Stetson Hillel grows into the New Year

In the Rosh HaShanah Musaf service, the machzor includes the line, "The great shofar is sounded. A still small voice is heard." I love those two sentences. I love the image of the blasting shofar shattering the comfort of the community reminding us that we are entering into the days of awe. I further love the response to the shofar blast - the still small voice. Often in life the response to the extreme is calm. In Judaism, for us to survive the shofar blast, we have to breathe and be the still small voice.

As a Hillel director I often find myself forcing a pause. For my students, especially at the beginning of the year, I encourage them to reflect on what brought them to this moment in their lives. In that pause I see thousands of hours of classroom time. I see excitement and apprehension. I see the goals of their parents and the dreams of their grandparents. I see generation upon generation of Jewish families surviving the shofar blast to ensure this generation can be here today. These students, like the ones that came before, are the still small voice.

At Stetson, the current senior class is the only one that knows a normal college school year. Our juniors lived through the shutdown of spring 2020 as freshmen. Our sophomores spent their entire freshman year social distancing. For our current freshmen, the class of 2025, they spent their entire senior year of high school social distancing or virtual. Still, all of them came to school ready to build their skills and their community. Some scared, some excited, all of them pushing past the fear to show up. The heard the blast, they were shaken from their homes and lives they knew, and they responded by showing up anyway.

We are all experiencing the post-traumatic stress of the Covid-19 shofar blast. Some of us experienced deep personal loss in friends, family, colleagues or businesses. Some of us caught and survived the virus, some of us did not. I grieve for those losses. Now is the time for the community to respond. Now is the time to be the still small voice heard above the fear and panic. Now is the time to say that Judaism has survived plagues before and we will survive again.

Now is the time to step up, lean in, and build the community we want and deserve.

At Stetson Hillel we know that the still small voice, the resiliency of a small but growing (from about 80 students in 2018 to about150 students in 2021) Jewish community can have a big impact. As I am writing this message the backyard of the Hillel House is undergoing a $75,000 renovation and will include an outdoor kitchen, event space, secret garden and gas fire pit. Last year, where nearly every event was virtual, Stetson Hillel continued to be recognized as a campus of excellence by Hillel International from our high levels of student engagement. We may not have been to Israel for two years but we have brought Israel to campus in famous speakers, thought leaders, and cultural events. And in recognition of our successes, we are in the final stages of expanding the Hillel staff so we can continue to build upon our successes in student recruitment, engagement and fundraising.

Whether it's David vs. Goliath, Israel vs. her neighbors, or the still small voice responding to the shofar blast, our history teaches us that bigger does not always mean better. At Stetson University Hillel we believe that community is not a spectator sport, and thankfully, as we survive and thrive through the remaining COVID pandemic, we can all celebrate that though we may be small our impact is large and lasting. L'Shana Tova.

Sam Friedman, director