Reimagining Rosh Hashanah Experiences for a New Generation
By Jacqueline Levey
Given insights gained during the pandemic, WashU Hillel reimagined its Rosh Hashanah offerings this year. On September 6th, we debuted a Higher Holidays music festival in the center of the South 40 residence area home to 3,000+ undergraduates. Following a picnic dinner (on branded Hillel blankets), six student a capella groups performed songs inspired by the festival theme, “A Season of Renewal: Embracing Life, Reclaiming Hope.” An Erev Rosh Hashanah service followed, led by renowned Jewish musician, Rick Recht, and student song leaders. The outdoor setting in the heart of campus, as well as the picnic vibe, allowed WashU Hillel to transform the Erev Rosh Hashanah service from a formal gathering into a casual, concert-like experience. Despite Rosh Hashanah commencing on Labor Day, and many Jewish students traveling home for the long weekend, 200 students attended, plus countless residents listening and waving from their dorm room windows and common areas, and numerous passersby checking out the program. It was truly an inspirational way to usher in the New Year and a new tradition that we look forward to continuing for years to come!
Just like a music festival is more than bands, so, too, was Hillel’s festival more than the Erev Rosh Hashanah experience. Hillel distributed hundreds of curated Rosh Hashanah boxes in advance, and Rosh Hashanah days 1 and 2 featured “Jewbers” to local synagogues, apple and honey tasting pop-ups around campus (where students could sample up to five different varieties of honey), plus free meals, two meditative tashlich ceremonies in Forest Park, and a hard cider tasting for our 21+ crowd, which was met with enthusiasm by seniors, graduate students, and recent alumni. Jew-It-Yourself grants, funded in part by the Kranzberg Family Foundation, provided opportunities for students to host friends for more intimate meals in their apartments and dorm common areas. Our shofar mobile also circled campus multiple times throughout the holiday to ensure everyone could take part in the mitzvah of hearing the shofar’s blast.
A Reverse Tashlich during the 10 Days of Repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur provided students with the opportunity to help clean up an area of Forest Park. Rich Recht returned for an outdoor Kol Nidrei service again on the Swamp under the stars, following a delicious, pre-fast dinner in Risa Commons in Bear’s Den on the South 40. The Conservative Minyan and Hillel hosted Yom Kippur services, and 200 students broke the fast together with Hillel and Hillel Leadership Council in Risa Commons.
Sukkot featured an array of offerings daily in Hillel’s sukkah—a Dessert & Discussion environmentalism program, WashU Students for Israel’s popular Shakshuka in the Sukkah, a first-year Pizza in the Hut event, Seniors in the Sukkah Night, and a joint Hillel/Outings Club Sukkot Hike & Reflection at Castlewood State Park. A smaller Hillel sukkah was also constructed in the Eliot Courtyard on the South 40, which was incorporated into the Thomas H. Eliot Residential College Annual Dinner.
By creating a holistic experience and recognizing that traditional services and meals are not the only ways to connect to the values and learnings of the season, WashU Hillel facilitated 1,200 interactions with 500 individual students during 16 High Holiday-related offerings this year.
Photo Captions
Photo 1 – Silk Foundation Campus Rabbi Jordan Gerson and Ben Miller, LA ’24, in front of WashU Hillel’s Shofar Mobile
Photo 2 – First-year student, Jack Weitzner, LA ’25, poses with his Hillel Rosh Hashanah care package on the South 40
Photo 3 – Students with WashU Hillel staff members, Allison Frieze and Rabbi Jordan Gerson, at one of Hillel’s apple & honey sampling pop-ups at the Underpass
