We were mourning on our first day back to work.  Seriously.  The SF Hillel staff returned back after a myriad of vacations and trainings on Tisha B’Av, the day Jewish people mourn the loss of the First and Second Temple after their destruction in 586 BCE and 70 CE. As you can imagine, it was devastating for the Jewish people to lose their holy place of worship, yet something wonderful came out of it. 

We now have a religion that can be practiced all over the world in various ways, no longer do we have to schlep our goats and birds to the Holy Temple to be sacrificed. We have discovered God in our own personal ways and together in communities around the world.

The staff of San Francisco Hillel looks forward to continuing our tradition of finding community with you: through Shabbat, getting to know each other over coffee, or by watching football together. Whatever being Jewish means to you, we are here for you.

Heather Erez
Assistant Director, SF Hillel

For three years we have frequented many other none profits with students to help those in need.  One of our favorite venues is the San Francisco Food Bank, where we weighed and packaged bags of elbow macaroni for individual distribution throughout the city.  It wasn’t hard work, but we know that in the end, some of our neighbors are going to get fed. 

Please check on our website, facebook group page, or list serve for next months Tzedek Day and join us, we’d love to have you.

A Jewish Journey Comes Full Circle     

When Dona Standel first enrolled as a freshman at San Francisco State University in 2005, she had few, if any, ties to the Jewish community. While she grew up in the heavily Jewish San Fernando Valley, and had an Israeli mother, Dona had no formal Jewish education and no real sense of Jewish identity. “I didn’t even know that you could belong to a temple,” Dona said. “That’s how unimportant it was in my family growing up.”

It wasn’t until she happened upon a Hillel table in the spring of her freshman year that Dona’s Jewish journey began. Although she’d always had an active campus social life,

Dona felt that something was missing. One day, while walking through campus, she came across a Hillel table. “I finally paid attention to the word Hillel, and I thought, ‘that sounds like something Jewish.’” The Hillel representative invited Dona to a Shabbat dinner, and after that first Friday night meal, she rarely missed another.

Wanting to connect with people around her Israeli heritage, Dona began attending Israel Coalition meetings. Immediately, she said, she felt a “familial connection.” By her sophomore year, Dona was a Koret Intern, helping to plan Hillel events. And now, as the Undergraduate Program and Engagement Coordinator at San Francisco Hillel, 22-year-old Dona has the opportunity to reach out to Jewish students the same way that Jewish students reached out to her.

Were it not for our funding of San Francisco Hillel, and seven other campus Hillels around the Bay Area, Dona may never have had the chance to discover her Jewish identity, let alone become a proud Jewish professional. However because of the economic recession, our ability to continue to fund Hillel – among other key communal services – at current levels, is in jeopardy. Hillel, like so many of the programs and services we support, counts on the Federation for a significant portion of its budget. We are in a crisis situation, and we are asking you to help us meet the challenge.

Thanks to the Goldman Family dollar for dollar matching grant, you can double your gift’s impact on programs like Hillel.

• Current donors under the age of 50 who increase their gift from the previous year will get a dollar for dollar match on the increased portion.

• New donors under the age of 50 who make their first pledge to the JCF Annual Campaign will have their gifts doubled.

Don’t let a future Jewish leader slip through the cracks. Please give to the Annual Campaign today.



Jennifer Gorovitz
Acting CEO, Jewish Community Federation