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New Hillel center aims to draw, hold young Jews
Monday, September 10, 2001 By Jeffrey Cohan, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
For the new Jewish University Center to fulfill its promise, it will have to function not just as a building but as a bridge.
Leaders of Pittsburgh Hillel are banking on their $2.5 million Oakland facility to help them bridge the gap between adolescence, when youths receive a Jewish upbringing from their parents, and post-college life, when young adults start families of their own.
It is during those college years in between that Jews often stray from their religion and never fully return, observed many of the estimated 200 people on hand yesterday for a grand opening ceremony at the three-story, limestone-and-aluminum center.
"It's about Jewish continuity," said Andrew Stewart, vice president of the Pittsburgh chapter of Hillel, an organization that offers Jewish services and programs on college campuses across the country.
"What we're talking about is giving college students an opportunity to connect to Judaism."
Ideally situated between the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University on Forbes Avenue, the 6-week-old Jewish University Center gives Hillel a highly visible presence and, for the first time ever, a building of its own.
For the three preceding years, Hillel rented a second-story, 2,000-square-foot walk-up that offered nothing more than a lounge and an office.
In contrast, the 25,000-square-foot Jewish University Center features a lounge with a pool table and big-screen TV, four computer stations, about two dozen ports for laptops, a conference room, a Jewish library and an assembly room.
"People feel like this is their home," said Deb Dwoskin, a senior at Pitt.
The center has already sparked a surge in Jewish activity among students at Pitt and CMU.
An estimated 175 people showed up for Sabbath services on a recent Friday night, about six times more than Hillel customarily attracted in previous years.
Hillel will finally have room to hold Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services in its own building, rather than at various on-campus sites.
But to draw larger numbers of Jewish students, Hillel leaders are adding a variety of secular activities to their mix of offerings, such as a group outing to a Pirates game last week or a recent jazz night at the center with a movie and band.
"We have to reach out to students at so many different levels," said Daniel Marcus, director of Hillel programming at CMU. "The idea is to be flexible."
"Whatever [students'] interests are, you can always put a Jewish spin on them," said David Terdiman, the center's executive director.
How do you put a Jewish spin on 30 students going on a ski trip?
"The Jewish spin was that they're together," Terdiman said.
Just hanging out with other Jews can sustain students' Jewish identity during a time in their lives when they might otherwise sever their ties to the religion. Or so the theory goes.
The center has a $1 million endowment to help fund programs.
The success or failure of those programs will determine whether the building functions as a bridge.
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