Madison Hillel is one of 13 university Hillels around the country that added a new role to their team to act as an in-between for students and campus administration, given the increasingly antisemitic environment on campuses since Oct. 7.
“In addition to seeing record levels of antisemitic incidents, we’re also seeing record levels of engagement with Hillel,” said Kira Simon, who joined Hillel International as associate vice president of campus antisemitism solutions in January 2025. “So many young Jewish people are engaging with Hillel for the first time or with renewed interest and enthusiasm, which is amazing, but that means that Hillels are very much at or over their capacity.”
The 13 professionals, who all started their roles at various points since September 2024, act as a cohort, which Simon leads, in addition to serving their individual Hillels. They meet around once weekly on Zoom to hear from experts on antisemitism and campus strategies, and to discuss best practices for responding to incidents and forming relationships with campus administration.
Aaron Seligman, a Madison native who previously worked for the Universities of Wisconsin, joined the cohort in February when taking on the new title of director of community relations at Madison Hillel.
The 13 professionals “take on the work of being that adult in the room that models and leads in relationship building with administrators, faculty and other Jewish communal professionals,” Simon said.
Seligman is focusing on areas the University of Wisconsin-Madison found specific needs for in the more than two years since Oct. 7. So far, Seligman has been “collaborating with the university administration on campus policies” and “engaging in media around campus climate and antisemitism,” Seligman said.
“How do you frame a certain issue where there’s two sides?” is a question Seligman said he deals with when working with campus newspapers who have been “pretty sympathetic to a lot of the protests the last couple of years,” Seligman said.
Seligman said that in the past, antisemitic incidents like graffiti on student housing was treated as something that simply needed to be “cleaned up.” Now, he said he’s working on addressing deeper questions, such as “are you understanding the impact that some of these messages might have on students?”
“Part of the effort is building relationships with other groups on campus,” Seligman said of the more proactive part of his role. In the summer, Seligman traveled to Israel with five Jewish students and 12 non-Jewish students whom he helped recruit. Seligman said that getting “non-Jewish students to trust us, both from a security standpoint and a ‘hey, you’re just not just taking us on some propaganda tour!’” is something he sees as a big success.
Each of the 13 campuses has their own challenges with antisemitism, the relationship between Jewish and non-Jewish students, and administrative policies, and their own ways of working on them, Simon said.
The 13 Hillels in the cohort are Columbia/Barnard Hillel, Greater Philly Hillel Network, Harvard Hillel, Hillel at Baruch College, Hillel at the Claremont Colleges, Madison Hillel, Hillel at UCLA, Hillel of San Diego, North Carolina Hillel, Ohio State University Hillel, Rutgers University Hillel Foundation, University of Michigan Hillel, and University of Washington Hillel.
Simon said all these universities had a need for this role given the activity on campus and the desire of the executive directors of these Hillels to add someone to their team.
“We don’t know what will happen next and in the long term,” Simon said of the unstable reality for Jewish students. “I am still receiving frequent reports of incidents that our colleagues are addressing every single day. We’re committed to supporting Jewish students, and we are going to watch and see what happens.”
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For a Madison student who is concerned about a potentially antisemitic incident, or with campus climate, or simply would like to get involved with Hillel contact Aaron Seligman at ASeligman@UwHillel.org.
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