Volunteer Abroad with the Jewish Service Corps!

Are you graduating this spring or already a college grad??

Do you want to make a difference in the world, gain valuable work experience, and volunteer abroad!?  If so, APPLY NOW TO THE JEWISH SERVICE CORPS program of the JDC.

The Jewish Service Corps is a year-long, paid service opportunity for young Jewish adults.  A program of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), this program matches your skills and interests with the needs of Jewish communities worldwide.  (There are also placements in countries where the JDC does non-sectarian work, such as Rwanda and Ethiopia.)

The Jewish Service Corps currently has fellows in India, Turkey, Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Poland, Estonia, Serbia, Israel, and Rwanda.

Applications are being accepted NOW through March 31st for their 2011-2012 placements.

For more information, visit their website at www.jdc.org/jsc or come talk to Mara (Hillel UW’s newest staff member) who spent 2009-2010 as a Jewish Service Corps Fellow in Rwanda and worked at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village.

Mara at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village, with some of the teenage boys she worked with last year.

HIAS Scholarship

Did your family immigrate to America and recieve funding from the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)?  If so, APPLY for this scholarship now!  You could get $4,000 funding towards school tuition!  

More information on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society:

What exactly do we do?

HIAS provides protection and assistance to some of the most endangered populations around the world. Depending on location, these services can include trauma counseling, art therapy, legal advice, and humanitarian assistance. We assist refugees from more than 20 countries with U.S. resettlement, immigrant integration, and citizenship programs, working closely with the U.S. government, the government of Israel and other countries, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and a host of non-governmental organizations.

Why do we provide this help?

Drawing strongly on Jewish tradition, we provide services to Jewish immigrants, refugees, and others in need – without regard for their religion, nationality, or ethnic background. We are guided by our Jewish values and texts. The Torah (Hebrew Bible) tells us 36 times in 36 different ways to help the stranger among us. This, and our core belief that we must “fix the world” (tikkun olam, in Hebrew), are the driving principles behind our work.

Nuremberg (Free Movie Ticket!)

Join Hillel UW at the Varsity Theatre on the Ave for the movie “Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today.”

The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals during which a number of Nazi party leaders and perpetrators of the Holocaust were tried for their involvement in WWII.  This film uses actual video footage from the 1940s as covers the trial from start to finish, bringing up essential questions of human responsibility and justice. Click here to watch the Nuremberg trailer.

For free tickets to this movie, RSVP by 12am on Tuesday, March 8 to mara@hilleluw.org.

We will meet at Hillel at 6pm for dinner & a brief discussion before heading to the theater. (Note: this offer is limited to  the first 15 students to RSVP.)

Dinner & Discussion @ 6pm. Movie @ 7pm.  Tuesday, March 8.

Birthright & Jewish Identity

Join us for a special discussion with Professor Shaul Kelner from Vanderbuilt University.  He will lead us in a discussion of the impact of Birthright Israel on American Jewish identity.

Since 1999, hundreds of thousands of young American Jews have visited Israel on the Taglit/Birthright Israel program, an all expense paid 10-day pilgrimage tour.   The Birthright program seeks to foster a lifelong sense of attachemnet to Israel amongst its participants, young Jews living in the diaspora.

But is it successful?  And how does Birthright Israel adopt and adapt the practice of tourism to form trans-national ties, and to shape religious, ethnic and political identities?  What contradictions emerge in the effort?  What are the implications?

Drawing on ethnographic research, this talk will address these and other questions.

Date: Monday, March 7
Time: 7:00pm-9:00pm

Questions? Contact Mara or Sara.

Welcome to the Hillel UW blog!

Facebook and email newsletters are useful for promoting events, but sometimes there’s info — like job postings, interesting news articles, and general happenings around town —  that we want to share.  We weren’t sure of the best way to do this…  so we started a blog!

It’s our hope that this blog will provide you with important/cool/useful information and that you’ll check back frequently for the most recent updates!

Thanks for reading,
the Hillel UW staff