The Campaign for the Future of Jewish Life at Brandeis
This is more than a campaign for a building. It is a call to affirm Brandeis University’s role as a center of Jewish life, thought, and leadership.
Brandeis was founded as a bold experiment: a university rooted in Jewish values, committed to excellence, and open to all. Today, that original mission still calls to us. Hillel is where students shape their values, build enduring community, and grow into leaders. It is the heart of Jewish life on campus.
Students come to Hillel for many reasons: to express their values, deepen their identities and learning, connect with Israel, and find a warm, welcoming home. Through community and mentorship, they cultivate purpose, courage, and resilience — qualities they need to navigate our complex world.
At Brandeis, Hillel is more than a hub of Jewish life. It is a formative space for students’ growth as 21st-century Jews. A dedicated, modern destination for Jewish life in the center of campus will raise the visibility of Jewish expression and leadership, enhance the student experience, and secure Brandeis’s role as a national model for Jewish flourishing in higher education.
Our Campaign Goal is $25 Million
In an increasingly virtual world, students yearn for a warm, welcoming space on campus where they can connect with Jewish peers, immerse themselves in Jewish culture and community, and express their Jewish identities with pride.
After 76 years, Brandeis Hillel finally has the opportunity to create that home. While Brandeis University has graciously made Kutz Hall available to us, transforming this vision into reality requires us to raise $20M for renovations, security upgrades, and an additional $5M for a building endowment.
Where Jewish Life Belongs: At the Heart of Brandeis
“Brandeis Doesn’t Have a Hillel Building?!”
We hear that all the time, and it speaks to how closely Brandeis is identified with vibrant Jewish life.
Brandeis is one of the most welcoming campuses for Jewish students in the country. For decades, the story has been that Brandeis didn’t need a dedicated Hillel building. But the campus was never designed to support the full breadth of extracurricular Jewish life. Now, Hillel has fully outgrown its patchwork of programmatic spaces, and Brandeis urgently wants to invest in a dedicated Center that will sustain Jewish life on campus.
Why Now? A Once-in-a-Generation Moment
For decades, Brandeis’s Jewish identity was implicit. But in this moment, we must declare it proudly and lead by example.
The Center for Jewish Life will underscore Brandeis’s ongoing role as a hub of Jewish thought, values, and leadership. It will bring visibility and vitality to Jewish life at a time when students and the world need both.
This Center will help attract Jewish students, nurture talented professionals, and affirm Brandeis as a leader in shaping the Jewish future. It will ensure that every Jewish student finds both belonging and purpose.
Hillel at Brandeis: Where Jewish Students Flourish
Hillel supports hundreds of students each week with programs ranging from Shabbat dinners and Israel education to civic action, music, wellness, feminist, and LGBTQ+ groups. With a deep commitment to tolerance, and a tradition of rabbinic mentorship, Hillel fosters an extraordinary Jewish community. The new Center will give these programs a true home that matches and amplifies their energy and impact, while anchoring Jewish life at the heart of the campus.
This campaign is about far more than bricks and mortar. It’s about sustaining Brandeis’s place as a center of Jewish life, thought, and leadership now and for the future.
Where Identity and Leadership Are Formed
Our work spans every dimension of Jewish life and student development, including:
Weekly Shabbat dinners and services
Holiday celebrations and communal meals across the Jewish calendar
Learning fellowships, chavrutot, and beit midrash programs
Cultural events, music, and arts
Jewish Life
25+ active student-led committees, boards, and initiatives
Mentorship in public speaking, event planning, and facilitation
Hands-on experience with Jewish social entrepreneurship
High-impact internships and national Hillel leadership cohorts
Leadership
Retreats and immersive experiences that foster lasting friendships
Inclusive spaces for Jews of all backgrounds and denominations
Programs that build empathy, connection, and pluralism
Community
Israel learning and engagement
Dialogue and diplomacy across difference
Training and confidence to navigate and lead in a world where antisemitism and polarization are on the rise
Skills for navigating complexity with Jewish confidence
Resilience & Responsibility
Hillel nurtures the next generation of Jewish leaders, equipping them with the deep roots and broad perspective they need to thrive in Jewish life, civic life, and professional life.
Where?
The university has generously offered the former Kutz Hall — a three-floor, 28,000 square foot building built in 1959 — for transformation into a beautiful new home for Jewish student life. Positioned prominently near the campus’s main thoroughfare and adjacent to the North Quad residence halls, Kutz Hall is ideally located to serve as a hub for vibrant Jewish life. With the building already vacated, renovating it will be an environmentally responsible and cost-effective project.
Realizing our ambitious vision for the growth of Jewish life at Brandeis will require a significant investment of resources in both our physical infrastructure and the student experiences at the heart of Hillel’s mission.
Key opportunities for partnership and support include:
Building Name
Beit Midrash
Program Spaces
Student Lounge
Café and Kitchen
Conference Rooms
Executive Director Office
Roof Deck
Sustaining the Future of Jewish Life at Brandeis
Hillel raises the majority of its annual operating budget independently to provide rabbinic mentorship, cater over 6,000 Shabbat meals annually, enhance campus security, and rent program space. Unfortunately, limited resources restrict our ability to engage every Jewish student at Brandeis in meaningful experiences, and even our current programming relies heavily on the uncertainty of annual campaign support.
To ensure the long-term growth and stability of Hillel at Brandeis, we are building an endowment that will sustain our capital operations and key programmatic initiatives.
Hillel professionals are called upon in increasingly diverse ways — as educators, mentors, coaches, and trusted guides. As the needs of students evolve, so must our capacity to meet them with excellence.
Key endowment opportunities for partnership and support include:
Executive Director
Community Engagement Rabbi
Assistant Director
Jewish Education Fund
Israel Engagement Fund
Shabbat Experience Fund