In partnership with The Associated’s global partner, The Jewish Agency for Israel, each year the Associated provides support for four young Israelis to work as key members of the Hillel staff at Hopkins, Towson University, Goucher College and University of Maryland, College Park. Israel Campus Fellows provide opportunities for students to discuss and form connections with an Israeli, educated and inspire students to forge enduring commitments to Israel.
Tell us about your life in Israel prior to coming to the United States.
Before coming to the United States, I was living in my parents’ house in Ramat Gan. In the Army, I served as a cyber security analyst in the intelligence corps. I had the opportunity to deal with a lot of sensitive information and work with high ranking officers. While I was in the Army, I started law school at Ono Academic College, a small private school near Tel Aviv.
What made you decide to become an Israel Campus Fellow and what was the process like for applying?
Before applying to this job, I worked at Camp Ramah in California. There, for the first time, I was exposed to the life of a Jewish community here in the States. After finishing that summer, I had plans to go to med school until I received a phone call from my supervisor from camp telling me about the job at Hopkins and suggested that I apply. At first, I wasn’t sure, but then I remembered how much influence I had on the small community of kids that I worked with that summer and understood that if I work with older people for a longer period I can connect them to Israel and their Jewish identity even more and so I decided to apply. The process to become an Israel Fellow is quite long. You go through a series of four interviews until you get assigned to the different campuses for the last round of interviews. After the first interview with Hopkins I knew it was the perfect fit.
What is your role as an Israel Campus Fellow at Hopkins?
The Israel Fellow’s most important job is to engage the Jewish students on campus and strengthen their connection to Israel. I’m also in charge of all Israel programing that the different student’s groups on campus are having and advise students about programs and different opportunities for them in Israel. Click to read full article.
