Senior Director of Jewish Student Life

Harvard Hillel

Role Overview

As the Senior Director of Jewish Student life at Harvard Hillel you will bear primary responsibility for supporting Harvard Jewish students as they create a Jewish community of meaning with and for one another. You will be in equal parts committed to an outcome an inspiring Jewish community that deepens and sweetens students lives Jewish students and a discipline of student empowerment whereby students take responsibility for one another and their community gaining lifeshaping firsthand experience of the integrity and dignity of caring for others.

This role means painting on a big canvas: what how and who of all of Harvards Jewish students undergraduate and graduate: how students (within and beyond the Jewish community) receive information about Hillels offerings; what trips (to Israel and elsewhere) students are designing and their itineraries; making Shabbat and holidays into sacred communal moments that are widely accessible; nurturing a respectful and vibrant culture of religious (and other types of) pluralism; supporting the Campus Rabbis creation of a curriculum of Jewish education that draws on Hillels staff and the universitys Jewish faculty; forging a community of kindness and purpose; and presenting Israel to both Jewish and nonJewish audiences. For the how: it will not be you or the staff but students whom you mentor and guide who will do this work and you will always be looking beyond who is included or showing up with the selfstarting initiative to imagine and create new initiatives that expand the circle of belonging. From beginning to end you will be a personal and Jewish role model for students and staff leading with energy brilliance integrity curiosity and humility.

The SDJSL leads a staff of 5.5 fulltime employees which is poised to grow over the coming years and a budget of roughly half a million dollars (again with potential for significant growth). The ideal candidate has extensive and intensive experience in immersive Jewish educational leadership such as multiple summers as a rosh eidah at a summer camp and has developed their own method of building tightknit Jewish community through diverse registers including food study music travel and fun.

Harvard Hillel sees Israel the land the people and the state as a pillar of Jewish identity creativity and complexity; alongside Shabbat Torah study and hesed. We are aware of and respectful of our student bodys vast diversity of experience thought and feeling related to Israel as reality and idea and aim to both educate and empower knowing that at times there will be an irreducible tension between these two values.

This person will be a member of the senior leadership team along with Executive Director COO Campus Rabbi and Director of Development. Success in this job over several years will equip you with experiences a reputation and a network that will enable you to take on exciting and growing leadership in the Jewish community in the subsequent stages of your career.

What Youll Do

OnCampus Jewish Student Life

• With the Executive Director and Campus Rabbi design and implement a way to reach every Jewish student and to engage hundreds in leadership roles each year
• Mentor and support undergraduate student board members
• Foster a Jewish life that is vibrant authentic and compelling across diverse modes: food music study travel social justice Israel engagement etc.
• Make the Hillel building an attractive sticky destination in which numerous students of all backgrounds spend multiple hours each day studying relaxing eating etc.
• Design a diverse accessible and compelling set of Jewish activities throughout Harvards physical campus and social institutions in Houses the Yard with athletics etc to bring Jewish life beyond Hillels walls into students homes
• Create meaningful Jewish opportunities at major moments in the academic calendar: firstyear welcome farewells to seniors weekends for prospective students etc.
• Facilitate staff and students leaders creation of widespread meaningful partnerships throughout Harvard so that Hillel is a popular destination for nonJewish students and a fully integrated part of campus social religious and intellectual life
• Mentor individual students through oneonone conversations with the potential to grow into lifelong connections
• Seek out and build relationships with students who are not regulars in Hillel and for whom an active Jewish life is not a given and find ways to connect with and empower them

Jewish and Israel Education

• Partner with the rabbinic team to make Shabbat and holidays into times that both appeal in targeted ways to different segments of the Jewish community and bring together the Jewish community as a whole
• Support the rabbinic team in their work with student leaders to develop implement and advertise a curriculum of Jewish learning that is compelling and draws in students from across campus
• Create a cadence of Israel programs and educational opportunities that normalize celebrate and educate around the depth and richness of Zionism and Israeli life

Immersive Experiences

• Design a calendar of trips from shortterm in Boston to summerlong internships in Israel including staffing recruiting and followup with each cohort
• Trips include Trek Tamid summer internships and potential alternative spring break

Communications

• Engage in regular conversation with students to understand how they consume information where Hillel fits in and how to improve the quantity and quality of information students receive about Hillels activities
• Formulate and execute a communications plan built on the understanding that the flow of information is what defines a community; and that for many students (even active participants)
• Supervise communications intern team helping support weekly work with marketing vehicles.

Supervision and Management

• Supervise mentor and support the growth of 5.5 staff members serving students including Israel Fellows IACT/Birthright professionals Graduate Coordinators Rabbis admin and more.
• Create annual performance plans for each supervisee including mid and fullyear performance reviews weekly 1x1s professional development plans etc.
• Lead weekly meetings and semesterly retreats of the studentfacing staff that include planning but go beyond into exploration of shared values deliberation on difficult or contested decisions and groupbuilding
• Allocate and oversee the studentlife budget including delegating funds to staff and student leaders
• Hold weekly supervision of program staff and senior rabbinic staff implementing performance tracking supportive culture and Jewish leadership into their work.
• Collaborate closely with the Development staff to provide detailed accurate and timely information about programs and when appropriate participate in fundraising efforts
• Participate in critical decisions on organizational policy direction and crisismanagement
• Generate reports for each meeting of the Board of Directors on the state of Jewish life at Harvard Hillel

Who You Are

Any candidate for this position must be organized animated by the potential and urgency of Jewish life and deeply concerned with the welfare and flourishing of others. The most important experience we are looking for is the ability to be a Jewish leader organize people and projects and the ability to inspire commitment and action. To be considered candidates must demonstrate 48 years of experience in one or more of the following: Hillel Jewish camping Jewish education or Rabbinic leadership.

Additionally we are looking for:

• Bachelors degree required graduate degree preferred (could be rabbinic Jewish education business social work or other relevant to this work)
• High empathy and emotional intelligence
• Comfort in managing teams as well as working independently and collaboratively
• An embrace of the unpredictable often improvtype nature of this work including the capacity to absorb learn from and move past disappointments
• Strong written and verbal skills effective at communicating with a variety of stakeholders including students parents alumnae/i and university partners
• A commitment to pluralism and comfort with your Jewish identity so you may act as a role model and mentor for emerging Jewish adults
• Owning your unique Jewish knowledge and experiences and inspiring others on their Jewish journeys

What Youll Receive

• A salary of $100000$120000 depending on experience and qualifications.
• A network of students parents and university partners who will inspire you and become lifelong professional resources and partners.
• Opportunities for professional development coaching and Jewish study.
• Colleagues and support from across the Hillel movement.
• Travel opportunities both domestically and internationally
• A comprehensive benefits package including health insurance Tax Deferred Retirement Plan Life AD&D and Long Term Disability insurances Flexible Spending Plan generous vacation/sick time and parental leave.

About Harvard Hillel

Harvard Hillel is the Jewish center of the worlds greatest university. Home to 500 Jewish undergraduates and 1800 Jewish graduate students Harvard Hillels mission is to train a generation of Jewish students to lead a divided Jewish community in an uncertain future by helping mentoring them as they create an inspiring lifeshaping community of meaning with and for one another during their years as students.

Harvard Hillel is affiliated with Hillel International. Hillel International enriches the lives of Jewish students so they may enrich the Jewish people and the world and envisions a world where every student is inspired to make an enduring commitment to Jewish life learning and Israel.

About Hillel International

In 1923 Rabbi Benjamin Frankel started Hillel with humble means a noble mission and a breathtaking vision: to convey Jewish civilization to a new generation. Today Hillel International continues to enrich the lives of Jewish students and is the largest Jewish campus organization in the world at nearly 1000 colleges and universities across North America and around the world. As Hillel evolves as an organization the mission remains steadfast: to create lasting connections with every Jewish student that foster an enduring commitment to Jewish life learning and Israel and train them to become the next Jewish leaders.

Hillel is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating an accepting and inclusive environment for all.