Shalom From MIT Hillel!

MIT Hillel Update

Despite the ups and downs and deep uncertainty of campus, Boston, US, and Middle Eastern news and events, I witnessed students experiencing joy and expressing positive Jewish identity and connections through this month of Jewish holidays. 

We began Rosh Hashanah with our annual Jew Year’s Eve dinner, as dozens of students joined in a toast to the new year given by one of our graduate students. That evening Hillel also supported a Rosh Hashanah meal for over 45 Sloanies, as well as a number of smaller “Jew-it-Yourself” meals for various sub-communities. At Tashlich students symbolically tossed sins into the Charles River, and at “Reverse Tashlich” another group cleaned up the river banks. We baked loaves of round challah on the second day of Rosh Hashanah. Special holiday-themed classes punctuated the month. Whether at services or one of these options, we sweetly entered the new year.

During Kol Nidre services, I have a tradition of students giving short talks on the theme of “What Being Jewish Means to Me”. I find it to be one of the most powerful pieces of the 25-hour fast day. The students’ reflections remind me each year that the Jewish people are in good hands with the next generation. Here are quotes from two of the students who spoke this year:

“[Judaism is] something that gives me questions instead of answers. To be honest, I don't think I've found answers, at least satisfying ones, in Judaism. But instead, I found an openness and willingness to grapple with hard questions that has really resonated with the way that I view the world nowadays. And maybe more important than that, I've also found what may be obvious to many of you, but was not obvious to me beforehand, which is feeling a sense of community. A place where, despite how inexperienced I am, I've been nothing but welcomed and found comfort even in intense and challenging times.”

“I now can say with certainty that being Jewish means carrying my family’s stories, my people’s history, and our shared values with me wherever I go. It means choosing resilience over despair and love over fear. And most of all, it means knowing that while we may be small in number, we are unbreakable. Linked together, generation after generation, we have the privilege and the responsibility to keep building a better world.”

Their “yes, and…” answers accompanied my flow from Yom Kippur into Sukkot this year. In Cambridge, we experienced beautiful summer-like weather as Sukkot began and a nor’easter at its end. We marked the 2 year anniversary of October 7 as it started and elated home-comings at its conclusion. 

Over the first days of Sukkot, we enjoyed the time outside. We served so many meals and snacks within the Hillel sukkah in Bexley courtyard; it was a rotation of reasons to hang out in the sukkah. We taught more classes. We welcomed Jewish faculty and staff to an “open house”. We even hosted a puppy yoga event. The sukkah was filled with a continuous communal energy.

Sukkot may be called in the Torah z’man simchataynu, the time of our rejoicing, and as I alluded to above, it’s also now a hard anniversary. Beyond holiday celebrations, Hillel’s commemoration of October 7 this year included bringing a group of students to the traveling Nova Exhibition, joined by President Sally Kornbluth. The Exhibition is an art installation that memorializes the Nova Music Festival participants who were killed and taken hostage on October 7. The students related that hearing the testimony of a Nova survivor at the end made the visit particularly powerful and real.

As I wrestled with contrasts, for most of this month I gave the greeting many of my Israeli friends told me has become quite common: l’shana yoter tova, to a better year. The return of our hostages this week, and the beginning of what I pray will be a lasting ceasefire and beginning of something new for Israelis and Palestinians, is indeed a better start to this year than to the past two. And, I hold in my heart those who will never return as well as those who continue to grieve for family and friends; I pray that they find healing. We hold both at the same time. May 5786 only continue to improve and may we return to dreams of safety and peace.

L’shalom u’l’shana yoter tova,

Rabbi Michelle H. Fisher SM '97 (V)

Executive Director

[email protected]

Mentshn of Mention

My name is Jenna Fromer, and I am a 5th-year PhD student in the Chemical Engineering department here at MIT! My research focuses on developing algorithmic methods for decision-making in molecular discovery applications, like drug discovery. I completed my undergraduate studies at Tufts University, so I have been in the Boston area for quite a few years now!

I grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, within a one-mile radius from grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Shabbat dinner with all of the family was a weekly routine and a tradition that has contributed significantly to my Jewish identity. I also attended a Jewish Day School from kindergarten until eighth grade. Engaging with Jewish texts and Talmudic debates instilled in a me a love for learning about rules and how they have been interpreted over time.

When I started my undergrad at Tufts, involvement in Jewish life felt natural. Throughout my time there, I held different leadership roles in Hillel, which served a central part of both my religious life and social life. In my third year at MIT, I joined the GradHillel board as a Programming Chair. More recently, I took on the role of President. Being on board has been a wonderful, fulfilling experience; I’ve had the opportunity to grow closer to other leaders in the community—both other board members and Hillel staff members—and help strengthen MIT’s Grad Jewish community. As I mentioned previously, Shabbat dinner is one of my favorite Jewish traditions, so it’s no surprise that I look forward to GradHillel’s Shabbat dinner each month. As a novice Challah baker myself, I’ve also enjoyed helping organize Challah bakes with GradHillel.

As many MIT community members know, PhD programs can be filled with some ups and downs. Being involved with GradHillel has brought me closer to a community that can provide support during the low points and celebrate with me during the high points.

Jenna Fromer

GradHillel President

[email protected]

Torah From Tech

As this week we start reading the Torah again from “In the beginning,” I’m reminded of how creation was described at one point during the piyuttim/liturgical poems on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. On each of the high holidays, the traditional shacharit [morning service] repetition begins with an alphabetic acrostic recited aloud, responsively, and with the Ark open, אַתָּה הוּא אֱלֹקֵינוּ (Only You are our God). The final line of the poem, beginning with the last letter "Taf" is this line "Toleh Eretz Al Blimah" a quote from Job 26:7. In this verse, the speaker notes that God Creates a world that relies on no outside force besides God. It was not and is not propped up by a mythical Atlas or embedded in a primitive pseudo-scientific Ether. The Earth might be gliding along the curves of spacetime in a general-relativistic sense, but it is not tugged by a force or confined by some sort of matter. Instead, we exclaim Toleh Eretz Al Blimah – He hangs the earth on nothing – the implication being that nothing means nothing, other than Himself.

While this articulates a greatness of The Creator that we can all appreciate on a deeper more emotional level, it is reminiscent of the Beis Halevi’s (Yosef Dov Soloveitchik 1820-1892) take on the nature of fear and faith, and why they are found juxtaposed at the crossing of the Red Sea in Exodus 14:31. Fear of God is not just a consequence of our wish to avoid punishment, or the appropriate appreciation of Awesomeness, but rather a recognition that at every moment existence is dependent on God, as if the world is constantly being recreated ex-nihilo with all its required Omnipotent inputs. The Beis Halevi offers an allegory of a person that fell into the sea being pulled back to the surface by a rescuer, in whom the buoyancy challenged individual must simultaneously put faith for a future alongside an existential fear – a fear of the rescuer letting go, which is inextricably entangled with a burning desire to be held close – also known as love.

Though these cosmic ramifications of Toleh Eretz Al Blimah are clearly in the realm of reference to the Almighty, we must recall the charge of Talmud Shabbat 133b, as quote in Maimonides’ Mishna Torah Deot 1:6

כְּמוֹ שֶׁהוּא רַחוּם, אַף אַתָּה הֱיֵה רַחוּם. כְּמוֹ שֶׁהוּא חַנּוּן, אַף אַתָּה הֱיֵה חַנּוּן

חַיָּב אָדָם לְהִדַּמוֹת בְּדַרְכֵי הַשֵּׁם

Just as He is merciful, so should you be merciful. Just as He is gracious, so should you be gracious. A person is obligated to emulate the ways of God.

Whether it’s during a particularly challenging time during an MIT semester, or other stressful times throughout life, drowning is a word often used by many to describe their lack of ability to proverbially come up for air. It’s in times like this when a friend, family or campus community takes on the solemn duty to emulate Gods ways, and extend a hand to restore faith, to ease fear, and to awaken love — forging relationships that, like God and the earth, hang on nothing, yet mean everything.

Isaac Ehrenberg

[email protected]

MIT Hillel's 2026 Annual Fund

Last week I started thinking about what I would write here. So much has happened since then:

At the time, holiday preparations were being made. Now, the sukkah decorations are coming down, the yahrzeit candle has melted, and the new cycle of Torah reading has begun.

At the time, a Nor’Easter storm was forecast for Boston and beyond. Now it is behind us, the sun is shining and our sukkah survived.

At the time, the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education was hanging over nine universities. Now we all know that MIT has taken a stance.

At the time, we were hopeful about a deal in the Middle East. Now all living hostages are home.

And dozens of other stories ranging from international news down to health of a loved one.

Emotions ran the gamut through this time - worry, stress, sorrow, hope, relief, joy, pride, gratitude.

Events can shape our philanthropy. Perhaps you are motivated to give to mark time, to help repair, to express joy, to reward leadership, to build as an expression of hope for the future. And, when so much changes in just a week, some weeks more than others but pretty much every week, donors also need to have a baseline plan so that their giving consistently reflects their values and sustains over time the organizations they care about. Regardless of your reason, thank you for including Hillel in your giving, and for investing in college-age Jews and vibrant Jewish life on campus.

Jewish American philanthropy is especially strong at this time of year, prompted by the symbolism of Rosh Hashanah in September and bookended by the calendar year-end deadline of the tax year. So it may not be a surprise to you that Hillel’s fall mail appeal is MIT’s top mail appeal of the year! Thank you, all, for the gifts already received, for the ones in process, and for holding onto those envelopes and slips for your upcoming EOY allocations. 

Marla Choslovsky SM '88 (XV)

MIT Hillel Director of Development

[email protected]

Be a part of strengthening Jewish life at MIT!

Your generous support allows us to help keep Jewish life vibrant on the MIT campus!

Hillel’s FY24 donor report

Tamid Initiative - Planned Giving @ MIT Hillel

We invite alumni and friends who care deeply about Jewish life at MIT to consider joining the Institute's Katharine Dexter McCormick (1904) Society (KDMS) and be part of the Tamid Initiative by making a bequest to MIT, for the benefit of MIT Hillel. Your generosity will help MIT Hillel engage tomorrow's students, securing our Jewish future with confidence.

MIT and MIT Hillel are eager to help you meet your objectives. For more information, or to inform us that you have already planned such a gift, please contact MIT Hillel Director of Development, Marla Choslovsky, [email protected].

From the Archives!

On the Calendar

Leading Jewish Minds @ Home

Tuesday, November 4, 2025: Adam Berinsky, "Why We Accept Misinformation and How to Fight It"

Wednesday, December 17, 2025: Tal Cohen, Civil & Environmental, and Mechanical Engineering

3-D Printed Mezuzahs

MIT Hillel has created specially-designed, 3-D printed MIT mezuzahs! Many thanks to Bob Gurnitz '60, SM'61, PhD'66 for his design, printing, and start-up support, and to Terrascope Associate Director Ari Epstein PhD'95 for further design and project support. We offered the first batch of mezuzot (with parchments) for free to current students, faculty, post-docs, and staff. Having commercially 3-D printed more, we are happy to now offer the mezuzahs to alumni, parents, and friends — also as our gift. Please let us know if you would like one.

If you've received your mezuzah and hung it up, feel free to share a picture with us!

Most orders have already been shipped. We are currently processing the orders recently received.

If you already filled out the form to get a mezuzah, please do not fill it out again.

Mazal Tov!

If you have life-cycle events (a marriage, receiving an award, writing a book, etc.) to share with the MIT Hillel community, please let us know.

MIT Hillel

40 Massachusetts Ave

Building W11

Cambridge, MA 02139

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