KU Hillel has hired three new additions to their team starting with the 2022 school year.
Avi Blitz, Senior Jewish Educator; Ben Davis, Engagement & Leadership Director; and Maya Griswold, Program Coordinator, all started their new roles in August. They join Suzy Sostrin, Executive Director, and Savannah Kannberg, Donor Relations & Communications Director.
Finding the right people for each role is incredibly important and was worth a careful nationwide search, Suzy Sostrin said.
“Each hire brings so much to our team and our KU Hillel community,” Sostrin said. “They have been hard at work planning an incredible Welcome Week for our students and immediately jumped in, including attending Hillel International’s New Professionals Institute right away. This gave them an opportunity to understand the work each Hillel does and develop relationships with peers at Hillels across the country.”
Avi Blitz, KU Hillel’s Senior Jewish Educator, has a deep understanding of Jewish learning and how to connect that formally and informally to Jewish students. With his graduate studies at Oxford University and Indiana University, including a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Jewish Studies, he looks forward to helping students understand their Judaism better.
As Senior Jewish Educator, he is developing the curriculum for KU Hillel’s weekly Jewish Learning & Leadership courses. Each week will involve creative text study, discussions and opportunities to dig deeper into Judaism.
“One of the many things I look forward to most this year is helping students bridge into Jewish adulthood,” Blitz said. “We are able to give students the freedom to explore their Jewish identity and take that with them long after they leave Lawrence.”
A proud KU Hillel alumnus, Ben Davis has returned to give back to the KU Jewish community. After graduation, Davis worked as a social worker in the foster care system throughout Kansas. While at KU Hillel as a student, he took on many different internships and traveled abroad on three leadership trips.
As Engagement & Leadership Director, Davis’s aim is to empower the next generation of Jewish leaders through Hillel’s leadership development programs and take on the engagement strategy for over a thousand Jewish Jayhawks.
In this new role, he is looking forward to all the community building throughout KU’s tightly knit Jewish community, Davis said.
“I’m excited about seeing the connections grow between new and returning Hillel students throughout this school year,” he said. “I also look forward to helping students develop their own events and explore their leadership potential throughout the semester and beyond.”
KU Hillel is Maya Griswold’s second Hillel. As an undergraduate student, she was involved at the University of Arizona Hillel, including leading its Shabbat services. For the past two years, Griswold worked on her master’s degree at KU and stayed involved at KU Hillel through songleading.
As the Program Coordinator, Griswold will be planning social, religious and community-building events. She is also working with student-songleaders on a variety of Shabbat services throughout the year.
“I am eager to work with so many students, many of whom I have been lucky to know as a grad student here, to create fun and engaging programs,” Griswold said. “Continuing to build KU Hillel’s strong community is an exciting part of my job.”
The KU Hillel team looks forward to planning for the High Holidays and starting another semester of a strong Jewish community at KU.