Hillel Elects Rosenberg, Kurshan New Leaders

Last night the Harvard-Radcliffe Hillel's coordinating council chose Michael Rosenberg '01 as next year's chair of Hillel and Naamit M. Kurshan '02 as associate chair.

Both Rosenberg and Kurshan are no strangers to Hillel and already have served as chairs and co-chairs of Hillel committees.

They will take the reins from Michael A. Kay '01, the current chair, and Joshua S. Goodman '00, the associate chair.

Members of the council and non-voting observers packed Hillel's second-floor Smith boardroom last night for the election of the Hillel leadership for the year 2000.

After the lighting of the menorah for the fifth night of Hanukah, the four chair candidates and two associate chair candidates made speeches to the assembled audience and responded to questions. Candidates' position papers were available to the crowd.

Besides Rosenberg, candidates for chair were Matthew L. Bluestone '01, David Cody Dydek '01 and Tova A. Serkin '02, who is also a Crimson editor. James S. Davis '01was Kurshan's only opposition for the position of associate chair. Winning candidates were required to receive an absolute majority vote.

Many of the candidates stressed similar themes in their speeches and platforms.

Some pointed out the need to make Hillel more inclusive and inviting to all Jews on campus, an effort to change the image that some have of an organization made up of cliques or groups that are uninviting to new members.

Many candidates called for the establishment of Hillel liaisons to the Houses, similar to the organization's current freshman liaisons, to help bringing new people in and launching new activities.

"I'm hoping to redefine what people think about Hillel," Rosenberg said.

He hopes to encourage campus Jews to see Hillel not as just a "monolith" but instead as a great resource, with staff and money to support efforts to expand campus programs. These resources are already available, he said, but the campus needs to be educated about them.

Kurshan said Hillel should become more of a comfortable hangout spot that would be more inviting to new people.

"It should be a really exciting year," Kurshan said. "I'm looking forward to turning the community into the best it can be."

According to Kay, the new chair and associate chair will face two major ongoing challenges over the next year. First, he said, Hillel leadership reorganization has been an issue that has seen significant discussion over the past year, but still needs to be resolved.

Second, he said, Jewish pluralism has been discussed over the last year. This issue revolves around making as many types of Jews feel comfortable in Hillel as possible, but not compromising the views of segments of the population.

The new and outgoing chairs and associate chairs will choose the next year's secretary, who will replace Rachel L. Brown '00. The fourth leadership position, annual events coordinator, currently held by Benjamin W. Dreyfus '01, is changed every academic year.