NC Hillel Blog

• Birthright Israel | Tel Aviv

  May 22, 2017
  NC Hillel's Birthright Summer 2017 group toured Tel Aviv, seeing everything from the South to the Taglit Birthright Innovation Center to high-tech companies to the beach. Read their reflections here!
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• Birthright Israel | Touring Jaffa

  May 19, 2017
  NC Hillel's summer 2017 Birthright participants have landed in Israel! Read about their adventures in Jaffa for their first day.
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• NC Hillel welcomes Rabbi Melissa B. Simon as new Senior Jewish Educator

  May 8, 2017
  North Carolina Hillel is thrilled to announce that we have hired Rabbi Melissa B. Simon as our new Senior Jewish Educator, starting in July in a full-time role.
  
  Rabbi Simon previously served as the Jewish Chaplain and Hillel Director at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. Prior to joining the Muhlenberg Hillel team in 2014, she was the Director of Lifelong Learning at Shir Tikvah, a Reform synagogue in Minneapolis, MN.
  
  Rabbi Simon received Master's Degrees in Jewish Education and Hebrew Letters and was ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. While a student at HUC-JIR, Rabbi Simon was named a Mandel Fellow, studying visionary leadership and Jewish education. She also served as the Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinic Intern and Director of Children's Education at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York.
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• NC Hillel secures new center for Jewish life at NC State

  Mar 16, 2017
  North Carolina Hillel is pleased to announce that it has signed a lease on a new space on Hillsborough Street to serve as the center of Jewish life at North Carolina State University starting this spring. The new center for Jewish life will continue to build NC State’s reputation as a welcoming and diverse community with thriving Jewish life for current and prospective students and their families.
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• Join our team! Seeking two new colleagues: Operations Manager and Bookkeeper

  Mar 7, 2017
  We are restructuring our administrative/finance staff and looking for two great, new team members! Our Operations Manager is a full-time role and our Bookkeeper is 1/4-time.

   

  North Carolina Hillel seeks a highly organized, detail-oriented professional with exceptional communications skills to serve as our Operations Manager. The Operations Manager will provide critical support to the Executive Director and will be responsible for the organization’s day-to-day operations. This colleague will be an essential member of the Hillel professional team and will play an active role in team meetings and organizational planning and decision-making. This is a full-time position in Chapel Hill, NC. The full posting can be found here.

  We are also currently accepting resumes for the position of Bookkeeper. The Bookkeeper will report directly to the Executive Director and will support the organization’s financial operations. This is a ¼ time position; exact hours are flexible, and evening and weekend hours are typically not required. The position is located in Chapel Hill, NC. To Apply, please email Sue Klapper, Interim Operations Manager, at sklapper@nchillel.org, with the subject “NC Hillel Bookkeeper” and include your resume, cover letter and three references. For more information, please read the posting here.

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• Hillel Hangouts at NC State

  Mar 7, 2017
  Students have been coming weekly to the Woodward Student Involvement Center at NC State University for multiple reasons, but there is a new reason why Jewish students come from 3 to 6 on Tuesdays. Students have been coming to Hillel Hangouts to get great food, hang out with friends, and do homework since the start of the school year. It allows students to enjoy a variety of snacks through Hillel and relieve stress with our friends. Friendships are forming, ideas for future Hillel activities are being created and the our Hillel community is growing. For me, these Hillel hangouts are times in the middle of the week to relax with friends and create real long-lasting relationships with each other.
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• Join our team! Seeking UNC Rabbi-Senior Jewish Educator

  Feb 2, 2017
  North Carolina Hillel seeks a dynamic educator to help us inspire students at UNC Chapel Hill, one of the nation's premier public universities.  Your primary roles will be to mentor students as they take arguably the most critical steps on their Jewish journeys and help in crafting and implementing our Jewish educational vision.  We are specifically seeking rabbinic graduates of HUC-JIR. Please click here to read the full job description and apply online.
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• Birthright Israel | Extension Program in South Tel Aviv

  Jan 30, 2017
  "On our first day of the extension, after saying goodbye to all of our new friends from Birthright, we learned about the work we would be doing. We would be helping out in a daycare for children of refugees from mostly south Sudan. While these immigrants were not legal citizens, they were not turned away, as if living in a limbo situation with no benefits but no immediate punishments. Never before had I learned about “Asylum-Seekers” and the problems currently facing their population, mostly in southern Tel Aviv. The idea of refugees was not foreign to me and neither was the idea of the struggles of the lower class, but seeing it in Israel after experiencing the rose-tinted view we had just come off of was a bit of a shock. Birthright formed a very specific idea of Israel, but the extension program was there to show reality and the challenges Israel faces. This whole picture has given me a better understanding of the country and all the people within it."
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• It's complicated - Reflections on my AIPAC Israel trip

  Jan 27, 2017
  The last time I went to Israel was an incredible experience. I remember being moved by the spirituality of the nation, the beauty in the culture, the big personalities of the people, and the deliciousness of the food. I remember thinking Israel was paradise, and I could never understand why people thought it wasn’t safe. I had never felt safer. I had fallen in love with my homeland, head over heels with my leg popped and my smile so wide.
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• Southern Fried Hanukkah at UNC Charlotte

  Jan 26, 2017
  On Friday, December 2nd, UNC Charlotte Hillel hosted its first annual Southern Fried Hanukkah Party. With about 40 people in attendance, the event was a huge success. Contributing majorly to the success of the party was a large number of brothers from the Jewish fraternity on campus, Zeta Beta Tau, who helped plan and set up the event. Not to mention, the fraternity contributed to the costs associated with the party. Comprising the other attendees were members of the Davidson College Hillel, some local Israelis, members of the local Jewish community, and local citizens interested in learning about Judaism.
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