Our Voice, Our Legacy, Our Creation
1970
Hillel at Cal Poly has been in existence in different forms from the 1970’s. It was a group of Jewish students who would get together for holidays, go to movies, have Shabbat dinners, and do other social and Jewish events. At one point, a group of Jewish students who were living in a house near downtown called it Bayit and made it into an unofficial Hillel house. For many years, with the help from the community and the SLO Jewish Historical Society, Hillel put on Holocaust Memorial events on campus, worked together with the local synagogues and faculty, and participated in Jewish events.
1984
For some 18 years, until he retired from the Mathematics Department at Cal Poly, Professor Stu Goldenberg was Hillel’s Faculty Advisor, who tirelessly worked with the students and helped them. He also helped create a culture of “doing it for yourself” at Cal Poly, making the students responsible for creating the Jewish atmosphere they wanted, which continues even today.
2002
Professor Saeed Niku of Mechanical Engineering became the faculty advisor of Hillel. At that point, there was a Student Board (about 5-6 members), monthly Shabbat dinners with about 15-20 participants, as well as Jewish and social events. An extremely dedicated and enthusiastic Board President at the time, Todd Kirschen, was able to secure funding from his family for Shabbat dinners, which brought Hillel to a new level. This continued until a couple years later, when Minna Erle offered to cater a Persian Shabbat dinner. With successful advertising, there were over 100 students at the dinner. Somehow, this became the impetus for Hillel dinners with 100-130 students in attendance every month. The location of the dinners varied among a number of different churches, until eventually Temple Ner Shalom became the de-facto location.
2010-Present
Rabbi Lon Moskowitz was part-time Director of Hillel for 2 years in late 2000’s. He successfully secured a 7-year grant for Hillel from Goldman Foundation, which enabled Hillel to fund its activities, including Shabbat dinners, social events, Jewish events, and Israel-related events. The Board grew to 10-15 students, and the dinners were consistently attended by over 100 students.
In 2016, Professor Ben Alexander of the Management Department became the Faculty Advisor of Hillel. In 2018 Hillel was finally able to hire Jake Kaufmann as its first full-time Executive Director. Up until this point, Hillel had been completely student run. Jake made Hillel even more successful, fundraised for activities, made new relationships with Campus constituents, created a much more organized Israel Birthright trips, Maccabi sports events, and many more. He also brought Rachel Tessema, an Israel Fellow to campus for 2 years, hired Bobby Naimark, and later, Olivia Bernheimer as the Director of Engagement.
In 2020, Rabbi Micah Hyman served as the Executive Director of Hillel. Rabbi Micah brought his tremendous enthusiasm, abilities and knowledge to Hillel during his tenure. Starting in August 2022, SLO Hillel welcomed its new Executive Director, SLO resident and former JCC-Federation Executive Director, Lauren Bandari. Also on campus is the SLO Hillel Israel fellow, Lidar Eini. Lauren and Lidar have created Jewish connection, identity, and community for SLO Hillel!