Sarina Shohet

I was already interested in interfaith work when I was at Berkeley.

At first, I was doing it independently of Hillel. I cared about building bridges between Jewish, Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian students, and I wanted to create opportunities for people from different communities to actually know one another.

But then Berkeley Hillel gave me something I didn't have on my own: institutional support.

They made me an interfaith board chair.

That title came with something much more important than a role. It gave me resources, connections, knowledge, and the institutional power of Hillel behind me.

Suddenly, I wasn't just a student who cared about interfaith work.

I had an institution saying: We believe in this, and we believe in you.

I started hosting interfaith events at Hillel. Rabbi Adam participated in a panel with other interfaith leaders. We brought together students from different communities. We organized shared service projects, including volunteering at food banks. We tried climate-related programming.

Not everything worked.

There were plenty of tries and fails. We missed the mark sometimes. Some ideas didn't pan out.

But that's part of what made the experience so valuable. Hillel gave me permission to try.

And when I had an idea, they didn't just say, “That's great.” They helped me make it happen. They gave me the resources and the connections and the know-how.

Most importantly, they gave me the confidence to dream bigger.

I think I took that for granted at the time.

I remember thinking, “Yeah, I'm a leader. This is where I lead.” It didn't occur to me how extraordinary it was that an institution was putting that much trust in a college student.

But that's what Hillel does. They are constantly, sometimes almost invisibly, putting support behind young Jewish people. And because they do it so authentically, it can feel completely natural. You almost don't realize how much they're giving you until you look back.

For me, the effects lasted far beyond college. I wrote my senior thesis about intergroup emotions between Jewish Israelis on campus and Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian students. The work I had begun through interfaith programming became part of my academic work.

And then it became my career.

During my freshman year, Berkeley Hillel had introduced me to the Shalom Hartman Institute through its I Engage program. I was completely captivated by the work they were doing.

After graduation, I ended up working at Hartman in Jewish-Muslim interfaith programming.

Hillel couldn't have shaped my career outcomes more directly.

It wasn't that Hillel handed me a career path. They gave me experiences. They gave me people to learn from. They gave me opportunities to lead.

They gave me connections I wouldn't otherwise have had.

And they gave me the confidence to take an idea seriously enough to see where it could go.

That's what I mean when I say Hillel allowed me to dream bigger. I was already interested in interfaith work. But Hillel resourced me in a way I couldn't have resourced myself. And once someone gives you that kind of support, the possibilities get bigger.

You start to think: What else could I do? Who else could I bring together?

Looking back, I can see a straight line from my time at Berkeley Hillel to the work I do today.

And that line began with someone saying, “Yes. Let's figure out how to make that happen.”