Hillel International

Hillel International describes itself as the world's largest Jewish campus organization, serving nearly 200,000 Jewish students annually at more than 850 colleges and universities.[3] Its network includes campus-based organizations in North America and community-based centers in other regions, supported by approximately 1,200 professionals in the United States and 15 other countries.[2]

The organization's mission and vision emphasize Jewish life, learning, and Israel, while its stated philosophy holds that there is no single way to be Jewish.[3] Hillel International supports local organizations with educational curricula, human resources, fundraising, strategic planning, leadership development, communications, fiscal administration, and student-engagement services.[7]

Hillel's founding story begins not with a rabbi but with a Congregationalist English professor. Edward Chauncey Baldwin, who taught at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, grew concerned that Jewish students in his literature courses knew little about their own heritage and challenged Chicago Rabbi Louis Mann to ask whether a Jewish student could "educate his mind without losing his soul."[4][8] Baldwin, Mann, and local Jewish leader Isaac Kuhn joined forces to raise money for a full-time campus ministry, with Mann securing the organization's first-year budget of $12,000 at a single luncheon with Chicago Jewish business leaders.[8]

The funders hired Rabbi Benjamin Frankel, a young Reform rabbi, as the organization's first director in 1923.[4] Frankel had spent two years as a rabbinic intern in Champaign, becoming familiar with roughly 300 Jewish students, and accepted a part-time pulpit on the condition that he could continue working with college students.[8][9] He named the initiative for the Second Temple-era sage Hillel, invoking associations with open inquiry, lifelong learning, and pluralistic values. According to his successor Abram Sachar, Frankel chose the name because the sage was "a symbol of the quest for higher learning."[4][10] Hillel's founding vision, as later articulated in a 1945 brochure, was "to convey Jewish civilization to a new generation" and to supplement campus resources "with the best in the Jewish tradition."[9]

The organization initially met in a rented room above a barbershop. Unlike Harvard's student-run Menorah Society, founded in 1906, the Illinois Hillel established a dedicated campus professional, a permanent space, and a community-supported budget.[4] Frankel's early programming was deliberately pluralistic: he conducted both Reform and Orthodox services, taught Hebrew and Bible classes, and organized social programs for students.[10]

When Frankel appealed to the Reform movement for national sponsorship, the movement declined. He then turned to B'nai B'rith, presenting Hillel as a way to prepare students for leadership and to place responsibility for activities "clearly on the shoulders of the students."[8] B'nai B'rith adopted the University of Illinois Hillel and directed Frankel to expand. Hillel at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, was founded in 1924, catalyzed partly by student Norman De Nosaquo, who wrote to a newspaper advocating for such an organization.[9] Ohio State University followed in 1925 and the University of Michigan in 1926.[8] Frankel died suddenly in 1927 at the age of 30, having established the organizational model that would shape Jewish campus life for the next century.[4]

Abram Sachar, a University of Illinois history professor, became Hillel's first full-time national director in 1933.[8] By 1935 there were 11 Foundations. A historical retrospective reports that in 1939 Sachar established counselorships in 50 locations, where part-time professionals provided programming alongside 20 Foundations; Hillel's current history page separately reports 12 full-fledged Foundations and plans for 18 "Hillel Extension Units" that year.[8][9]

Sachar oversaw one of Hillel's most consequential early initiatives: the Refugee Student Program, launched in 1938 to fund the education of Jewish students fleeing Europe. By 1940, 64 refugee students were receiving college educations through the program, and a retrospective identified 124 young people as having been sponsored by 1947.[8] One participant, Budapest architecture student and Mauthausen survivor John Macsai, was brought to the United States through Hillel's Foreign Student Service program in 1947. He later credited the opportunity with enabling a rich professional and Jewish life.[11] Hillel professionals also partnered with Jewish organizations to rescue and resettle Jewish academics and university students before, during, and after the Holocaust.[12]

Beyond refugee work, Hillel became a Jewish institutional home on secular campuses. Before the 1950s, non-sectarian American universities had no Jewish Studies departments, and Hillel's classes—often conducted in Hebrew—provided an important setting for university-level Jewish learning. Some Hillel professionals later moved into academic positions when Judaic Studies posts opened in the 1960s and 1970s.[12] Local B'nai B'rith lodges helped provide Hillel Houses on or near universities, which functioned as a "synagogue on campus" where students could celebrate Shabbat and holidays, access kosher food, receive pastoral counseling, learn informally, and socialize—a "home away from home" on residential campuses.[12]

Sources differ over the first Foundation outside the United States: Hillel's centennial timeline identifies the University of Toronto in 1942, while a historical retrospective identifies Queen's University in Ontario that same year.[13][8] Hillel's first Latin American Foundation opened in Havana in October 1945, and by the early 1950s the network encompassed Foundations or Counselorships on 200 campuses.[8] Hillel leaders also worked with Black counterparts in the Jim Crow South.[8] In 1969, the organization maintained a network of 274 Foundations and counselorships, staffed respectively by full- and part-time professionals and offering classes, lectures, services, holiday observances, counseling, publications, social programs, and social-action projects.[14] Hillel later opened at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1954.[15]

The decades following the 1967 Six-Day War brought a new wave of campus activism that Hillel both channeled and struggled to accommodate. Students formed or supported groups focused on Israel, Soviet Jewry, Jewish feminism, Ethiopian Jewry, chavurot, and the environment.[8] At the same time, the civil-rights era and a "melting-pot mentality" reduced some students' perceived need for Hillel as a distinct Jewish haven, while the organization's association with the establishment contributed to student backlash.[10]

B'nai B'rith financial cutbacks made matters worse: Hillel struggled to expand to campuses with large Jewish enrollments, recruit and retain professionals, and attract a broader student body. Jewish federations increasingly helped fund and govern local and regional Hillels but offered little organizational vision.[10] By the 1980s, when an estimated 80 percent of Jewish college students were concentrated at 109 universities, B'nai B'rith was forced to cut its financial allocations to Hillel by 50 percent.[9] Some critics dismissed Hillels as serving only the "Jewish geeks and nerds," and even the name itself came to be viewed as a possible obstacle to revitalization.[12]

Richard Joel's appointment as Hillel's leader in 1988 marked the beginning of a deliberate transformation. His selection was considered unconventional: he was not a rabbi, was Modern Orthodox while Hillel sought to attract non-Orthodox and unaffiliated students, and had no prior Hillel involvement as a student, professional, or lay leader. Former executive vice president Jay Rubin said the choice "symbolized the desperate condition of the organization."[10]

During his 14-year tenure, Joel promoted a vision of Hillel able "to provoke" a Jewish renaissance on campus. He moved the organization away from its primarily synagogue-centered model, removed rabbinic ordination as a requirement for employment, diversified the professional staff, encouraged Hillels to eliminate student membership fees in favor of open participation, and urged chapters to engage students beyond their buildings.[12] He attracted major philanthropic support, deepened Hillel's partnership with Jewish federations, and engineered its formal independence from B'nai B'rith in 1994, when Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life became an independent nonprofit governed by a board representing lay leaders, students, professionals, federations, and B'nai B'rith.[8][12]

By the late 1990s, the network encompassed 120 Foundations and 400 affiliates. Hillel's 1998 Campaign for a Jewish Renaissance raised $37.5 million with support from Jewish family foundations and local federations, with funds directed toward facilities and new programming.[9] The organization established a Washington, D.C., headquarters, and its budget grew to approximately four times what it had been a decade earlier. A historical account describes roughly 250 U.S. and Canadian affiliates serving more than 500 campuses, about three dozen additional affiliates abroad, and a global budget exceeding $60 million.[12]

A 2005 market-research study found that 34 percent of Jewish undergraduates in the United States participated in Hillel activities—described as higher than in any previous era and higher than participation in any other Jewish campus organization.[12] Joel left Hillel in 2002 and became president of Yeshiva University in 2003.[12]

Hillel's expansion under Joel and his successors included significant international growth. In the early 1990s, Yossie Goldman, director of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Hillel, noticed Russian Jewish students arriving at the university and saw an opportunity to build Jewish connections in the former Soviet Union. With funding from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, Goldman brought students together for ten days in winter 1996 to establish a Hillel outside Moscow. New centers followed in Kyiv and St. Petersburg, and by 2000 there were 27 Hillels across the former Soviet Union.[16]

Because the regional university system was organized by field of study rather than geography, the campus-chapter model did not fit. Leaders instead developed community-based centers near population hubs, including metro stations, and co-located some centers with the Jewish humanitarian organization JDC. Local staff were prioritized so communities could be sustained if international professionals were forced to depart.[16]

Eric Fingerhut served as Hillel CEO from 2013 to 2019. During that period, reported annual student engagement rose from 68,000 to 141,000, while Hillel's total budget increased from $90 million to $180 million.[17] In December 2016, Hillel received a $38 million Marcus Foundation grant, characterized at the time as the largest single gift in its history and directed primarily toward staff recruitment and retention and information-technology infrastructure.[18] In 2020, Hillel named Adam Lehman president and CEO; a 2023 HUC-JIR announcement continued to identify him in that role.[9][19]

Hillel's programming model rests on pluralism. The organization says there is not one way to be Jewish and invites students—whether they keep kosher or have never attended synagogue, whether they are interested in Shabbat or study groups, and whatever their racial, ethnic, or LGBTQ+ identity—to explore what Jewish identity means to them.[3] Its stated values include welcoming students as their whole selves, building respectful relationships, cultivating pluralistic communities, expressing love for the Jewish people and humanity, and grounding learning in tradition while responding to changing student experiences.[3]

Hillel describes its contemporary work as spanning Jewish learning, holiday and Shabbat celebrations, arts and culture, relationships with Israel, student wellness, leadership development, community impact, and advocacy.[3] Historically, Hillel Houses also provided kosher food, pastoral counseling, religious services, informal learning, and social-action projects.[12] The Jewish Learning Fellowship, described as a flagship program, operates on 75 percent of college campuses and graduates more than 4,000 students annually.[20]

Hillel International supports campus organizations through the Joseph Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Experience, which provides Jewish educational resources and curricula, as well as human resources, fundraising, strategic planning, leadership development, communications, fiscal administration, and student-engagement support.[7] Additional programming has included Alternative Spring Break service projects, the Campus Entrepreneurs Initiative for reaching peers not already involved in Hillel, and Birthright Israel trips.[10]

Immersive travel is central to Hillel's Israel programming. Hillel reports that more than 50,000 Jewish and non-Jewish students traveled to Israel on Hillel-led trips over a recent ten-year period. Jewish Agency Israel Fellows serve more than 75 North American campuses and cultivate relationships with approximately 20,000 Jewish and non-Jewish students.[21] The organization's stated goal is to inspire Jewish students to develop meaningful, enduring relationships with Israel and Israelis.[21]

Mental-health and wellness programming has grown into a distinct pillar. In fall 2023, Hillel began rolling out "Ancient Wisdom for Modern Wellbeing," a ten-week seminar combining Jewish texts with applied well-being practices and organized around relationships with oneself, other people, and God or the divine.[20] The program had been piloted for three semesters at the University of Southern California, beginning with a spring 2022 cohort of 16 undergraduates. It grew from USC wellness director Leenie Baker's observation that students needed a way to engage collectively and regularly with well-being outside a clinical setting.[20]

Hillel also develops professional capacity through partnerships with Jewish educational institutions. A formal HUC-JIR–Hillel partnership begun in September 2022 and extended through June 2024 was designed to develop Jewish communal professionals through educational and professional-development opportunities, including Birthright trips, conferences, and Hillel's Springboard Fellowship. The 2023 announcement identified Adam Lehman as Hillel International's president and CEO.[19]

Addressing antisemitism on campus has become an increasingly central dimension of Hillel's work. An ADL-Hillel survey published in 2021 was conducted by College Pulse among 756 self-identified Jewish undergraduates at 220 U.S. four-year colleges and universities between July 7 and August 21, 2021, with a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.[1] It found that 43 percent of respondents had experienced and/or witnessed antisemitic activity during the preceding year. Sixty-seven percent agreed their campus was welcoming and supportive of Jewish students, while 15 percent said they felt a need to hide their Jewish identity from others on campus.[1]

In congressional testimony in October 2022, Rutgers Hillel executive director Rabbi Esther Reed said Hillel had tracked 561 incidents of hate against Jewish students in the previous year—a 15 percent increase from the year before and more than triple the number recorded four years earlier. She described graffiti, physical assault, social-media rhetoric, and social exclusion among the reported forms.[22] Reed also testified that Hillels had received grants totaling $1.9 million that year for physical-security enhancements; Rutgers used the funds to install bollards and new fencing.[22] She said her stepfather, Holocaust survivor Michael Kesler, had been brought to the United States by "the organization that later became Hillel International" and died in 2021 at age 97.[22]

Following the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, conditions on many campuses deteriorated sharply. A Stanford Berman Archive essay summarizing a joint ADL–Hillel International report said nearly three in four Jewish college students personally experienced or witnessed antisemitism during the first months of the 2023–24 school year. It contrasted that finding with 70 percent reporting such experiences across their entire college careers in prior years.[23]

The ADL documented more than 100 incidents directly affecting Hillels and Chabads together during the 2023–2024 academic year; it did not provide a separate total for Hillel alone. Of the combined incidents, 38 percent were categorized as protests or actions, 44 percent as harassment, and 17 percent as vandalism.[24] Reported incidents included threats to Hillel staff and students, vandalism of Hillel buildings, protests against Hillel-sponsored events, and campaigns demanding that universities sever ties with Hillel.[25]

At a November 2023 House hearing, Hillel International president and CEO Adam Lehman testified that Hillels were providing added security for community spaces, wellness and mental-health support, and advocacy for students.[26] He said Hillel did not want free-speech rights or academic freedom curtailed and that campuses should allow debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while arguing that those protections should not excuse targeted harassment, threats, discrimination, or violence against Jewish and Israeli students.[26]

Hillel's institutional response included expanded legal, administrative, and security support. Hillel co-founded the Campus Antisemitism Legal Line, which it reported had provided free legal assistance to nearly 1,000 Jewish students.[6] Its Campus Climate Initiative brings together university administrations, local Hillels, and the CCI team to gather campus-specific information, train administrators and staff, and help campuses develop policies and procedures addressing antisemitism.[1] Hillel reported training more than 3,000 administrators through the initiative.[6] By March 2024, CCI participation had grown to more than 75 universities after more than 35 additional institutions joined following October 7.[27]

In April 2022, Hillel International, the American Jewish Committee, and the American Council on Education convened a University Presidents Summit on Campus Antisemitism in New York City, hosted by NYU. Forty college and university presidents attended alongside Jewish community leaders and members of Congress.[27] In March 2024, AJC and Hillel announced an expanded partnership that included plans for a joint delegation of higher-education leaders to visit Israel in 2025 through AJC's Project Interchange and Hillel's CCI.[27]

Hillel's current global footprint extends across the United States and 15 other countries, according to a 2026 American Jewish Committee account.[2] Its first expansion outside the United States began in Canada in 1942, although sources differ over whether the first Foundation was at Toronto or Queen's University.[13][8] Hillel opened at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1954.[15]

Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine tested the resilience of Hillel's international operations. A Russian attack destroyed the historic building in central Kharkiv where Hillel had operated; Hillel International CEO Adam Lehman confirmed that no Hillel staff or students were injured.[28] Hillel launched a fund to provide supplies to employees and Jewish refugees and converted regional Hillel spaces into temporary accommodation.[28]

At the time, more than 15,000 students were affiliated with 24 Hillels across the region, including outposts in Poland, Germany, Moldova, and Georgia. The organization's five Ukrainian branches illustrated a distinctive feature of regional Hillels: unlike U.S. chapters tied to specific universities, they often functioned as community centers serving students and young adults into their early 30s.[28]

The American Jewish Archives' holdings include Hillel International minutes, correspondence, publications, programming material, chapter records, photographs, and films dating from 1924 to 2011. The records were received from Hillel International in Washington, D.C.; the American Jewish Archives itself is located in Cincinnati.[29]

Hillel occupies a distinctive place in the history of American and global Jewish life. Before Jewish Studies gained academic acceptance, Hillel professionals were among the primary providers of university-level Jewish learning in the United States; some later moved into academic positions when Judaic Studies posts opened.[12] In an era when non-sectarian universities offered no institutional Jewish home, Hillel Houses served simultaneously as synagogue, classroom, social center, and pastoral refuge—a "home away from home" for students on residential campuses.[12]

By the 1930s, Hillel groups and Jewish fraternities had replaced many Menorah Association chapters on American campuses, making Hillel a leading institutional vehicle for organized Jewish campus life.[30] A 2005 market-research study found that 34 percent of Jewish undergraduates in the United States participated in Hillel activities, described as higher than in any previous era.[12] Hillel's 2025–2028 strategic plan identifies growing Jewish joy and connection, addressing antisemitism, promoting Jewish pride and resilience, and developing new community leaders as central priorities.[6]

Hillel's stated vision—"a world where every student is inspired to make an enduring commitment to Jewish life, learning, and Israel"—reflects the organization's explicit Zionist orientation.[3] Hillel describes itself as "a proudly Zionist organization" and maintains an official policy barring campus Hillels from hosting speakers or partnering with organizations that "demonize, delegitimize, or advocate for the destruction of the Jewish State of Israel."[6] In the preceding year, Hillel hosted more than 100 Jewish Agency emissaries, while tens of thousands of students participated in its on-campus Israel educational and cultural programming.[6]

Hillel's centennial campaign raised $184 million, exceeding its $150 million goal. The campaign included gifts to Hillel International and 75 campus affiliates, and a 2024 public celebration in New York brought together more than 1,000 supporters, alumni, and student leaders.[5] In 2025, Hillel reported engaging a record 189,000 students in Jewish life during the preceding academic year, its third consecutive record-setting year.[6] Its organizational mission has remained consistent across a century: enriching the lives of Jewish students so that they may enrich the Jewish people and the world.

Public debate over Hillel has centered primarily on the boundaries of Israel-related speech within Hillel spaces and on external campaigns targeting Hillel because of its Zionist identity.

Hillel's Israel-related partnership rules bar the use of Hillel property for speakers who oppose the existence of a Jewish state or support boycotts of Israel.[31] Open Hillel emerged as a student challenge to those rules, arguing that they restricted discussion and excluded Palestinian and other critical perspectives. More than 300 students attended Open Hillel's first national conference at Harvard in 2014.[32] Hillel maintains that Israel is at the heart of its work and says it partners with organizations and speakers representing diverse perspectives in support of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.[7] A Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs commentary defended the guidelines as appropriate for a Jewish community institution, but that source represents an advocacy position rather than a neutral resolution of the dispute.[31]

After October 7, 2023, anti-Israel activist campaigns demanded that universities cut ties with Hillel or replace it with what activists called "non-Zionist" organizations.[24] Hillel's 2025 response rejected those campaigns, reaffirmed its Zionist identity, and cited record student engagement and expanding institutional programs as evidence of organizational strength.[6] Protests, vandalism, and harassment involving Hillel buildings, staff, and students occurred amid continuing physical-security investments and the post-October 7 expansion of the Campus Climate Initiative.[22][27]