The student president of Hillel's Israel Society in the early 1990s is today writing editorials for the Jerusalem Post. The sophomore who spoke at the 1973 BU rally mourning the death of the slain Israeli Olympic athletes is the rabbi of a major congregation in New York. A graduate who organized Hillel dances heads a new dot-com company. A student who organized concerts in the 1980s promoting Black-Jewish relations (as it was then called) is now a social justice lawyer in Washington, D.C. Former Hillel leaders now lead the planning staff at the Miami Jewish Federation.

None of these individuals, nor the exponential number of their fellow Jewish alumni who are now communal leaders everywhere in America, Europe, and Israel, would have spent the long hours at Hillel that they did were it not for the warmth and vitality of the Jewish community they found here.

But we have reached a turning point in Hillel's career. The building at 233 Bay State Road, home to this extraordinary community for fifty years, is now too small. There's too little room in the synagogues to accommodate all who come to worship on the Sabbath, too few seats in the dining room for dinner. Students are not being turned away, but these are overheated, claustrophobic spaces, no place for a great Shabbat experience; by the time the Grace After Meals is recited, half have left, often forever.

We must not discourage our young people. When the Hillel Board of Directors resolved to put up a larger building, Leonard Florence (SMG'54, Hon.'01) and Irwin Chafetz (CAS'58), philanthropists extraordinaire, came forward with the naming gift. Now we turn to you.

It will take $12 million to make this dream a reality. If you are committed to Jewish youth and believe in nurturing Jewish leadership, if you think that fostering students' love of Judaism while they are at college is important, especially because it's the Jewish community's last organized opportunity to turn them on to a Jewish future, if Hillel spoke to you or to your children, then now is the time to come forward and do your share to further our extraordinarily successful mission.

The site has been designated, the architects have designed, the engineers have calculated, and $6 million has already been raised. Now we need to raise the other $6 million to make this building happen. I am appealing to each of our parents, alumni, and friends. Come forth and do your share. This is our critical moment; we can move no further unless you take on your share.

• Making a special gift, to be paid over a period of time if necessary.
• Helping us reach your associates, friends, and acquaintances who might want to be part of the Jewish renaissance to which our Hillel so extensively contributes.
• Introducing us to philanthropic foundations that support Jewish education and the strengthening of Jewish memory among the young.

This is a call to all who have benefited from BU Hillel, all who believe in our mission. We need you now to contact us, to join in maintaining this community of commitment and challenge, so that, even as they thrive in countless other ways at one of America's premier centers of higher education, generations of Jewish students at Boston University will also grow as Jews. Now is the time.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Joseph Polak
Director
Boston University Hillel