Last month, 10 students and two staff from KU Hillel traveled to both Poland and Israel for a leadership trip.
The idea for a leadership trip began a few years ago; the pandemic halted plans until travel restrictions were lifted. KU Hillel has offered similar trips in the past, but none since COVID-19 hit. The idea came together with a semester-long learning fellowship in partnership with the Jewish Community Relations Bureau|American Jewish Committee (AJC). The trip took students to Poland and then to Israel to attend the AJC Global Forum.
Avi Blitz, senior Jewish educator at KU Hillel, did a lot of the planning for the trip, including booking tour guides and educators. The cost for students was $1,000, but any student who partook in the learning cohort only paid for half of that.
“The primary goal of the trip to Poland was to look at Jewish Poland,” said Ben Davis, assistant director at KU Hillel. Students had dinner with various Jewish communities across the country and learned about Jewish history in Poland.
The Polish leg of the trip began in Krakow and ended in Warsaw. The students visited the Auschwitz concentration camp and went to the Jewish Historical Institute and a Jewish funeral home.
“In every city, we were able to see what it looked like during the 1930s,” said Jake Niefeld, a recent graduate of KU. “Also with that, we went to Tel Aviv and were able to pair it all together, which I thought was really special.”
Blitz felt it was important for the students to see how important Jewish life is in Poland today. “We met with the chief rabbi of Poland in Warsaw,” he said, “and I think we really examined some of the issues around Jewish politics in Poland today.”
In Israel, they stayed in Tel Aviv for the AJC Global Forum. Some students were able to travel to various cities based upon what the forum had to offer, and all were able to attend seminars by Jewish leaders, educators and speakers.
“We titled the learning cohort the ‘Leadership and Advocacy Cohort,’” Davis said. “We wanted the students to gain some broader perspective and tools to be Jewish leaders in their community, whether that’s on campus [or after college]. And [we want students to] be able to have the tools to respond to… antisemitism, anti-Zionism or just political confrontations so they can be leaders in the communities.”
The students met with Sarah Markowitz and Gavriela Geller from Jewish Community Relations Bureau | AJC Kansas City once a week this past spring semester to study through a curriculum that had been planned out. Niefeld added that for the coming fall semester, the students on the trip have a plan for an advocacy project on the KU campus.
Because students involved with KU Hillel are interacting with others more on campus than KU Hillel staff, the staff want them to be a leading presence for the community to respond appropriately if they do face an uncomfortable situation.
KU Hillel staff emphasized that the work does not end with the cohort or the trip, but it is merely the beginning.
“I had one of the most amazing experiences with this group of students,” Blitz said. “They are the most lovely people, engaged, curious, attentive, inquisitive. They were lovely to travel with, kind to each other. It was wonderful. I thought it was a great group, and it was a privilege to meet them.”