Hillel Corner features our many area Hillels. If your program has something to share, we’d love to feature you. Please send your latest news to Shalom New Haven Editor Jeannette Brodeur at jbrodeur@jewishnewhaven.org.

UCONN Hillel Students Celebrate Bar/Bat Mitzvahs on Birthright Trip

In addition to hiking Masada, visiting the Kotel (Western Wall), eating falafel and learning about their Jewish history, five UCONN Hillel students had their bar/bat mitzvah in Israel while on their Birthright trip during winter break. UCONN Hillel member Brittany Burkman said the Birthright trip opened her eyes “[to] the idea that there is no ‘right way’ to be Jewish.”

For more information about UCONN Hillel, call (860) 429- 9007 or email at info@uconnhillel.org.

SCSU Hillel to Help at Mitzvah Day

Benjamin A. Atwater, the advisor for the new Southern Connecticut State University Hillel chapter, said the SCSU Hillel group has begun meeting regularly. Meetings are held twice a month.

On the weeks the group doesn’t meet, Atwater said the members do an activity together including regular Shabbat dinners with Rabbi Reena Judd at the Hereld House for Jewish Life at Quinnipiac University in Hamden. Future planned activities include Shabbats in downtown New Haven, retreats, volunteering at Mitzvah Day and at other philanthropic events. Atwater said he is also helping many students get in their summer 2018 Birthright trips, where he will likely serve as their madrich again.

For more information, go to the SCSU Hillel’s Facebook page, or contact the group at hillel@owls.southernct.edu or (203) 392-6615.