Senior Director of Jewish Student Life

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 life-shaping first-hand 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 Harvard’s Jewish students, undergraduate and graduate: how students (within and beyond the Jewish community) receive information about Hillel’s 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 Rabbi’s creation of a curriculum of Jewish education that draws on Hillel’s staff and the university’s Jewish faculty; forging a community of kindness and purpose; and presenting Israel to both Jewish and non-Jewish 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 self-starting 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 full-time 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 tight-knit 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 body’s 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 You’ll Do

On-Campus 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 Harvard’s physical campus and social institutions - in Houses, the Yard, with athletics, etc - to bring Jewish life beyond Hillel’s walls into students’ homes
• Create meaningful Jewish opportunities at major moments in the academic calendar: first-year 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 non-Jewish students, and a fully integrated part of campus social, religious, and intellectual life
• Mentor individual students through one-on-one conversations, with the potential to grow into life-long 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 short-term in Boston to summer-long internships in Israel - including staffing, recruiting, and follow-up 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 Hillel’s 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 full-year performance reviews, weekly 1x1s, professional development plans, etc.
• Lead weekly meetings and semesterly retreats of the student-facing staff that include planning but go beyond into exploration of shared values, deliberation on difficult or contested decisions, and group-building
• Allocate and oversee the student-life 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 crisis-management
• 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 4-8 years of experience in one or more of the following: Hillel, Jewish camping, Jewish education, or Rabbinic leadership.

Additionally, we are looking for:

• Bachelor's 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 improv-type 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 You’ll Receive

• A salary of $100,000-$120,000, depending on experience and qualifications. 
• A network of students, parents, and university partners who will inspire you, and become life-long 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 world’s greatest university. Home to 500 Jewish undergraduates and 1,800 Jewish graduate students, Harvard Hillel’s 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, life-shaping 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.