The Campaign for the Future of Jewish Life at Brandeis
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 Jewish pride, 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 the same time, they gain real-world experience: running organizations, managing budgets, facilitating dialogue, and organizing events for hundreds of peers. This lays a foundation for lifelong leadership capacity.
At Brandeis, Hillel is 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 $20 Million
In an increasingly virtual world, students yearn for a warm, welcoming space on campus where they can connect with 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, furnishings, and security upgrades.
The Center for Jewish Life and Leadership will position Brandeis Hillel as a hub of innovation in Jewish leadership development. It will feature state-of-the-art meeting spaces, a beit midrash designed for collaborative learning, and flexible event spaces that can host conferences, convenings, and critical conversations about the future.
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, we accepted that our Jewish roots made a dedicated building unnecessary. But the campus was never designed to support the full breadth of extracurricular Jewish life. Now, Hillel has fully outgrown its patchwork of spaces, and the time has come to give Jewish life a permanent home.
A Once-in-a-Generation Moment
In November 2025, Brandeis President Arthur Levine announced a bold initiative to transform liberal arts education at Brandeis, combining rigorous academics with experiential learning and competency-based credentials to develop graduates who lead with integrity.
Hillel has an essential role to play in that vision and is deeply aligned with it. With a 60% surge in Jewish day school applications this cycle, a vibrant and modern Center for Jewish Life and Leadership will be a powerful draw for the next generation of Jewish students.
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 Take Shape
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 to navigate a world where antisemitism is on the rise
Skills for navigating complexity with Jewish confidence
Stewardship
Hillel nurtures the next generation of Jewish leaders, equipping them with the deep roots and broad perspective they need to thrive in Jewish life, communal work, business, technology, medicine, law, education, and public service.
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
Building Endowment
Goal: $5,000,000
A permanent home requires permanent support. This endowment will ensure the Center serves many generations of Brandeis students, providing resources for ongoing upkeep, landscaping, and maintenance.
Program Endowment
The most important investment we can make is in the students and professionals who bring the building to life. This endowment will sustain our programmatic initiatives and enable us to launch new leadership development programs, host regional convenings, and support students pursuing careers in Jewish communities.
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