Leadership roles come with its perks and challenges, and UMD Hillel Director Ari Israel is no exception to that sentiment.
Ari has dedicated 23 years of his life to the University of Maryland. He has played a key role in building up the Jewish community on campus during that time, and will be taking that community to a new home with the opening of the new Hillel Building in the coming months.
Ari has been a rabbi for 30 years, practicing first as the executive director of the University of Rochester area Hillel, where he was the rabbi for four universities before coming to College Park in 2003 to be closer to family.
“Family is a very important value for me,” he said.
During his junior year of college, the Soviet Union collapsed. Israel was recruited to go to the former Soviet Union to teach in a Jewish school. While on this trip, Ari realized that he didn’t want to continue pursuing the pre-med track he was on, but instead, shift his focus to Jewish education and community building.
Israel’s favorite part of his job is having the ability to “schmooze with students.” He loves building relationships with students and seeing how well the community is interconnected.
“The University of Maryland has become a strong gathering point for Jewish students,” Ari said. “It’s sort of a magnet. It’s a strong Jewish community, [and] it has brought a lot of diversity and opportunity.”
Isaac Shiner, a senior journalism and government and politics double major, has experienced Israel’s leadership and mentorship firsthand.
“I’ve always seen Ari as a mentor and a leader,” Shiner said. “He’s always made himself available to student leaders, to everyday students to know that he’s there to be by your side if you ever experience anything that’s hard for you or uncomfortable for you because of your Jewish identity.”
Ari, even with his leadership position, views himself as an equal to his peers and students.
“I believe that I’m no different than anyone else. We’re in this together. I’m older, that’s a fact. I went to rabbinic school, that’s a fact. But I’m not any different. I’m not holier or better than anyone else, and I don’t want to be,” Ari said.
Ever since he started in his role at UMD, Ari has envisioned outgrowing the current Hillel building and moving to a new place. Now, 23 years later, that vision is becoming reality with construction starting just over a year ago. The hope is for the building to have a soft launch in the spring ahead of a grand opening next fall.
According to Ari, when he came to UMD, the Jewish community was already growing out of their current space, such as when they replaced a solid wall for a folding wall to create more space.
Ari has worked tirelessly with the university and students to not just raise money from donors, partners and investors to fundraise, but also design the new building itself. He called it a “big team effort” and that he was glad to be a part of it.
The fundraising isn’t done, though. So far, they have raised $18 million. According to Ari, they still need about another $6 million.
When deciding where to build the new Hillel building, the university called Ari to tell him about a spot that could potentially become the construction site for the new building. The moment Ari heard the address—7505 Yale Ave.— and put it into Google Maps, he knew that it was the right place without having to go see it in person.
“Bashert,” Ari said over the phone.
Bashert is a Yiddish word that means serendipity, an unplanned fortunate discovery. The first UMD Hillel property, created in 1941 until 1981, was in the same spot, with the same address of 7505 Yale Ave.
“Bashert,” he repeated. “We’re going home.”
While some people would see a nearly finished project like the new Hillel building as a stopping point, taking their foot off the gas pedal, Ari is the opposite. He has more visions and plans for the continuation of expanding Hillel’s reach on campus to more students.
“There’s some vision ideas I have about building centers for leadership, centers for social justice, centers for Israel identity.” Ari said. “A center for understanding and engaging around anti-semitism, not creating it, not fighting it, but educating people about what it means.”
Outside of Hillel, Israel spends a lot of time with his family. He plays golf with his six children, and while he’s, admittedly, not great at it, based on how many golf balls he loses, he finds it fun and entertaining.
He also enjoys traveling and photography. He makes an effort to visit Israel twice per year to see his family who lives there, calling the Jewish homeland an important piece of his identity.
Ari emphasizes looking to the future, rather than being contemptuous with where he is. He believes in the importance of moving forward and making progress.
“I like to say that Maryland Hillel is not just ahead of the Jewish curve; we are setting it,” Ari said. “Hillel is not where you go, but who you can become.”
