IC News

At its annual Global Assembly to honor outstanding professionals and campuses, Hillel International awarded Lauren Goldberg, Ithaca College’s executive director of Hillel and interim director of the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, with its highest professional honor, as she was one of eight recognized as Richard M. Joel Exemplars of Excellence. The award is given to professionals “whose remarkable passion and outstanding devotion to the Jewish campus community, for enriching the lives of Hillel students and ensuring that the organization reflects a culture of excellence, sets a standard for all Hillel professionals to emulate.”

“I’ve worked for Hillel as an organization for over 11 years,” Goldberg said. “This is the most aspirational award that you could win. I think a lot of people struggle with imposter syndrome, and in this type of work, you watch others on social media and it always seems like someone else’s work is really shining. To be recognized in our small community is the greatest honor.

“I truly believe that what’s happening on this campus is worth this award,” she continued. “I think it’s reflective of the vibrant, self-sustaining, incredibly student-driven community that we have right now. It’s reflective of everyone’s work.”

Hillel International President and CEO Adam Lehman praised Goldberg during the assembly. “Lauren represents Hillel at its best: uplifting and inspiring students, and building a thriving Jewish student community,” he said. “Hillel’s mission is more important now than ever, which is why we’re elated to honor leaders like Lauren who go above and beyond in bettering the lives of Jewish students and their campus communities.”

Some of the work being undertaken at IC currently includes becoming a part of the Hillel International Campus Climate Initiative (CCI) for the 2021-2022 academic year. The CCI collaborates with college administrations, aiming to make a positive environment for Jewish students to combat antisemitic bias incidents and hate crimes. It also creates awareness of how antisemitism manifests in contemporary life, so that Jewish students and allies can fight against it and educate others.

Additionally, Hillel partnered with Swipe Out Hunger, a program that seeks to end food insecurity for campuses by allowing students with unlimited meal plans to offer guest meal passes to others in need.

Involvement like this has not gone unnoticed by students.

“Our engagement level is really through the roof, especially considering the kinds of challenges that COVID posed for us in the past two years,” Goldberg said. “We really didn’t miss a beat and transitioned quite seamlessly to whatever context we needed to be in. And now that we are completely back in person, our engagement was greater than it had been for many, many years.”

That’s great for Goldberg, whose favorite aspect of the job is working with students.

“IC students are special,” she said. “I’ve been at a lot of colleges, and there’s a unique culture here that I think brings a certain student that is looking for community. What I’ve found is IC students are really in it to collaborate, and to build something together. And I think that’s what we’ve found.”