PHOTO: From left, Greater Portland Hillel staff members Andy Friedland, Jesse Weiss and Linoy Yechieli are introduced by Executive Director Hannah Sherman at the organization's "Hear Our Voices" fundraiser Thursday, Mar. 20, at Lewis and Clark College in Portland. (Rockne Roll/The Jewish Review)

By ROCKNE ROLL
The Jewish Review
Greater Portland Hillel recognized its past, present and future in front of a standing-room-only audience Thursday, Mar. 20 at its “Hear Our Voices” fundraiser at Lewis and Clark College in Portland. 
“Seventeen years ago, one student from Lewis and Clark and one student from [Portland State University] identified a need for a Hillel in the Portland area,” Greater Portland Hillel President Barry Benson explained in his opening remarks. “At the time, the BDS movement was gaining a foothold, not only in Portland, but in the surrounding communities.”
PDX Hillel has grown rapidly since then, expanding to a professional staff of four with activity on seven campuses in the Portland area. 
“Unfortunately,” Benson continued, “the issues that were present 17 years ago have only multiplied since Oct. 7.”
“Our work has fundamentally changed since Oct. 7,” Executive Director Hannah Sherman noted, “from additional mental health and wellness support to helping students file bias reports and contact lawyers and creating more programs to fight antisemitism through Jewish joy, we are showing students that they are not alone.”
Changed – and grown.
“Our breadth engagement, which is one to five touch points with an individual student has increased by 35 percent since last year, and our depth, which is six or more touch points, has increased by an astounding 95 percent,” Sherman continued. 
This has been boosted by the addition of a new full-time staff member, Director of Jewish Student Life Andy Friedland. The fundraiser coincided with his birthday, but he explained that it was another birthday that was more motivating in the work he was doing at Hillel – his grandmother, who turned 91 earlier in the week. 
“Eighty-one years ago this week, during her 10th birthday party, the Nazi army marched past her apartment and into Budapest and her guests all left, and my family’s lives were forever changed,” Friedland said. “It would have been easy and understandable for her to retreat into fatalism, cynicism, or despair. Instead, she remains one of the brightest lights in the lives of all who know her.”
Friedland had previously worked with the Anti-Defamation League in Connecticut, responding to incidents of antisemitism; work he was honored to do, he explained. But he found he needed something more.
“I didn’t want the awfulness of the world to grind me down. I wanted to be making silly faces in my 90s,” he said. I finally internalized [my grandmother’s] message about how she gets her revenge, and here at PDX Hillel, I get the opportunity to live it every day. Instead of focusing only on the worst things that befall Jewish people, my job at Hillel allows me to focus on what makes a Jewish life joyful and meaningful.”
Jesse Weiss, in the closing months of her first year as PDX Hillel’s Springboard Fellow, recounted some of the journey that brought her to work with the organization, first as a student at Reed College and now in her fellowship. 
“My fellow [Jewish Student Union] members constantly agreed that what we needed was help with advocacy to our administration and PDX Hillel helped facilitate that,” Weiss said. “It felt so natural to continue the work I was doing, but on a larger scale, with the ability to reach so many more students.”
One of the moments Weiss reflected on was an Israel-Palestinian Conflict dialogue during her senior year at Reed facilitated by Linoy Yechieli, PDX Hillel’s Jewish Agency for Israel Fellow. Yechieli will be departing at the end of the academic year, her third with Hillel. 
“In our ‘Hillel without Walls’ that is constantly expanding and growing, we need to be creative every single day to find new ways to connect our community with each other. Yet every challenge made our successes even more meaningful,” Yechieli said. “I hope my work at Hillel shows you that true connection come from sharing our unique stories and caring for one another. The lesson I take with me is simple: Resilience is not just about recovering from challenging times. It is about growing stronger, finding light in dark moments, and using creativity to heal.”
“Linoy has been my partner in crime for three years, and we are very sad to see her leave,” Sherman said.
A newer addition to the Hillel team in Portland has been board member Galit Feinreich, who is also the mother of this year’s Greater Portland Hillel Future Leader Award winner, Elliott Negrin. Feinreich remembers dropping Negrin off for his first day at Lewis and Clark. 
“I saw someone wearing a blue shirt with the word ‘Portland‘ in Hebrew letters, and I made an embarrassingly eager bee line sprint for the Hillel table,” Feinreich recalled. “For whatever reason, that did not dissuade Elliott.” 
Feinreich, who is Israeli American, explained the worries that come with her connections in the United States and Israel as the Jewish state remains at war. Fortunately, Hillel has helped her worries number one fewer.
“What I didn’t have to worry about was my kids,” she said. “That’s because I saw this board, Hannah and her staff and these incredible students, up close, and knew that they were in such capable hands. I appreciate so much that Hillel has provided a sanctuary where our kids can fully be themselves, whether that means fighting the insanity, advocating and educating or just having a joyous college experience, all equally valid approaches to dealing with what’s going on.”
“I have been incredibly fortunate to have had these passionate, energetic, kind and thoughtful leaders all around to mentor me,” Negrin said of PDX Hillel’s professional staff. 
Sherman concluded by addressing some of the challenges that PDX Hillel has faced in recent months, from the encampments of last spring to more recent disruptions of Hillel events on campuses. 
“Jewish joy is welcoming 50 first-year students to campus with smiling faces at our annual New Student Orientation Shabbat at Lewis and Clark. Jewish joy is watching a school bus full of 70 students from all our campuses come apple picking for Rosh Hashanah. Jewish joy is putting a sukkah in the center of campus, a physical symbol of being proudly and publicly Jewish. Jewish joy is delivering matzo ball soup to students when they’re sick and just need a taste of home, and Jewish joy is having community members, like so many of you in this room, generously open up your homes and invite students over for a home cooked meal during our annual Shabbat Across Portland,” she said. “This is where PDX Hillel makes the difference.