We are a bunch of fun-loving Jewish students at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA, who make up JMU’s Jewish community. Our chapter, founded in the late 1970's, is entirely student run, and we are now more active than ever! Our members come from all over the United States, and represent many, if not most of JMU’s majors and ages.
We thought that the turnout for today's Bagel Brunch might not be too great with everyone turning their clocks back an hour, but we were wrong! There were about 40 Hillel members at Mr. J's this morning for our last Bagel Brunch of the semester. The most popular bagel was pumpkin--I didn't try it but it sounds delicious! Thank you to everyone who made it out this morning for our Bagel Brunch, and the Brunches will resume in the Spring with one/month =)!
The photograph featured above includes the seniors on the Hillel Executive Board. This was the last Bagel Brunch for the seniors graduating in May, but they will be sure to attend the Bagel Brunches throughout the Spring semester. From left to right: Sam Zito, Membership Chair (Nursing major), Beth Mannella, Treasurer (Business Management major), Jackie Hedeman, President (Communications major--heading to Israel in May for 1 year!), and Lisa Gewirtz (Communication Sciences and Disorders major).
We were so excited about our first-year ice cream event at Kline's because we love meeting new people and seeing new faces. AND, not to forget, this week's flavor at Kline's was chocolate peanut butter ice cream--an executive board favorite! YUMMY!!!! Everyone had a great time eating their ice cream and catching up with old and new friends. My favorite part (besides eating the ice cream) was having a really good study break from all my work. I really hope to see all those new faces we met at Kline's at more Hillel events this semester. As the semester quickly comes to an end (how weird is that), and I embark on my second semester of my SENIOR YEAR OF COLLEGE, I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to put on events like this and make the most out of my time on the Hillel board. I hope to see everyone at the next event this week, which includes the always inspirational Rabbi E. Rabbi E is from Silver Spring, MD and works for MEOR DC. We have built a great relationship with Rabbi E over the past few years and he comes to JMU to teach a class about 3-5 times/semester. If you have not had the pleasure of meeting Rabbi E, join us on Wednesday, November 2nd in Showker Hall! Check the JMU Hillel FaceBook page for more information on this upcoming event.
As folks filed into the Sunchase apartment for the Halloween themed Shabbat dinner, they could smell the baked ziti and the fresh garlic bread warming in the oven. The evening began by lighting the Shabbat candles and making a blessing over the wine and challah. Around the room there were adorable orange and black Halloween decorations with candy strewn about the tables. To give it that fall feeling, apple and pumpkin pie was provided for dessert, with a delectable orange sherbet float drink to top it off. Some individuals came all decked out in their costumes, supporting the Halloween theme. We had an absolutely lovely Shabbat dinner together! See you guys at the next event.
I do not think JMU could have asked for more perfect fall weather to accompany its Parent's Weekend!
Hillel, without fail, held its annual Parent’s Brunch on Saturday in the Transitions Room of Warren Hall.The brunch spread included bagels, lox, vegetable toppings, fruit, coffee, juices, and a variety of oh so yummy desserts. There was lots of schmoozing and eating taking place as JMU students and families came to join in on the Hillel festivities. Some families found out they lived only ten or fifteen minutes from each other in their home states, and others recognized people from their local Jewish communities.The room was very warm and inviting with gourds and pumpkins as centerpieces on baby blue & white table cloths. Without doubt, nobody went home from the brunch on an empty stomach!It was nothing but a great time, with parents learning and experiencing what JMU Hillel is all about.We hope to see you all again at next year’s brunch!!
Hi, my name is Samantha Zito, the Membership Vice President of JMU Hillel. I am guest blogging as JMU Hillel’s “Star of the Week.” This award is given to members on our executive board who are crucial in orchestrating Hillel events. This weeks big event – Yom Kippur!
This past week we observed Yom Kippur in Harrisonburg, VA! Although this year's observance fell out on a Saturday, we still had members in town looking for services and friends to observe the holiday with. Once again, we visited the community congregation of Temple Beth-El for the extent of the Yom Kippur holiday. Friday night, we enjoyed dinner at one of the on campus all-you-care-to-eat facilities, and during the evening we went to Kol Nidre services led by Rabbi Sue. Energized for another day of prayer, we headed over to Temple Beth-El on Saturday to hear Rabbi Joe and Torah reading by our very own religious chair, Rachel Reiter. The turn out was great, and the community atmosphere was the next best thing to being at home with our own families. The rest of the day was spent cooking and preparing for a bagel and kugel filled break the fast. Despite being ravished by hunger, people came out in the best of spirits, sharing in a break fast meal and reflecting on the first 10 days of 5772.
SHANA TOVA!
What a great turn out we had to bring in the sweet Jewish New Year! Before services at Temple Beth-El, Hillel met at reserved tables in E-hall to join each other in a delicious Rosh Hashanah meal. After great conversation and delectable food, we all headed over to Temple Beth-El for an evening service of singing and praying that concluded with a cozy oneg in the social hall. It was so wonderful to see many new faces to Hillel, as well as to see the Jewish JMU students celebrating Rosh Hashanah along with the Harrisonburg Jewish community. Temple Beth-El loves when JMU students attend services, and we are proud to have had such a strong attendance this year.
Our First Bagel Brunch this year was a success! We had about 30 people come out and join us at Mr. J's for delicious bagels and shmear. We were so thrilled to see that some of these were faces we had never seen before! I enjoyed my breakfast very much! My warm, delicious french toast bagel was the perfect way to start my Sunday. Many Hillel members received their T-shirts at this event! We give Hillel t-shirts out to students who attend at least 4 events. Hopefully we will be seeing our T-shirts more around campus now that we have given so many out =).
We have a lot of upcoming Hillel events this month including: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Break the Fast, Parent's Brunch, and first year only events. Look out for our emails, Facebook events, and blog posts for more information!
For the past few years, JMU Hillel has been in contact with Judy Novenstein (middle in photo above) of ICCGW - Israel on Campus Coalition of Greater Washington. We were invited to join Judy at the beautiful JCC in DC for an ICCGW meeting with student leaders, Hillel professionals, and Coalition partners. Adam Rosenberg, external chair, Jackie Hedeman, president, Beth Mannella, treasurer, and Lisa Gewirtz, social chair, were very excited to attend and finally meet Judy in person! It was a really great experience for JMU Hillel to meet Hillel professionals and student leaders from other schools in the DC area. We learned a great deal of knowledge on programming, tips for member retention, and Jackie and Beth were introduced to a new Israel opportunity through WUJS that both are considering post-graduation! We thank Judy for inviting us to attend and look forward to working with her in the future.
This past Friday we had our first Shabbat dinner of the year! We wanted to make it a themed dinner, so what better way than to throw a Bar Mitzvah party for the one and only James Madison! The rooms were decorated with purple and gold streamers along with an assortment of colorful balloons. Many people also came out with great school spirit, dressing in JMU colored attire. We had scrumptious finger foods typically found at a Bar Mitzvah, along with a variety of Subway sandwiches. The feast concluded with a delicious cake decorated with the words, “Mazel Tov J-MADDY!” With so many people coming out to help celebrate, we had the opportunity to turn the music up and catch some individuals dancing to classic party songs such as, the Cupid Shuffle, the Cha Cha slide, and many more. It was another successful event to start off a great semester!
A main goal that our Hillel board has is to get freshman more involved! One way we have attempted this is by having first year only events. On September 6, we tried to have one of these events. The original plan was to take all of the first years to Kline’s, which is a delicious outdoor ice cream place, so that they could meet the Executive Board. This plan was challenged when the skies decided to open up. Because of the pouring rain, we decided to move the event to an indoor location. What better place to move our event to than the new frozen yogurt shop, Sweet Bee, located right off campus?! We picked up the one first year brave enough to take on the storm, and we all went to Sweet Bee. Although this event was not the most successful first year only event, Hillel is definitely going to try this event again! I highly doubt the board would mind going to Sweet Bee again. Who doesn’t like frozen yogurt?!
Thank you to everyone who stopped by the Hillel table at Student Org Night on Wednesday, September 7! We had a great time talking to first-year students interested in Hillel and hope to see everyone at future events. Remember--if you attend 4 events, you will receive the Hillel shirt featured above (worn by President Jackie Hedeman and Treasurer Beth Mannella).
Welcome back to JMU Hillel's Blog for the 2011-2012 school year!! This was not only the first week of classes, but also the first week of Hillel events. We started off our first week of the semester with a wing night and a late night pizza party. Both events were a success with many new and old faces coming out to enjoy yummy food and good company! It was exciting to see so many first year students attending both events. The weather was perfect for our wing night, which was held outside one of the Tree Houses overlooking Newmann Lake. Our late night pizza party was held on Hillside Field, which is a central location for everyone! Even though we all left these events ridiculously full, it was a great way to relax and forget about some of the stresses that the first week of classes can bring. We are going to have many events this semester, and the wing night and pizza party were great ways to set the bar high! We can’t wait for this semester! Hope to see everyone at our next event.
Last week was Holocaust Remembrance Week at JMU. On Monday, Mark Strauss, a survivor, retold his experiences of being trapped inside Nazi-occupied Poland during the War. Strauss gave a very vivid account of not only his experiences, but what it may have been like for many other survivors of the Holocaust. Tuesday night we watched the award-winning film "The Counterfeiters." This film told the story of how Jewish prisoners helped sabotage the Nazi's counterfeit-currency operation during the War. Lastly, on Wednesday, Taylor Krauss gave a presentation on his organization Voices of Rwanda. His organization exists to record and preserve the testimonies of the survivors of the Rwandan genocide. In his presentation, Krauss explained to the audience how his Jewish back-round and his knowledge of the Holocaust inspired him to create Voices of Rwanda. Hillel hopes that Holocaust Remembrance Week was both an educational and thought provoking week for those who attended these events.
We handed out our new T-shirts to
members who have attended 4 events!
On March 18, 2011, Hillel had its Purim themed Shabbat dinner. Although no one dressed up (with a few exceptions), it was still a lot of fun! The Executive Board made Hamantaschen for the members, and we enjoyed delicious chicken from A &T Chicken. It was a great night with lots of friends and conversation, but the evening did not end after the eating. We were so fortunate to be joined by Rabbi Etan and his wife Tammy for the Shabbat, and Rabbi Etan led an engaging discussion following the meal. About 15 to 20 of us stayed around to talk about being Jewish on the JMU campus. It was a wonderful talk, and I know I learned a great deal about the background of many of our members that I hadn’t known before.
It was great to learn about why Judaism is important to some, and what traditions and aspects of our Jewish religion members want to carry with them for the rest of their lives. This conversation fit in quite perfectly with the Purim story. Queen Ester had to hide her religion from the king and from the rest of the people in the community she lived in. Although we aren’t hiding our religion by any means, it was interesting to see the connections between the Purim story and the situations we encounter at James Madison University.
Also, make sure you come out to our Shabbat Service this Friday at Temple Beth El at 7:30!:)
Last night, five of us board members, plus our past president, experienced, what for me, was one of my best Jewish experiences since being here at JMU. We hopped into 2 cars to head to Rabbi Etan’s house in Charlottesville, with one car arriving a little safer and less carsick. At their house, we made Hamantaschen and homemade challahs! It probably would have been a wise idea to warn Rabbi Etan and his wife Tammy that Hurricane Hillel was coming with our huge baking messes.
This was such a great time for the board members to bond with not only each other, but with Rabbi Etan and Tammy. We learned how to properly pinch the corners of Hamantaschen, and that when a recipe calls for 9-12 cups of flour, it really means pour the whole 5 pound bag, plus half of another. We also learned the prayer for when you rip off a small chunk of challah.
Besides the fun and learning, this night also gave us all such a warm feeling. After baking, we all just sat down in their living room and discussed everything from our majors, Israel, Jewish geography (of course) (turns out Tammy went to the same Jewish private school as I did, and we had some of the same teachers), how Rabbi Etan and Tammy met, life in general, and also how there was something nice about being in an actual home during our time in college. Even though we just got back from spring break, this week proved to be stressful and LONG, and this was the perfect opportunity to get away and relax.
Although our Hamantaschen, as Sam said from a nurse’s point of view, " didn’t look so good,” they still tasted DELICIOUS! We made our cookies filled with butterscotch, chocolate, peanut butter, and strawberry jam. Yes, I know your mouth just started watering… mine did too! You can get a chance to try these homemade Hamantaschen and challahs at our Purim Shabbat Dinner tonight! Rabbi Etan and Tammy will be there, and they would love to meet all of you!
SOOO… Moral of this extremely long blog post is that last night was one of the best nights I’ve had here at JMU! (clearly shown by my rambling!)
One important part of Judaism is giving back and doing mitzvots. That's why I'm really glad that we had the opportunity to do HARTS again this year. HARTS stands for Harrisonburg and Rockingham Thermal Shelter at the Catholic Campus Ministry House which provides food and shelter during these cold months to those that need it.
Rachel with the beans :)
Hillel sponsored one night to provide food and entertainment for HARTS. We had a great theme for dinner: TACO NIGHT! (YUMMM) We made everything ourselves in the CCM kitchen. It was so much fun and of course, delicious.
Sam and Lisa checkin out the oven!
After dinner, it was game time. I saw some really cool magic tricks and played an intense game of Apples to Apples. It was really cool getting to meet everyone and listen to their stories...a lot of them just wanted someone to listen to. I can't wait to go back again next year for HARTS. The feeling you get after doing it just makes you want to give back even more.
Look out for some more exciting blog posts soon! We have a lot of cool events coming up! Jackie Hedeman
Well, we definitely love our bagels here. We had another bagel brunch at Mr. J's Bagels right before we left for Spring Break!! It was nice seeing everyone before we left so we could say our goodbyes. I had an everything bagel with scallion cream cheese so my breath was AWESOME after eating that. I love these types of events because I obviously love bagels but it's also a really great way to connect with people in a sit down setting, because Hillel is the only opportunity I get to catch up with my some of my friends.
I can't wait for the next bagel brunch @ Mr. J's!! Yummmm!
The Super Bowl party was so much fun! We fit a ton of people into a small room, which kind of reminded me of fitting clowns into a tiny car. There were even 13 people on one couch! Everyone was friendly and extremely chatty. When the game started, no one was really listening to what was going on. Only when the first commercial came on did everyone quiet down to hear what Budweiser, Doritos, Pepsi, and other companies had for our funny bones this year. When everyone started getting hungry, the wings arrived. We had A TON! Probably about 500 boneless wings from B-Dubs. They were soo good and many people (mostly the guys), stuffed their faces with the yummy goodness.
I think the best part was during the half time show. When the Black Eyed Peas were singing "I Gotta Feelin'." I'm sure you all know the part where they say "Mazel Tov..." Well imagine a ton of Jewish people in one room all extremely quiet, and then all shouting mazel tov at the same time. I should have figured it would happen, but it was still completely hilarious. When it was over, we all left extremely full of both wings and laughs
Waking up at 10:00 on a Sunday is definitely difficult, but walking into Mr. Jays and smelling those delicious bagels made the early wake-up worth it. This past Sunday we had our first Bagel Brunch of the semester, and I would say it was a success! There were about 50 of us Hillelers there and we definitely made our presence known. Who wouldn't notice a group of 50 tired college students running towards the counter to get their yummy bagels? There was a lot of buzz around the restaurant. I overheard so many conversations about how the past week had went, rush events going on, silly weekend stories, and even a conversation about how you can tell a lot about a person by the bagel they eat. For example, if you get a plain bagel with plain cream cheese, you are plain and if you get an egg bagel with plain cream cheese you're weird. My favorite was the everything egg bagel with chive cream cheese, that was said to be “too much” (not my opinion, but that’s what I heard!)
As a freshman, pretty new to Hillel, I still don’t know many people but I was still able to enjoy myself. I was able to meet so many new, extremely friendly people, while eating my favorite food. Which by the way… I’m eating a bagel as I am writing this. To be specific, a plain bagel with chive cream cheese, which makes me wonder what those people I overheard, would say about my personality? But to make a long story short, everyone had a great time this Sunday and they all definitely enjoyed their free bagels and coffee or sodas. I cannot wait until our next event!
