HILLEL HONOREE Sharon Margolin Ungerleider is joined by Oregon Hillel Executive Director Hal Applebaum at the Oct. 7 dinner held in her honor. At left, Wayne L. Firestone, who took the helm of national Hillel in 2006, spoke at the event.
Schnitzer donation caps Hillel tribute to Ungerleider
By Amy Kaufman
Capping an evening of tributes to Sharon Margolin Ungerleider on Oct. 7, Portland philanthropist Harold Schnitzer contributed $50,000 in her honor to pay off a project close to Ungerleider’s heart—the recent expansion and remodeling of Hillel House at University of Oregon.
About 110 people, including scores of students who are active in Hillel at U of O, attended the celebration sponsored by Oregon Hillel’s board of directors in recognition of Ungerleider’s 15 years of leadership. Hal Applebaum, executive director of Oregon Hillel, extended a special thanks to Portland-area board members Lynne Bartenstein and Naomi Leavitt for organizing the event, held at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center.
Guest speaker Wayne L. Firestone, president of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life in Washington, D.C., said the “indefatigable” Ungerleider has helped transform Hillels throughout the United States and around the world, serving on committees that supervise and maintain Hillels in the former Soviet Union, Latin America and Israel.
“One of her most fascinating projects was bringing the Moscow Women’s Choir to the U.S. for a tour,” he said.
Firestone characterized the current generation of Jewish students as “seekers,” not joiners.
“Jewish students are taught as a value, even an entitlement, to ask questions,” he said. He said this tradition is “transmitted every year at Pesach” in the asking of the Four Questions.
He said Hillel students’ reactions to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Columbia University exemplified their ability to ask difficult questions and respond effectively to viewpoints they find repugnant.
“Displaying a particularly high degree of sophistication and acumen, they built a stunningly broad coalition of student groups … and assembled an all-day ‘speak out’ … while Ahmadinejad was there,” he said.
In addition, he said, “dozens of students attended a lengthy seminar organized by the Israel on Campus Coalition and its member organizations, and learned how to harness their frustration and channel it in a constructive manner.”
Firestone said today’s Jewish students prefer to manifest their Jewish values through action. He said Hillel students have been extremely successful in Teach For America, a national corps that employs recent graduates of all backgrounds to teach in low-income schools. National Hillel encourages participation in this program, he said.
“According to Teach For America’s own data,” he said, “Hillel has the second-highest representation of alumni in Teach for America of all collegiate faith-based organizations.”
After completing a five-year strategic planning process, Hillel has embarked on “a bold new mission: to ‘enrich the lives of Jewish undergraduate and graduate students so that they may enrich the Jewish people and the world,’” said Firestone.
Danny Kalman, a U of O senior, spoke of his increasing involvement in Hillel, which led to a year of study in Israel, “the single most meaningful event in my life.” He said at the time he was introduced to Hillel, he had “no connection with Judaism.”
“Now I get to reach out to other students and offer them what Hillel gave to me,” he said.
Ungeleider expressed her gratitude to people too numerous to mention.
“It really did take all of us,” she said.
Among others, she thanked her “key partner, the Schnitzer family,” Firestone “at the helm” of Hillel, the Portland and Eugene Jewish federations and “our great friend and partner Charlie Schiffman,” “our phenomenal, gifted director, Hal Applebaum,” John Moss, executive director of the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation, her former husband Steven Ungerleider and Hillel students, parents and donors.
“For me,” she said, “the key is my phenomenal intellectual, loving, kind, brilliant daughters, Shoshana and Ariel, who are here. All the nights I wasn’t at home … I want to thank you for your patience.”
“There is a resounding message in what we do,” said Ungerleider. “It’s about creating relevant pathways for young Jews to explore, and our people’s call to do the work of tikkun olam. That’s what we dream about at Hillels all over North America, and now we have about 27 in the FSU and five in Latin America and 10 in Israel, and God willing [we will have] Hillels in Europe.
“Now, it’s time for Hillels at PSU (Portland State University), Reed College, Willamette University,” she said.