Wagner College Hillel

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Please join us on April 30 as we celebrate Hillel of Staten Island and honor members of our community like Kara Freedman and Avery Schwartz, recipients of the Fran & Joe Harris Student Leadership Award!

Support our honorees and Hillel by attending, sponsoring, or purchasing a journal ad: https://www.hillelstatenisland.com/kavod-circle

Kara Freedman is a junior at Wagner College majoring in Theatre Performance with a minor in Holocaust and Human Rights Studies. Since her freshman year, Kara has been deeply involved at Wagner Hillel and is currently serving as Student President.Through her leadership, Kara has helped foster a strong and supportive Jewish community on campus. In addition to her work with Hillel, she has interned with the Wagner College Holocaust Center, helping lead educational initiatives on antisemitism and prejudice.Kara is passionate about combining Holocaust education and the arts, recently portraying Margot Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank for over 1,200 students. She continues to use theatre as a platform to share meaningful Jewish stories and history.

Avery Schwartz is a senior at the College of Staten Island, majoring in Finance and Management with minors in Sports Management and Data Analytics. For the past two years, Avery has served as President of the Hillel/Jewish Student Union, leading efforts to grow and strengthen Jewish life on campus. Avery has helped bring impactful speakers and programs to campus, including events featuring Kosha Dillz and Zach Sage Fox, which created opportunities for students to engage with Jewish identity in meaningful and dynamic ways.For Avery, Hillel is more than an organization, it is a community. “Hillel is a place where Jewish students can express themselves, connect with others, and feel supported,” Avery shares. “It has given me a space to become the best version of myself.”

We are so excited to offer a teen trip to Israel this summer! Join us for a trip of a lifetime and the chance to make amazing friends and memories! LEARN MORE: https://bit.ly/4jvJ6Xu

We can’t wait to meet our new incoming Hillel students! I’m so grateful to have several Hillel students as interns of the Wagner College Holocaust Center.

Please join us on May 29 as we celebrate Hillel of Staten Island and honor members of our community! We are pleased to honor Council Member Kamillah Hanks, Dr. Timothy G. Lynch, Dr. Lori Weintrob, along with Fran & Joe Harris Student Leadership Award Recipients Abigail Brodsky, Ethan Shalem, and Sinai Malca. Support our honorees and Hillel by attending, sponsoring, or purchasing a journal ad! https://bit.ly/3Yt4Cmr

Lori Weintrob, PhD., Professor of History at Wagner College, is the founding Director of the Wagner College Holocaust Center, Staten Island, New York. Lori is very proud to have connected our Holocaust survivors and U.S. WWII veterans with over 25,000 youth of all faiths in the tri-state area. She motivates others to be an upstander and to “Inspire Courage.”

From 2014 to 2023, Lori served enthusiastically as advisor to the Hillel chapter at Wagner College, and as co-advisor with Professors Abe Unger and Emily Barth. During those years, Lori sought to empower the Jewish college students in leadership skills and Jewish practices, supported by the Chai Society of Wagner College. She worked closely with the Hillel advisory board to create monthly programming on Jewish culture, holidays and Israel. She organized challah baking, including at the college president’s house. She partnered with Chabad to do events such as tie-dye Hamantashem and Chopped: Chanukah Edition. The students decorated the sukkah on campus and held the annual “Sushi in the Sukkah.” She organized and prepared Shabbat meals including delicious pretzel challah, sometimes inviting Holocaust survivors to join. They also organized interfaith shabbat dinners that featured poetry reading, among other events. She is very excited to have her students be part of Hillel of Staten Island at Wagner College, sponsored by the U.J.A. since 2023.

For over 25 years, Lori has taught about leadership, immigration, and the Holocaust using theater, film and the arts. For her interfaith initiatives, she has received awards for community-building from the Joan and Alan Bernikow Jewish Community Center, Albanian-Islamic Cultural Center, and the Pride Center of SI. She is a 2019 SI Women of Achievement and serves on the Board of SI Women, Inc. She enjoys serving on the Esther Grushkin Center for the Arts committee at the JCC. Several Hillel Presidents travelled together with her to Auschwitz and Normandy and were interns of the Wagner Holocaust Center.

Her most recent book is Heroines of the Holocaust: Reframing Courage and Resistance in Genocide (2025). She is currently writing Documents of the Holocaust: 100 Eyewitnesses to History. This April, she produced The Diary of Anne Frank at the St. George Theater, seen by over 1,100 local students. Lori received her B.A. from Princeton University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Lori has a deep affection for Israel and a strong commitment to Tikkun Olam –which she learned from her parents, Barry and Sheila and has passed down to her amazing daughters Joelle and Sophia. She is thankful to her husband Phil for his support.

How Social Media Can Fight Antisemitism Social media can be a powerful tool in the fight against antisemitism, empowering individuals to use their platforms to raise awareness about all forms of hatred. Our panel will discuss their strategies in fighting prejudice online as well as hatred, misinformation, and antisemitic narratives.

Students of Wagner College enjoying our annual tradition of “Sushi in the Sukkah” - with a new twist, thanks to Hillel of Staten Island. For 15 years, we have had a sukkah in the center of our Wagner College campus so students can gather together! This year under Hillel leadership, the students did a beautiful job decorating the sukkah. Thank you JCC and UJA. Shalom!

So proud that two extraordinary Wagner College leaders are being honored this SUNDAY at the UJA breakfast. One an invaluable member of the Wagner College Advisory Board and also an alum, class of 1989! The other is a first-year student. From Generation to Generation: Wagner College has graduated Jewish students for over 90 years. Link below:

https://www.ujafedny.org/event/checkout/tickets/staten-island-community-breakfast

At an unusually somber NYC Israel Day parade, supporters show determination and grit The 45,000-strong show of Jewish unity down Fifth Ave., normally a jubilant affair, reflects eight months of war, captive hostages and skyrocketing global antisemitism