This year was truly a year of firsts for NC Hillel. The 2022-2023 school year was our first year as Board Chair and Executive Director, and the first full year of in person programming on campus since 2019!
With the return to in person programs, we launched a brand new event platform for each campus, where students can find up to date information on events, register and even host their own Hillel experiences. NC Hillel engaged 1,300 students across the state via more than 400 events and personal meetings with staff members.
This was also the first year of Signature Statewide programs: the fall Apple Gala hosted by Link at UNC-Greensboro had 150 students from 15 public and private schools across the state coming together to celebrate Rosh Hashanah. The Statewide Shabbaton provided an immersive Shabbat experience for 35 students from NC hillel campuses and created lasting friendships and learning experiences across the state.
We are excited to enter our sophomore year of leadership with new energy and knowledge as we continue to grow NC Hillel. We look forward to welcoming you to one of our campuses or seeing you on the road. On behalf of the staff, board of directors and students of NC Hillel, thank you for your support!
Expenses Revenue
Programming: 69%
Admin: 19%
Fundraising: 13%
Total: $1,307,875.14
Staff, 2023-2024
Hannah G. Spinrad, Executive Director
Hila Banay, Jewish Agency Israel Fellow
Kira Borman, Director of Community Relations
Jane Lebowitz, Springboard Fellow, NC State
Rayna Lifland, Springboard Fellow, UNC
Sarah Gindes, Campus Director, NC State
Sara Gottschalk, Donor Systems Manager
Bekah Green, Engagement Associate, Link
Nikki Michaelson, Campus Director, UNC
Ginny Vellani, Director, Link
Max Weinberg, Managing Director
Sincere thanks to the staff members who finished their tenures with us in May 2023: Joanna Berman (UNC Springboard Fellow), Vicki Cathcart (Assistant Director, Link), Carson Pinker (NC State Springboard Fellow), and Rabbi Melissa B. Simon (Senior Jewish Educator)
Board of Directors, 2022-2023
Laura Stein, Chair
Mike Ross, Vice Chair
Marissa Lanier, Secretary
Harold Berger, Treasurer
Donations: 46%
Grants: 27%
Investment Revenue: 9%
Other: 18%
Total: $1,452,657.68
Peter Levinson, Immediate Past Chair
Alan Boyette
Jason Chautin
Cobi Cohen
Marcy Geller
Harry Kaplan
Rabbi David Kessel
Erik Kneubuehl
Student Representatives:
Bruce Moskowitz
Jennifer Rich
Elizabeth Singer
Eileen Springer
Lisa Sutker
Dr. Eileen Z. Taylor
Leah Elkin, Link (UNC Wilmington)
Jonny Lanes, NC State
Kenaz Flores, UNC Chapel Hill
As our students returned to in person classes and programming this fall for the first time in almost three years, they faced an increasingly challenging climate on their campuses. The Anti-Defamation League reported that antisemitic hate crimes and bias incidents on college campuses more than tripled from 2012 through 2019, with more than 350 incidents reported nationwide during the 2021-22 academic year. NC Hillel strives to combat these disheartening statistics by supporting all students throughout the UNC System through connecting with University administrators and local Jewish communities in an official capacity to address pressing issues relating to antisemitism, the young adult mental health crisis, and a sense of being connected to North Carolina’s synagogues, Federations and local Jewish resources. Our NC Hillel professionals are the bridge in creating consistent, lasting relationships between students and the local Jewish community.
In 2020, UNC Chapel Hill Hillel was proud to be included in the pilot cohort of the Campus Climate Initiative (CCI), partnering with the UNC Chapel Hill administration to ensure a positive environment in which Jewish and pro-Israel students - and all students - can express their identities and values, free of harassment, hostility, or marginalization.
As part of CCI, UNC Hillel and UNC administration first worked together to create education and written assessments of policies, procedures, and resources. Then in the second year, focus groups of students and faculty were formed to find out more about Jewish and non-Jewish experiences on campus and how updated policies would improve their experiences. In this final year, the CCI cohort will be surveying a larger number of students, faculty, and staff to find out the full campus climate and work on creating recommendations for university officials. After this academic year, CCI will continue to offer support and partnership to campus leaders as they implement recommendations.
1,340
undergrad students reached
46% of students statewide attended two or more Hillel programs
In May, we had the honor to have been the hosts of the first ever Hillel International Campus Climate Initiative (CCI) Conference, welcoming 43 CCI campuses from across North America to Chapel Hill.
We also had the privilege of opening the conference with a keynote conversation (pictured left) between Rep. Manning of NC-06, Chair of the House Bipartisan Taskforce on Antisemitism, and our own Executive Director, Hannah Spinrad, about antisemitism on campus and the role administrators can play improving the campus climate for Jewish college students.
As you will read in App State Hillel co-president Emma’s reflection on this past year on the following page and related blog post (nchillel.org/blog/quotes-23), our App State Hillel students created United Against Hate Day with AEPi and the University’s Intercultural Student Affairs Office to combat increased antisemitic sentiment in Boone this school year.
NC Hillel staff and students were at the forefront of working with university administration, community members, and various student groups to immediately ensure the safety of all students from hate.
Raising awareness on campuses by creating opportunities for Jewish visibility and cross-culture connections is key to standing united against hate.
This year was particularly challenging for App State, as there were many antisemitic incidents that occurred on our campus as well as in the surrounding Boone community. Some of these included a Nazi flag that was hung over the Temple of the High Country sign, antisemitic comments and drawings spray painted in the tunnels, and an anti-abortion display with graphic images of Jews being killed during the Holocaust, that was set up on Sanford, which is the heart of our campus.
But with that added challenge, we’re really proud of how this year went and all the programming and community outreach we were able to accomplish. We created two special community-wide, student-led events: Jewish Joy Day and A Day Against Hate.
For A Day Against Hate, Hillel and AEPi (the Jewish fraternity) students came together to collaborate and plan this larger event that focused on bringing the community together and combating antisemitism and all other forms of hate through education and positivity. We reached out to other organizations and coordinated with the school and the temple. We met with App’s Chief Diversity Officer and reached out to the Intercultural Student Affairs Director so many times that we eventually became a member of the Intercultural Student Affairs. So it was just amazing to see this large scale event take place on our campus that was, mainly, student driven.
Towards the end of 2019, I completed my IDF service, and moved back to America for school. I didn’t start off at Hillel. Those first two years I was working full-time while obtaining an associate’s degree and was just so distracted by school and work that I forgot why I had moved to Israel in the first place; for that sense of Jewish community.
Somehow, the universe knew that I was getting burnt out, and I received a text from one of the board members of Hillel @ NC State inviting me to a Thursday Night hangout...I quickly fell in love with the community that Hillel had formed at my school. I found myself blocking off my Friday evenings, as well, as they also had consistent student-led Shabbatot.
Almost immediately after having gotten involved in Hillel I found myself feeling that same sense of community that I had gotten in Israel...The community that Hillel has cultivated at NCSU is astounding. Not only is it a great place to hang out, but it is also a place that helps you advocate for yourself.
Peyton J., NCSU ‘23
North Carolina Hillel changed my life. Because of it, I found my place at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I found my people on campus who have become such a significant part of my everyday life, and because of them, because of Hillel, I have made a difference in campus life and the lives of others.
Hillel has become both a resource and a safe space for myself and my fellow Jewish students, a place that a lot of us have never been able to have. Growing up as the only Jew in my town and in all of my schools, I never knew what it meant to be Jewish, but because of Hillel, I have finally found my place among places, and my people among others. For that, and for everything else, I am forever grateful. Hillel truly has changed my life in a way I never thought possible.
- Ryan C., UNC
‘25
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App State Hillel often celebrated Shabbat with Temple of the High Country ECU Hillel celebrated Purim by passing out hamentaschen on campus
UNCA Hillel built their newly donated Sukkah at the student union
UNC Charlotte Hillel created a bake sale for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
UNCG Hillel ended a Shabbat with a Havdalah service under the stars
UNCW Hillel offered students a “color your own hamsa” art project
UNC Chapel Hill Hillel started the year with a board bonding retreat Hillel @ NC State participated in the week-long Shack-a-thon fundraiser
