Our goal was to empower students to be change-makers and to provide them with a toolbox for engaged, open, and civil discourse.
Community
Community
Our strength was in the ability to create safe places in which hard issues can be addressed in collaboration with a wide spectrum of organizational partners.
May 2, 2019 – Santa Barbara, CA – The Avi Schaefer Fund (ASF) is proud to announce the 2019 Avi Schaefer Leadership Retreat (ASLR) Cohort participants. Now in its third year, the annual retreat brings together a diverse group of emerging Jewish leaders from across the US to engage with some of the most important questions facing our community today. This year’s cohort of 12 was selected after receiving nearly 50 highly competitive applications from public policy professionals, journalists, Jewish communal professionals, entrepreneurs and artists among others.
Please join us in congratulating the 2019 ASLR Cohort representing the New York, Bay Area, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Chicago and New England communities: Sheridan Bahar, Eloise Diaz Bahrmasel, Maia Ferdman, Chelsea Garbell, Evan Gottesman, Suzanne Greene, Ari Hoffman, Meredith Lewis, Danielle Natelson, Vince Pine, Arianna Skibell, Shira Telushkin.
Kevin McIntosh, coordinator of Campus Interfaith Resources, was recognized for his work on campus by a national Jewish foundation dedicated to empowering young people.
McIntosh was among 10 recipients of the 2019 Avi Schaefer Fund “Seek Peace and Pursue It” Awards. The Avi Schaefer Fund annually recognizes university students, faculty and staff members who are considered changemakers.
McIntosh was nominated for the award by Allison Egrin, president of Grand Valley’s Hillel chapter. Egrin said McIntosh’s impact on campus has not gone unnoticed.
KINGSTON, R.I. – March 28, 2019 – A short film on the Holocaust by student filmmakers at the University of Rhode Island will be screened at some high-profile events in the coming weeks –and will become one of the education resources available as part of Rhode Island’s mandated genocide education for secondary school students.
“The Fence Between Us” will get its URI premiere Monday, April 1, at the Norman M. Fain Hillel Center on the Kingston campus. The film will also be shown during the 35th annual Statewide Interfaith Commemoration of the Holocaust on May 1 at Temple Emanu-El, in Providence.
What do you get when you put students of Muslim, Jewish and Christian faiths into a room together?
A lively room filled with laughter, smiles and positive discussion about faith and its meaning to those practicing, according to the Avi Shabbat Interfaith dinner at the Wesley Methodist Church.
Hillel at Central Michigan University co-hosted the Avi Shabbat Interfaith dinner on March 22 alongside the Muslim Student Association and Wesley at CMU.
The Avi Schaefer Fund (ASF) is proud to announce the recipients of this year’s Avi Schaefer Seek Peace and Pursue It Award, honoring students, academic faculty, staff, or university administrators who have stood up in a public way for peace, justice, and compassion on their college campus. These outstanding campus changemakers share, express, and put into action the values that Avi Schaefer, z”l, lived.
On Friday, Feb. 8, Hillel and the Muslim Student Association will host the ninth annual Avi Schaefer Shabbat at Union.
“This Muslim Jewish Dialogue Dinner is an amazing event open to students, staff and community members of all faiths and backgrounds,” says Hannah Ellen ’19, Hillel social justice chair, who has helped lead and champion the dinner since coming to Union.
“I’m very grateful that we have this event at Union,” said Uma Kalsoom ’19, co-president of the Muslim Students Association, who has been involved since her sophomore year. “It’s a perfect opportunity to engage in constructive dialogue about relevant world issues that affect both Muslims and Jews.”
ASF thanks all the campuses that joined us for Avi Shabbat 2018!
American University Hillel
*Arizona State University Hillel
*Baruch, John Jay, and City College Hillels
Binghamton Hillel
*Boston University Hillel
Brandeis Hillel
Brody Jewish Center – Hillel at University of Virginia
Brown RISD Hillel
Calgary Hillel
Central Michigan Hillel
Colorado State University Hillel
Dartmouth Hillel
Davis and Sacramento Hillel
Emory Hillel
Franklin and Marshall Hillel
George Mason Hillel
Goucher Hillel and Goucher Interfaith Council
Hillel 818
Hofstra University Hillel
Houston Hillel
Ithaca College
*Lehigh University Hillel and the University Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
*Loyola Marymount University (LMU) Hillel
Metro Detroit Hillel
Michigan State University Hillel
Middlebury College Hillel
*Milwaukee Hillel
NC State Hillel
Northeastern Hillel
Northwestern Hillel
Ohio State University (OSU) Hillel
Oregon State Hillel, Oregon Hillel Foundation
Santa Barbara Hillel
SF Hillel and I-Team
Silicon Valley Hillel
Southern Maine Hillel
Stony Brook Hillel
SUNY Geneseo Hillel
Susquehanna University Hillel
Syracuse University Hillel
The College of Charleston Hillel/JSU
Towson University Hillel
*Trinity College Hillel
Tulane Hillel
U Penn Hillel
UC San Diego Hillel
UNC-Chapel Hill Hillel
*Union College Hillel
University of Connecticut Hillel
University of Delaware Hillel
University of Georgia (UGA) Hillel
*University of Illinois Hillel: Margie K. and Louis N. Cohen Center for Jewish Life
University of Miami Hillel
University of Rhode Island Hillel
University of Rochester Hillel
University of Southern California Hillel
*Virginia Tech Hillel
Wellesley College Hillel
Westchester, Pace University Hillel
Inaugural Avi Schaefer Seek Peace and Pursue It Award Recipients
Alana Kessler (American University Graduate School 2018), Amr Acoub (Trinity College 2018),
Ashley Schnaar (Michigan State University 2018), Dr. Elizabeth Sink (Colorado State University),
Dr. Melanie Wilson (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University), Emerson Finkle (University of Rochester 2019), Hannah Ellen (Union College Hillel 2019), Merall Sherif (Colorado State University 2020),
Miriam Roochvarg (NC State 2018), Uma Kalsoom (Union College 2019)
ASF Inspirational Grantees*
Arizona State University, Baruch College, Boston University, Lehigh University
Loyola Marymount University (LMU), Hillel Milwaukee, Trinity College, Union College
University of Illinois, Virginia Tech
For more information about ASF programs, grants, or partnerships, or to learn more about Avi, please email us at info@avischaeferfund.org
The Council of Religious Advisors at Arizona State University’s Tempe campus elected Debbie Yunker Kail, executive director of Hillel at ASU, as its new president.
Made up of professionals from campus faith-based organizations, CORA offers member organizations a platform to engage with each other and university leadership. It assists in orientations for incoming students, including more than 40 day-long orientations held throughout the summer, and helps students find religious counseling and volunteer opportunities, as well as holding spiritual awareness fairs on campus. CORA councils exist on each of ASU’s four campuses; the Tempe council is the largest with 31 member organizations, including Hillel, Jewish Arizonans on Campus and Chabad at ASU.
June 4, 2018 – Santa Barbara, CA – The Avi Schaefer Fund (ASF) is proud to announce the winners of the inaugural Avi Schaefer Seek Peace and Pursue It Awards, to recognize campus changemakers who share, express, and put into action the values that Avi lived. The award honors students, academic faculty or administrators who have stood up in a public way for peace, justice, and compassion on their college campus.
Union has again been named a winner of a HEED Award by Insight Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education.
This marks the fifth straight year the school has been honored by the magazine, which recognizes U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Kevin McIntosh, coordinator of Campus Interfaith Resources, was recognized for his work on campus by a national Jewish foundation dedicated to empowering young people.
