Vanderbilt Hillel
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615-322-8376
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2421 Vanderbilt Place
Nashville, TN 37212
Organization Details

Programs

Budget
$25,000.00
Description
Hillel's Membership and Programming Board (MaP), chaired by the Vice President of MaP, oversees Vanderbilt Hillel's social programming efforts and major events of Vanderbilt Hillel. MaP works to plan events for students across campus including Jewish Food Festival, Hillel Date Party, Hamantaschen Hotwheels, among other activities.
Program Successes
Some programs can gather up to 200 students in attendance.
Beneficiaries
Adults
Long-term Success
Map programs that involve large campus initiatives and partnering with other student campus organizations sometimes yield as many as 200 students in attendance.
Short-term Success
We have 200 Jewish student leaders at Vanderbilt Hillel. Many of those leaders are involved with MaP.
Program Success Monitored By
Veronica Grady
Program Areas Served
Davidson County
Budget
$50,000.00
Description
'Dores for Israel is a pro-Israel advocacy group at Vanderbilt that consists of passionate students who discuss Israel in an intellectual and open setting, enjoy social events
such as Falafel at Midnight, learn about current political events, lobby for bipartisan support of Israel-U.S relations with our AIPAC cohort, and provide Israeli cultural experiences.
Program Successes
Engaged 300 students in Israel week
Beneficiaries
Adolescents
Adults
US
Long-term Success
On-campus initiatives that engage Vanderbilt Students with current Israel challenges, news, and updates.
Short-term Success
Engaged 300 students during Israel Week.
Program Success Monitored By
Ari Dubin, Executive Director
Program Areas Served
Vanderbilt University and Metro Nashville Area
Budget
$15,000.00
Description
Vanderbilt Hillel is proud to support the Vanderbilt University chapter of Tikkun Olam Makers (TOM). Through TOM, engineering, physical therapy, and other Vanderbilt students from a variety of disciplines unite to create inventive solutions for individuals with disabilities. TOM grew from one community in Israel to dozens of locations around the world and have made an impact here in Nashville.

Vanderbilt Hillel partners with Gi­ft of Life, an organization whose mission it is to help cure blood cancer. Vanderbilt Hillel students run swab drives both on campus and in
the community to add people to the donor registry to save lives.

Through bi-weekly challah bakes or an amazing 2021 cookbook, Challah for Hunger raises money for local and international organizations that fight hunger, including
Mazon and the Nashville Food Project. More than just a bake sale, Challah for Hunger provides opportunities for leadership, entrepreneurship, and social justice awareness.


Program Successes
Vanderbilt students came in first at the annual TOM program with their inventions for people with disabilities.
Beneficiaries
Adolescents
Adults
People/Families with of People with Disabilities
Long-term Success
Engage Jewish students at Vanderbilt with giving back to their community.
Short-term Success
Through Vanderbilt Hillel's swab drives and its
partnership with Gi­ft of Life, 2,790 swabs were
collected, 36 matches found, and 5 life-saving
transplants were completed.

Program Success Monitored By
Ari Dubin, Executive Director
Program Areas Served
Vanderbilt University and Metro Nashville Area
Budget
$8,000.00
Description
Atzmi is Vanderbilt Hillel's home for LGBTQ+ or " עַ צ מִ י " Jews and allies. The Hebrew word "Atzmi" literally means "self." Atzmi's founding members chose this name in hopes that Atzmi programming would help queer folks bring their full selves to Hillel and know that being Jewish doesn't necessitate leaving your queer identity at the door.
Program Successes
Execution of our Queer Liberation Passover seder with student participation
Beneficiaries
Adolescents
LGBTQI+ people
Adults
Long-term Success
Providing a safe space for LGBTQ Jews and non-Jews and their allies
Short-term Success
Past Atzmi programs have
included our Queer Liberation Seder, watch
parties for queer-themed musicals or TV
shows, and Jewish text study on queer
topics such as pronouns and name changes
Program Success Monitored By
Ari Dubin, Executive Director
Program Areas Served
Vanderbilt University and Metro Nashville area
Budget
$50,000.00
Description
The Senior Leadership Initiative meets regularly, engaging in social, community service, networking, and educational activities in order to enhance the sense of a "senior class community," establish connections between seniors and the Nashville Jewish community, and ensure that the bond between Hillel and our graduating students is an enduring one.

Vanderbilt Hillel has extensive programming for our First Year Students of Hillel (FYSH). This includes our pre-orientation program, FYSH Fest, a mentorship program, a
leadership and programming board, and social programming. This program is a great way for incoming students to meet upperclassman and peers before the academic year begins. Many of our program alumni have even shared that they made their best friends at Vanderbilt during FYSH Fest. Incoming students also get better acquainted with campus, learn how to get involved, and more!


Program Successes
Many students who engage in the Senior Leadership Initiative become donors as alumni. Students who participate in the Freshman orientation are more likely to be involved with the organization throughout their 4 years at Vanderbilt University.
Beneficiaries
Adolescents
Adults
US
Long-term Success
Engage over 160 students in First Year Student orientation program over the past 4 years.
Short-term Success
Engage 40 seniors per year in the Senior Leadership Initiative and 40 students per year for First Year student orientation program.
Program Success Monitored By
Ari Dubin, Executive Director
Program Areas Served
Vanderbilt University and Metro Nashville Area
Budget
$800,000.00
Description
Vanderbilt Hillel is proud to support and encourage a student-driven model of programming. Students from all of Vanderbilt's undergraduate schools (College of Arts and Sciences, Blair School of Music, School of Engineering, and Peabody College Education and Human Development) are engaged as leaders in our community, and they create programming through multiple entry points: arts and culture, education, Israel, community service, spiritual and religious life, and more. In addition, Vanderbilt Hillel offers a wide array of Graduate Student Programming.
Program Successes
Two years ago we had several students who were interested in creating more social action opportunities on campus. We held a Gift of Life drive that ended up bein the 2nd largest campus drive in GOL history and resulted in a successful match being made. This past year, the second year of the program we were able to partner with the Nashville Predators to swab at 3 different games in addition to our campus drives.

Another example of program success is the growth of our Holiday meals. We created a Rosh HaShana (Jewish New Year) Seder experience to add to our Rosh HaShana dinners. These dinners are student led and are attended by an average of over 400 students. Students are divided into smaller groups based on interests and each group of approximately 20-50 students are led by students. Holiday dinners result in positive experiences for all students who attend as well create leadership opportunities for over 50 students each year.
Category
Religion- Related  - Judaism 
Beneficiaries
General Public
Adolescents
Adults
Long-term Success
Though a Jewish population existed at Vanderbilt for many years before Hillel came to campus, the Ben Schulman Center for Jewish Life officially opened its doors in 2002. At the time, only 3 percent of the student body was Jewish; now the number has jumped to 15 percent. The Ben Schulman Center for Jewish Life has allowed Vanderbilt Hillel to significantly expand its services and programs on campus. We continue to grow and expand our campus offerings and we measure success by the continued growth and breadth of the programs and services we offer.
Short-term Success
Each year we reevaluate the needs and interests of our student population. Each year we welcome a new class and say goodbye to another which means that the interests and needs are constantly changing. As a result we are constantly changing our offerings and assessing the programming we offer. We measure short term success in much the same way that we measure long term success by continuing to grow and offer programs that meet the needs of students on campus. We also look at the quality of the experiences provided on campus and success is not always determined by the numbers served.
Program Success Monitored By
Our staff regularly evaluate the services we provide on campus. to determine how many students were served and the quality of their experiences. We evaluate on a weekly and yearly basis. In addition our Board of Directors hear directly form students at board meetings and are involved in the process of evaluating our successes and areas that need improvements.
Program Areas Served
Vanderbilt Campus and Metro-Nashville Area

CEO/Executive Director/Board Comments

By developing significant and meaningful relationships with our students, we determine their needs and desires. As it should, it takes time and effort to cultivate these relationships. Our programming staff is critical to this effort and we are constantly balancing the demands of our staff on their time. Each of our staff members devotes a tremendous amount of time to connecting with students and this leaves less time for programming. It is a difficult balance between programming time and face to face connection with students.
We are continuously looking for ways to expand our staff and our programs in order to better serve or students. We do not receive funding from Vanderbilt University, all of our funding must come from donations, grants and sponsorships.