Lesley Matsa

When I graduated from Berkeley, I didn't immediately go into Jewish communal work.

I was a math major.

I went into management consulting.

On paper, it made sense.

I was working in my field.

The work was intellectually challenging.

I was using the skills I had studied.

And then I reached a point where I realized I was spending essentially all of my waking hours working on something that was academically interesting to me—

and that I didn't really care about in my heart.

That was a difficult realization.

Work takes up so much of your life.

If I was going to give that much time and energy to something, I wanted to care about it.

So I started thinking backward.

What had I done in my life that actually felt meaningful?

What experiences had made me feel useful?

What work had given me the feeling that my effort mattered?

The answer I kept coming back to was Berkeley Hillel.

Not because I had been an employee there as a student.

Because I had been a student leader.

I remembered what it felt like to build community.

To create Jewish experiences.

To take responsibility.

To help make a place warm and welcoming for other people.

That was the work that had felt meaningful.

So I made a change.

I left consulting.

And I went back to Berkeley Hillel—this time as a professional.

I worked for Adam Weisberg, who had also been such an important mentor to me when I was a student.

Financially, it wasn't exactly an upward move.

I took about a 40% pay cut.

But I like to say I got about a 300% happiness increase.

It was absolutely the right decision.

And I never really looked back.

I've been working in the Jewish community ever since.

Today, I'm the Chief Operating Officer at Mem Global, an organization serving Jewish young adults around the world.

I've had the opportunity to spend my career helping build Jewish community and supporting the next generation.

I also spent many years serving on the board of Northwestern Hillel, including time as board chair.

When I think about the path from Berkeley student to Jewish professional, the through-line feels very clear.

Hillel showed me what meaningful work felt like before I knew that was what I was looking for.

Coming back to Berkeley Hillel as a staff member reinforced that.

It was an incredible place to work.

Adam was an amazing boss.

I felt deeply invested in—not just as an employee who needed certain skills for my current job, but as a person and as a professional who was going to continue growing.

There was an attitude of:

Let's not only teach you what you need to do today.

Let's help you become better at what you do.

Let's help you grow because that's good for you, and it's good for the Jewish community.

And the work itself mattered.

I joined the staff during the Second Intifada, when Berkeley was dealing with issues around Israel and antisemitism that many other campuses had not yet faced.

It could be a difficult environment.

Students needed support.

They needed a safe place.

They needed somewhere they could process what was happening.

But they also needed joy.

That part was critical.

We couldn't spend every hour having hard conversations about Israel.

We still had barbecue.

We still had Chanukah parties.

We still celebrated.

We still created moments when Jewish life felt vibrant and fun.

That combination was incredibly meaningful to me.

Hillel could say:

We are here when this is hard.

And also:

Jewish life is not only about what is hard.

Come celebrate.

Come eat.

Come laugh.

Come be part of something.

Having just left a career where I couldn't always see the meaning in what I was doing, the contrast was enormous.

At Hillel, I could see it.

I could see what our presence meant to students.

I could see what it meant to hold a safe space.

I could see what it meant to help students lead.

I could see joy happening in front of me.

And I thought:

Yes.

This is what I want to spend my time doing.

Years later, I still am.

There's a direct line from the young student leader I was at Berkeley Hillel to the Jewish professional I am today.

Hillel didn't just give me a community in college.

It helped me figure out what kind of work would make my life meaningful.

For me, apparently, that was worth a 40% pay cut.

And definitely a 300% happiness increase.