Jonathan Katzeff is a Jewish student at the University of Guelph. And now he has a home there.
Michael Grand, the Guelph Hillel faculty advisor, poses with student leader Erin Temple outside the new Hillel House.
This school year, Guelph’s Hillel, with the help of Hillel Canada through the United Israel Appeal Federations of Canada (UIA), purchased the ninth Hillel House in Canada.
The house, which is an open-concept bungalow, is a five-minute walk from the university and is being rented through funds from UIA.
For Katzeff, a third-year real estate and housing major and the co-president of Guelph’s Hillel, the house is more than just a place to socialize.
“We now have a place. A place for us to run programs, to run Shabbat dinners. A place for the Jews at Guelph to come and be together,” he said. “We now have an actual home.”
Before getting the Hillel House, Guelph’s Hillel was run out of a small office at the university that held around five people.
Hava Goldberg, the director of Guelph’s Hillel, saw that the Jewish community had outgrown this office.
“It’s a tiny little office. It was just a means of us having a place to store our things. We’ve never really had a place to call our own,” she said, adding that events were held in various boardrooms or members’ houses.
According to Goldberg, there are about 1,000 Jewish students at the university, 400 of whom are on Hillel’s mailing list. Three years ago, Hillel estimated that there were 600 to 700 Jewish students.
“This means the community has continued to grow and replace itself. It’s evident on the campus,” she said. “The Jewish population at the University of Guelph has really been growing… It’s important for Jewish students to have a place where they feel comfortable, where they feel at home.”
Which is where the Hillel House comes in. “We’re able to offer a lot of opportunities we couldn’t in the past,” Goldberg said.
One of these opportunities is a Rosh Hashanah dinner, where some 60 students showed up.
The idea for a Hillel House came up around four years ago from a university alumnus and several student leaders.
A proposal was written, an endowment was given through UIA and, after a long search, a house was purchased.
“Right now we’re renting this house to ensure that this is the appropriate location. This is the first step of a longer-term plan to buy and own a facility in Guelph,” Goldberg said.
Goldberg feels the house is a way to strengthen Guelph’s Jewish community.
“We think that the house is helpful in allowing us to reach out to students. First of all, it creates a stronger sense of this being a legitimate organization that has something to offer [students],” she said.
“We have this space that does not just belong to myself – it belongs to every Jewish student on campus. We want Jewish students here to feel like they have something. Like they’re part of a community.”
Yacov Fruchter, the director of emerging campuses for Hillel Canada, agrees.
“[The house] is a place [students] can use to generate ideas and create this safe space where they can develop programming… and also welcome other communities within the university,” he said.
The house is a means of connecting Jews of all backgrounds in Guelph, Fruchter said, as well as creating interfaith opportunities with the Christian and Muslim population on campus.
“[Students] can invite the Christian or Muslim community or any group to participate in what the Jewish community offers,” he said.
“I think, ultimately, what the place is going to be is a space where Jews, regardless of their background, can come. Jewish living doesn’t have to be an enigma on campus.”
