For the 4,500 Jewish students at Boston University, Hillel is the center of Jewish life. It is a place of study and reflection, of worship and celebration, of quiet conversation and lively parties, a place to visit with other students from throughout the University and also from Harvard, Brandeis, MIT, Northeastern, and other nearby colleges.

Young men and women of widely diverse interests are drawn to Hillel by its welcoming ambiance. Here they are challenged to grow as Jews, in interaction not just with the directors and staff, but also with their peers. From a parent perspective, Hillel may be the last chance for the organized Jewish community to promote Jewish values.

Boston University Hillel is a home away from home, where students feel comfortable and where they experience - some for the first time - the wisdom, joys, integrity, and continuity of Judaism as they prepare for their professional, family, and community lives.

Students get together at parties, to play on intramural sports teams, and for bowling, ice skating, concerts, ski trips, and other activities in Boston and New England. Special-interest clubs include the Graduate Student Society, Jewish Law Student Association, Maimonides Medical Society, Latin American Jewish Student Association, School of Management Jews, and the Israeli student society, Chug Yisraeli.

Hillel provides links with a variety of community-service activities and enables students to shape their own projects. Connections to College is an award-winning program that inspires inner-city students to attend college or other higher education programs. Generations connects Hillel students with senior citizens. Hillel students also tutor students from nearby elementary and secondary schools, work on environmental projects with Roots, and help feed Boston's hungry through Family Table.

For those who want to know more about Judaism and themselves, Hillel School offers weekly classes in Talmud, Halacha, Weekly Torah Portion, Judaism 101, Hebrew, Prayer, and other topics. The Holocaust Education Committee, Boston University March of the Living Alumni Association, and Beit Midrash Society all build on students' previous Jewish education and keep them on the path of lifetime Jewish learning.

Students come together at Hillel for their meals because they are both kosher and delicious, and also for the sociability. They enjoy visiting with friends, meeting other students, and the frequent opportunity to chat with faculty members.

Rated first in customer satisfaction among all dining programs in New England and ninth in the country, the dining program is a model for other colleges. Representatives from other major universities often come to observe the program and consult Hillel's dining manager.

Israel 2000-Birthright is a free ten-day travel program in which students visit Israel for the first time, connecting with the history and future of the Jewish people. They return with an understanding of their counterparts in Israel, who must deal with daily life when peace is, at best, fragile.

Students also learn more about Israel through special speakers on political and cultural isses and through folk dancing, food, films, and political action.

In recent years the Jewish Theater Group has staged The Dybbuk, Arthur Miller's Broken Glass, Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, and other plays with Jewish themes. Kol Echad, an a cappella group with a repertoire extending from classic Jewish tunes to Israeli rock, performs in Boston and on tour, and will soon release its second CD.

Hillel is a varied, united community. Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox services are held every Shabbat and for all major holidays. Representatives of each minyan serve on the umbrella Religious Life Council.