History on the Hill: Tufts Hillel

In the 1970s, there was no Granoff Family Hillel Center, no Rohr Chabad House and no other university-affiliated space for Jewish community members at Tufts. There was only a closet in the basement of Curtis Hall, to which students gained access by removing a refrigerator from it in order to turn it into an office for what was to become Tufts Hillel.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Tufts had strict quotas on the number of Jewish students admitted. According to an article written in Tufts Magazine's Winter 2015 edition, this policy was influenced by similar policies enacted at Harvard, limiting the admission of Eastern European Jews and Italian Catholics. Former Tufts College president John Albert Cousens (1919-1937) instituted quotas on students from specific ethnic groups in 1922, the same year as Harvard.

According to Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, Neubauer Executive Director for Tufts Hillel, policies began to change in the 1950s and 1960s. The 1970s were a decade filled with antiwar and anticolonial protests at Tufts, as well as greater attention to issues of diversity. It was in this context that Tufts Hillel formed, he said. 

“By the 1970s, there was a substantial Jewish population at Tufts, but Hillel had never been developed," Summit, who arrived at Tufts in 1979, said.

Tufts Hillel's first full-time director Moshe Waldoks began in 1974. While studying at Rabbinical school, Summit, who is now in his 38th year at Tufts, said that he was invited by Waldoks to take part in the growth of the Tufts chapter.

In 1979, he proceeded to take over as director of Tufts Hillel, which continued to be a relatively small operation. 

"At that point, I had an office in Curtis Hall and all of Hillel was a relatively small room," Summit said.

Aside from Summit, only one other part-time employee worked there, he said, and attendance at Hillel events was small. 

“If we had 10 people here on a Friday night, that was a nice turnout,” Summit said. 

He emphasized that the small nature of Tufts Hillel was not a reflection of the wishes of the student body.

“Students wanted a vibrant Jewish community," he explained. "There had just never been one here."

Rob Hirsch (E '81) said he recalls the percentage of Jews among the student body when he was a student being similar to the number today, at approximately 25 percent, according to Tufts Hillel's website. However, many of the other Jewish students were not observant in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and so kosher dining options, Friday night Shabbat dinners and religious services were minimal, he said.

"From my arrival [at Tufts], I immediately found the problem of wanting to keep kosher and having no solution for that at Tufts, wanting services but having little options for that," Hirsch said.

After his first year at Tufts, Hirsch and a few other students petitioned the newly-formed Tufts Hillel and the university to establish a kosher kitchen in the Hillel office, which had since moved from the Curtis Hall basement to the building's second floor.

"We got an oven from the university and got a refrigerator from the university, but we supplied our own pots, pans and dishes," he said. "We formed a kosher kitchen with six people participating. We were self-managed, other than some equipment from the university."

These informal gatherings for Shabbat dinner soon grew into religious services, which were held in what is now Brown and Brew Coffee House. By the time Hirsch graduated, approximately 25-30 people were attending services and dinners.

"Dinner was held in the office, and out into the hallway when necessary," he added. "We made a long table as far as we could."

Hirsh attributed much of Hillel's growth to Summit's arrival in 1979.

"He came with energy and with a mission," he said. "At that time, the fundraising was almost zero. He has grown that fundraising tremendously and made [Hillel] an important part of Tufts life."

According to Summit, in the 1990s, it became clear that Tufts was a university with a substantial Jewish population, but still lacked an adequate Hillel center.

Summit said that other similar universities already had a Hillel center on campus. Harvard Hillel, for example, began in 1944 and moved to its own building in 1993. 

A group of parents and alumni came together in 1994 to finally give Tufts’ Jewish population a suitable Hillel center, Summit said, noting that  Tufts was supportive of the building of the center, but did not fund it. Financed in part by the Granoff family, who also helped build the Granoff Music Center, Tufts Hillel as it stands today opened in 1995. 

Since then, the program has continued to grow. According to Summit, about 60 percent of the Jewish students on campus are engaged with Hillel in some way. There are also students who do not identify as Jewish but still participate in some of Hillel’s programming. 

Hirsch, whose son is a junior at Tufts and whose two daughters also attended Tufts, said he has noticed a growth in the percentage of religious Jewish students at Tufts, particularly of Conservative Jews, since he was a student. He believes this is due to the stronger presence of Tufts Hillel.

"Having a Hillel sponsored and run Shabbat and services has attracted more Conservative Jews to Hillel than previously," he noted. "It's interesting to me that it still did not attract an Orthodox component. I think... [the fact] that Hillel is Reform and Conservative-centric makes an Orthodox Jew not want to look at Tufts."

Even though the percentage of Conservative, Orthodox and practicing Jews in general was small when he was a student, he recalled that certain events, such as major Jewish holidays, attracted even nonobservant Jewish students.

"We had services on the High Holidays and on Purim, because it was a drinking holiday," he said. "What more do college students like to do than drink? And it was legal then. So...there was more widespread religious observances [on holidays in which] almost all Jews participated in some way."

Since its inception, Summit said Tufts Hillel has undergone many changes in programming.

“A major [recent] change has been our realization that we don't want to only program for the students who get involved and connect naturally to Jewish life," Summit said. "We want to develop programing that will appeal to students who have not yet explored their Judaism, but want to explore it."

Senior Harry Weissman, who is the president of Tufts Hillel, said Hillel is working to be more intentional about its programming and ensure that students involved with Hillel are excited about the events they are planning and attending.

"It's...this theme of programming with purpose, which is something we are really trying to drive home this year," he said. "Not programming because you have to, but programming for something you are personally passionate about or think the community will be passionate about and enjoy. The idea is that our programs will be better because people planning them will be more passionate about them, and also it's better for the community, because individuals now have a better way to really actively participate in what goes on at Hillel."

Miranda Willson contributed reporting on this article.