History of the Jewish Life Liaison Program

The University of Pennsylvania developed a residential College House program a few years ago which aims to be at the center of the Penn undergraduate experience, bringing together undergraduates, faculty, staff and graduate students to form shared communities within the larger context of Penn's vibrant campus.

What this means for you: Every residential building on campus is now part of the College House system. Students of all years, faculty members, house deans and RAs and GAs (Graduate Associates) now live in the house. Faculty Masters and Senior Fellows live in the house with their families and provide academic leadership for the House. The House Dean runs the administrative aspects of the house, hiring and supervising the RAs, GAs, and Program Managers, giving advice and support to students and referring them to other services on campus. In addition, each house has its own computer facilities and tech support, library, and writing resources. Each College House has a different focus, flavor and style!

Details about the Jewish Life Liaisons

Hillel here at Penn has jumped on the bandwagon and instituted the Jewish Life Liaison (JLL) program in the College Houses. Through this program Jewish students in each college house are hired to become JLLs and create Jewish Life in their House as well as serve as a Jewish resource helping students learn about Jewish opportunities.

The JLLs are paid a stipend for the year and are given a $500 budget that they manage. They are required to attend weekly meetings, plan four programs a semesterof which one should be a Shabbat dinner. They are also often asked to disseminate information regarding the larger Hillel community to their house. In order to receive their stipend at the end of the year, they must hand in a yearbook, documenting all their programming and evaluations.

The JLL program has been extremely successful and this year we ran a pilot Greek-Jewish Life Liaisons. This year the G-JLLs met with the JLLs because there were only two G-JLLs. Next year it will be more separate, which I think will be easier because there are a lot of differences programming within a college house and within a Greek house.

Sometimes working with the G-JLLs (especially the fraternities) gets into sticky situations because of alcohol policies, for example,. Andrew wanted to have wine at his Shabbat dinners. We worked out a system to give him one or two bottles, but anything beyond that his fraternity had to buy. I feared that some of alcohol lured people to his events its a fine line between having a great, cool event and using alcohol to induce Jewish students to attend programs. One other thing about working with the G-JLLs its really important to know about the culture of the house. I know I said this about the College House, but its especially important when it comes to the Greek scene.

Your Role in the JLL Program

I loved working with the JLLs! And judging from how RZK and I have both enjoyed working with them, I think you will too because they are a great group of students. Working with the JLLs is different than working with any other group of students, in the sense that you will have more of a supervisor role, which I found was a great experience. The whole process, from finding the right students to work as JLLs to training them to working to create strong group dynamics its a very wonderful, yet challenging process! I am very proud of my work with the JLLs, for the common bonds we created. I know a lot of JLLs looked forward to our Tuesday night meetings. Working with the JLLs, one wears many different hats:

As a JLL Advisor...

First and foremost, you must serve as their advisor, helping them plan programs, walking them through all the steps in the beginning, including food purchase, room reservation, advertising and follow up. They are very concerned at first about how to get everything done and it is up to you to calm their fears. You and the JLLs will work together to figure out what types of programs work best in each college house.

As a Jewish Teacher...

You must also serve as their teacher. For the entire first semester, I would spend fifteen minutes every meeting going over different engagement skills, often using the Hillel Toolbox as a guide. We talked about the best way to target groups, interacting at events, creating non-threatening environments, the correct way to evaluate a program. Jewish learning is another aspect of the JLL experience. Many of the JLLs are themselves engagement students, which bodes well in their ability to meet the needs of other students. Yet it also means that there is much room for teaching and questioning different Jewish customs. At the beginning of every meeting, we would have a bit of learning. Each week a different JLL would prepare a piece of learning for the groupsuch as discussing the religious reasons behind being shomer negia. This was a good technique to engage them in investigating questions on their own. I also made sure to reserve a chunk of time at meetings to go over upcoming holidays. I started with basic info about the holidays, and then tried to bring in interesting facts and ideas for programming.

As a Friend...

I found the friend hat I wore to be the most rewarding. I truly connected with many of the JLLsthe trivia I added at the end of the agenda helped with creating a fun atmosphere from the start. And the JLLs themselves began to bondmaking plans to hang out on the weekends, going on Spring Break together. This camaraderie truly led to more successful programming, as they started to work together and give each other constructive feedback. A group of nine different people, nine different Jews, coming togetherit was wonderful!

Watch out for...

This is not to say that the JLL program does not have its challenges. Its important to watch each JLL and make sure that they are staying on target. I had a few who seemed to either slack off or lose their way that I had to reign in. Its also important to watch that the JLL programming has Jewish content, another trap the JLLs often fall into.

PROGRAM SUMMARIES

Because each JLL plans between four to six programs a semester, it would not make sense to write about every one. I will instead write about some of the highlights from the year, including Holiday programming, study breaks, and community service projects. I will also include fliers from many programs so that you can get a good sense about what went on in all the houses, as well as agendas from some meetings.

Warning: The JLLs this year began to slack off on making flyers. You have to keep up on them for this!

A Sampling of JLL and G-JLL events

· Study Break in the Sukkah:

Rachel and Tamara held a study break in the Sukkah outside Irvs as their first event.

Keeping the Faith Movie Night

Movie nights are a great success and de-stresser event!

· Halloween Trick-or-Treat for Canned Goods

Naomi did this with a few of her Ware residents. Although it did not receive a great turnout, it was a great, community service event!

· Monday Night Football Party in the Goldberg Lounge

Mat did this in Goldberg and it attracted a lot of students.

· Sunday Morning Bagel Brunches

Several JLLs did events like this.

· Building the giant Quad Menorah

The Community and Spruce JLLs and residents from both houses worked together to build a menorah that stood in the middle of the quad.

· Israeli Celebration Night

Sarah did this with her house, bringing together Israeli food and a good discussion about the Middle East conflict.

· Shabbat Dinners

All JLLs did at least one Shabbat dinner per semester. Some of them teamed up together (Aepi-Theta and Goldberg-Ware) but we also encouraged individual house dinners. Another thing that worked well is some students liked to cook their own dinners!

· Soup Kitchen Trip

Rachel took six students from his house to the soup kitchen at Hillel. This is a great programming idea although only a maximum of six students can attend at a time.

· Hamantashen Making

Some JLLs did hamantashen-making events in their house, those who were more culinary inclined.

· Paint a Pot

Almost all of the JLLs did this event in their house. We bought paints and pots and soil and seeds and they each led a discussion on Tu BShvat.

· Purim Mishloach Manot

Many JLLs also thought this was a great idea. Mishloach Manot are baskets or goodie bags you make during Purim. Some JLLs did it with their house residents and people just gave it to their friends, while others and their house made bags and donated them.

· Hanukah Parties and candle lightings

Theres nothing better than Hanukkah parties, especially because Hanukkah fell this year during finals so it was a great study break! All the JLLs had a Hanukkah party, and many held daily candle lightings in their house.

· Passover Seders

Several JLLs led seders, and they said it was their most rewarding event! Naomi and Maayan shopped, organized and cooked for their own dinner with twenty students! Andrew and Stef did a joint Aepi-Theta Shabbat Dinner, while Sarah D-K and Rachel Webre hosted High Rise South and English House dinners. You will need to work with the JLLs to coordinate and help them plan and lead seders.

· Study Break Parties in April

Many JLLs did study breaks for their last event. One theme I heard that was cute from last year was a study break called Sundaes on Monday.