour to set up the room for each program. 

Strategies for Success: These programs filled a programming gap - we weren't offering programs just for women that drew on their creative energies and interest in connecting with other women. Each activity was simple but allowed participants to walk away with something they had created.  

Possible Variations: Other creative endeavors: havdalah candles, matzah covers, seder plates.  

Impact and Follow-Up: The challah cover-making program was the first women's program that drew over a handful of people. The women who participated were excited about the future and about creating more Judaica. The decided to donate the challah covers they made to Hillel for use at Shabbat dinners (up until then, we'd been using paper napkins). Each week, the women could see their work on display and hear the positive comments from those who came to our Shabbat program. Women's programming from that point on pretty much emulated this model - a creative activity related to Jewish life.

Program Title: Nice Jewish Girls

Program Description: Nice Jewish Girls lunches took place about once a month and were designed to connect Jewish women to each other informally. Each lunch get-together was at a different local restaurant.

Goals of Program: To connectJewish women to each other socially and  break down barriers put up by other social designations (Greek vs. non-Greek, public residence hall vs. private residence hall, freshman vs. junior).   

School Type: Large public (36,000 students, 3,000 Jewish students) 

Participation: 10 students 

Time Involved: Virtually no time at all. The few minutes it takes to send out an e-mail, and the two hours out of a day to have lunch. 

Strategies for Success: The idea for this program came from students. Two women who lived near each other and were connected through a roommate/friend kept saying that they wished that they could meet more nice Jewish girls - friendly people with whom they had something in common. The program was successful because the students who participated knew at least one other person who was participating, but also because they did not know the majority of other people. All the women who came to the lunches were willing to meet new people. They all had similar personalities, and most knew of me as a Jewish-connection resource. The best strategy for success: being informal. The women who were a part of the Nice Jewish Girls contingent were NOT the same women who came to organized womens programming.

Possible Variations: Nice Jewish Girls meet for coffee, dinner, or ice cream. 

Impact and Follow-Up: This program was a great surprise - who knew that if you just asked a bunch of people to lunch that they would sit and talk with each other for two hours? The program reconnected birthright returnees and planted the seeds for relationships to develop between other Jewish women on campus. Lunches (or other food-centered gatherings) were repeated throughout the semester until the need evaporated.

Program Title: Jewish Writers Gathering

Program Description: Informal meeting at La Bamba (a local burrito restaurant) to discuss interest and options for creating a publication about Jewish life on campus.

Goals: To gauge student interest and ability to create a publication, to connect students interested in writing/editing/journalism to each other.

Participation: Only one student came, although several had RSVPd to let me know they were coming.

Time Involved: We ate and brainstormed for a couple of hours. Many good ideas came out of just this one conversation, with just one student, so it was worth the time.

Strategies for Success: In the first semester, I was unable to find a way to truly organize a group of committed individuals to work on this project. I thought the casual food atmosphere would work, but it wasnt as successful as I had expected. The best way to create a group of people is to first find interested individuals, cultivate their individual interests, and then work with them to create a group. Having a Jewish Writers Group is probably never going to fly at the University of Illinois. But, having an engaging newsletter created by a small group of students created the atmosphere needed to get more people involved in helping to create the publication. People needed to see something concrete (and to see that something was possible) before signing on.

Impact and Follow-up: The individual meeting with the one student who came to La Bamba began a relationship between me and that student, and she was able to connect more fully with Jewish life in her last at the U of I. Her ideas were the beginnings of what L'Chaim eventually was able to become.

Program Title: Apple Picking with Jews on Campus

Program Description: Apple picking and gourd gathering at a nearby orchard.

Goals: To provide an opportunity for students to get off campus and have a social experience with other Jewish students.

Participation: 5 students

Time Involved: A week for publicity.

Strategies for Success: This program brought together a group of girls from a sorority who are in the same family. I hadnt met all of the people who participated, so having students I already knew bring friends was great. The program wasnt overwhelmingly successful in terms of numbers, but an off-campus program often isnt.

Impact and Follow-up: This program didnt have any Jewish content, and I think that students look for that. Apple picking offered one of the first clues that Jews on Campus, which had been designed as a social organization primarily for Jewish students living in the residence halls, couldnt just be social.

Program Title: Moonstruck with Jews on Campus

Program Description: Moonstruck is a chocolate bar - hot chocolate, desserts, chocolate drinks. Students were invited to come hang out and socialize on a Friday night after Hillel's Shabbat program.

Goals: To provide an alternative oneg for students, to connect Jewish students socially.

Participation: 15 students

Campus Resources and Key People: Jews on Campus

Strategies for Success: This program was probably Jews on Campus greatest success - it was something Hillel doesn't organize and was an alternative to the oneg organized at a students apartment. Students who participate in the Shabbat program but who arent shomer Shabbos go out on Friday nights - this program let them go out together. It was low-key and social - a good connection for less religious students between Shabbat and after Shabbat.

Variations: Onegs could be organized at students apartments or residence halls, or students could be organized to go to a local event following services (there's a light show, bowling, movies...)

Impact and Follow-up: This program was great for students who go out after services. It wouldnt work as well for students who are shomer Shabbos and would not feel comfortable doing something other than a traditional oneg on Shabbat. It was organized for Sweethearts Day (another sort of Valentines Day), so going to Moonstruck was appropriate. Students got to meet others who are looking for things to do after services and dinner, and continued to make plans on their own throughout the year.

Program Description: Once a month, seniors get together at a casual pub for dinner and/or drinks for an hour or so during the week.

Goals: To connect older students to each other for social and networking purposes, to get older students to begin thinking about Jewish life after college.

Participation: 10 students over the course of the year

Strategies for Success: This was yet another fabulous student idea. There was always a little Jewish content by virtue of the entire group being Jewish, but the idea was just to get people together to talk about whats going on in their lives (looking for jobs, applying to graduate school, moving) and connect with other young Jewish adults.

Variations: Senior Potluck, Senior Progressive Dinner.

Impact and Follow-up: At the end of the year, one graduate said that he really appreciated that I organized the senior happy hoursthey connected him to people he wouldnt have met otherwise. Happy hours took place about once a monthstudents kept asking when the next one would be.

Program Title: Rosh Hashanah Card Making at Zas

Program Description: Opportunity for students to make Rosh Hashanah cards to be donated to Champaign-Urbana elderly through the local Federation, and to grab dinner or a snack.  

Goals: To expose students to the idea of doing tzedakah projects during the High Holidays, to provide a fun, social environment for students to meet each other by working together on a project. 

Participation: 10 students 

Time Involved: A week for publicity: e-mails, flyering, word of mouth. A few hours to stock up on art supplies (glitter, glue, construction paper, scissors, markers). A half hour to write out Rosh Hashanah card greetings in Hebrew and English.

Community Resources: Champaign-Urbana Jewish Federation

Variations: Rosh Hashanah card-making on the Quad, sending cards to family (JCSC pays for stamps).

Impact and Follow-up: This was our first real program! We met students who we were able to connect with throughout the rest of the year. The students who participated really enjoyed working on a project that had an impact on other peoples lives. 

Program Title: Hookah in the Sukkah

Program Description: Students hang out in a sukkah, sitting on pillows at low tables, eating desserts and having a hookah experience.

Goals: To offer a fresh way of looking at Sukkot, and to bring Israeli culture to the U of I.

Participation: 10 students

Time Involved: A week for publicity, an hour to shop for desserts, a few days to track down students with hookahs, an hour to set up the sukkah (tarps on the ground, pillows, tables, candles, food, hookahs).

Strategies for Success: This program broke the mold for what students expected from a Jewish program. For students who had smoked a hookah before, here was a chance for them to have that experience again. For students who had never seen a hookah before, they were interested because of the novelty. Keeping it casualmusic, candles, conversationhelped people feel comfortable meeting people who they didnt know before.

Variations: Invite students to come and play music in the sukkah, other hookah/Israeli culture programs, like Bedouin Night

Impact and Follow-up: This program really brought together students who wouldnt have met otherwiseGreek and non-Greek, freshmen and upperclassmen. We gave a lot of thought to purchasing a hookah for Hillel to have for other Israeli cultural programsstudents liked that they could smoke a hookah right outside of the Hillel building.

Program Title: Challah-Baking

Program Description: Hillels kitchen was opened up for students to make challah for themselves and as gifts for friends.

Goals: Jews doing Jewish with other Jewsto teach a little about the tradition of making challah and to give students a very hands-on Jewish experience.

Participation: 10 students

Time Involved: This program is a time commitmentit takes a while for challah dough to rise, and then more time for the challahs to bake.

Campus Resources and Key People: A student mashgiach to supervise us as we used the kitchen and to help us check eggs for kashrut adherence.

Strategies for Success: People really enjoyed getting their hands into the dough and loved that we were doing Jewish cookinghands-on programs are really successful.

Variations: Any kind of Jewish cultural cookingmatzah ball soup, kugel, etc.

Impact and Follow-up: It was great to have students coming by after the challahs had baked to pick them up and deliver them to friends. The excitement following this program eventually led to the development of the idea for a Jewish Cooking Club.

Program Description: A pizza party to break the fast from bread.

Goals: To connect have fun celebrating the end of Passover with other Jewish students.

Participation: 35 students

Strategies for Success: Word of mouth publicity spread the news about this pizza party like a wildfire. We expected half as many people as showed uppeople came with their friends, roommates, random Jewish students who live in their residence halls. Have the party in the right placethe most popular local pizza restaurantand charge students $2 each, and they will come.

Variations: Pizza party to end Yom Kippur.

Impact and Follow-Up: The energy in the pizza restaurant, Papa Dels, was amazing. There were tons of Jews in the restaurantincluding some students who didnt know we were having a pizza party and were just there on their own. The idea for the program came from a student, and it really tapped into what people were looking fora cheap but yummy way to break Passover. We also were able to meet a bunch of students we wouldnt have met otherwise. Definitely something to do every year at Passovers end.

Program Title: Sukkah on the Quad

Program Description: A bit of a U of I tradition, the JCSC fellow(s) bring a portable sukkah onto the Quad for at least a portion of the holiday. Inside are materials to create sukkah decorations and edible sukkahs, a chance to shake the lulav and the etrog, and snacks.

Goals of Program: The program should integrate Jewish life with campus life, educate Jewish and non-Jewish students about the holiday of Sukkot, and give Jewish students the opportunity to take part in a some kind of Sukkot celebration (eating in the sukkah, for one). 

School Type: Large public (36,000 students, 3,000 Jewish students)

Participation: 50 students

Time Involved: Several weeks in advance, have a student request space on the Quad. A couple hours to get materials for sukkah decorations and edible sukkahsconstruction paper, scissors, glue, glitter, ribbons or string (for paper chains, paper fruit, paper gourds, etc.) and graham crackers, frosting, Twizzlers, and cake decorations (for edible sukkahs). An hour and a half total to bring the sukkah to the Quad and set up, and to take the sukkah down and bring the sukkah back to Hillel.

Strategies for Success: Just being there is never enoughmake sure students know when youre going to be out there. The fellow the year before sent personal invitations to students for lunch throughout the week. We only had the Sukkah on the Quad for one day, so we wanted to get as many people to stop by as possible! Standing outside of the sukkah and inviting people in was one way to do that.

Possible Variations: Other holiday celebrations on the Quad: Shabbat we havent done yet, but there was success doing Yom HaShoah and Yom HaAtzmaut programs on the Quad.

Impact and Follow-Up: Doing Jewish in a public way works very well on this campusstudents enjoy being a part of something big, and a sukkah on the Quad fits that model. Many students were able to celebrate Sukkot in ways that worked for them, and we were able to educate the campus about the holiday. The program is something thats done every yearas people come to expect it, its success will grow.

Program Title: Interactive Megillah Reading

Program Description: The Interactive Megillah Reading combined Hebrew and English readings and a Purim schpiel, or play, to share the Purim story. Meshing the traditional and the contemporary, this megillah reading encouraged audience participation beyond grogger-twirling.

Goals of Program: To create a student-centered and participation-friendly setting to tell the Purim story and to bring a group of students to the next phase of the engagement-empowerment spectrum by giving them front-and-center roles in the megillah reading.

School Type: Large public (36,000 students, 3,000 Jewish students)

Participation: 12 student megillah readers and/or schpiel players, 40 students in the audience

Time Involved: Several hours to a couple days to research and write the script for the schpiel. A week to coordinate student readers and schpiel players. A couple hours to shop for costumes, noisemakers, or masks. A half hour to set up the room (circular tables, like a dinner theatre, with masks, groggers,  snacks, and mini megillahs on each table).

Strategies for Success: Pick vibrant, excited, and able students to be readers and players! They are not hard to find and will be flattered that you asked them to participate. Our reading had some Hebrew and some Englishat points it was hard to follow for some students, so it might be better to do Hebrew and then English for each chapter. The point is to hear the entire megillah read; it doesnt matter in what language. Create an atmosphere in which audience participation is encouraged. Assign tasks throughout the audience (for example, we had given people notes that said that they were in the beauty pageant).

Possible Variations: An Interactive Passover Seder is the most easily transferablebut the same idea could work for any holiday with a good story (Chanukah would also be great).

Impact and Follow-Up: This program was so much fun, both to plan and to execute, and was our first real opportunity to take students to a new level in terms of involvement in Jewish life. It was wonderful to see twelve students helping to create a Jewish experience for their peers, and to watch them enjoy the Purim celebration as well. Its often difficult to judge how interactive and out of the box to go on some programs that can just as easily fit a tried-and-true mold. Fortunately, Purim offered the perfect chance to try something new, and the model was successful for the celebration.