FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


U.VA.'S HILLEL CENTER WORKS TO BROADEN ITS APPEAL
REACHING OUT TO DIVERSE JEWISH STUDENT BODY

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Oct. 1 -- The ability to adapt has enabled the 
Jewish people to survive for thousands of years and that's what the Hillel 
Center must do to survive and prosper into the next century, said Aaron Bisno, 
rabbi of The Hillel Jewish Center at The University of Virginia. 

	Hillel has been serving the U.Va. community for more than 50 years 
as a center of Jewish life, a source of Sabbath and holiday services, and a 
place for Jewish students to meet. But those missions are no longer 
sufficient to meet the varied needs of the diverse Jewish community on the 
U.Va. Grounds, Bisno believes.

	Beginning his second year as the rabbi of U.Va.'s Hillel Center, 
Bisno is working to realize his vision of what the center can be. He is 
launching new programs, reaching out to the University's Jewish students, 
faculty and staff, seeking new funding for programming, and planning to 
raise money to renovate the center's roomy-but-down-at-the-heels building. 
The goal is to ratchet up the programming and facilities to a level 
commensurate with the academic reputation of the country's top public 
university.

	New programming designed to reach out to the diverse Jewish student 
body is at the top of Bisno's list of priorities. He sees three groups of 
Jewish students on Grounds: 20 percent who will never become involved with 
Hillel; 20 percent who are "engaged" and will take the initiative to become 
involved; and 60 percent who might become "empowered" to get involved if the 
right opportunity came their way.

	So, Bisno recently brought on board Julie Reisler, a University of 
Rochester (N.Y.) graduate and Jewish Campus Service Corps fellow who will be 
developing new programs to draw the 60 percent of potentially "empowered" 
Jewish students to Hillel.

	"The way I measure success is not the number of students who show up 
for Friday night services, or take trips to Israel, or show up for the High 
Holidays," Bisno said. "It's the degree to which we can create opportunities 
for Jewish students to feel good about being Jewish. The whole purpose of the 
idea of 'engagement' is not outreach to get others to be like us, but to 
create something they can call their own."

	Among Reisler's projects are handing out free honey, apples, candy 
and recipes for Rosh Hashanah and making goodie bags for first-year students 
with information on High Holiday services tucked inside. She'll also be 
organizing a Jewish student-faculty reception in November (in the Garden 
Room at the Colonnade Hotel, at 4 p.m. on Nov. 4, R.S.V.P. at 295-4963) and 
a kosher wine-tasting event for graduate students on Oct. 18 (time and place 
to be announced) conducted by a Washington-based kosher wine expert. In the 
spring, she hopes to bring in a Holocaust survivor to speak.

	Reisler also will be working closely with student advisors in 
residential halls to organize other activities, such as Friday night Shabbat 
services or Passover seders in the dining halls.

	And links with U.Va.'s Religious Studies Department will be 
strengthened in a number of ways, including arranging new for-credit programs 
and activities, Bisno said.

	As part of Hillel's efforts to make more students feel welcome, 
Bisno has eliminated the $30 annual dues that the organization collected in 
the past. While charging dues brought in some money for operations, it more 
often discouraged students who hadn't paid them from attending Hillel events, 
Bisno believes. He hopes that cutting out dues will lift that barrier to 
access.

	While new programming is one side of the coin, funding is the other. 
And changes at the national level of the Hillel organization are driving 
local chapters to become more self-sufficient. B'nai B'rith, an international 
service organization that founded the Hillel Foundation chapter at U.Va. in 
1941, is no longer fully funding it, but encouraging the foundation to line 
up donors on its own.

	At the same time, the national Hillel Foundation has adopted a 
philosophy of "interdependent self-sufficiency," further placing the burden 
of funding on local organizations. 

	Meanwhile, the Council of Jewish Federations recently advised Bisno 
that the Hillel Center's annual operating budget, given the size of the 
University and the caliber of students at U.Va., should be about $250,000, 
an increase of more than 40 percent over the current budget. A significantly 
larger budget would allow him to increase his staff from three to five 
full-time employees by adding a program director and a development director 
to focus on fundraising.

	So, Bisno has drawn up a strategic fundraising plan built on a 
broader base of financial support. Initially, he expects to reach out to 
alumni and parents not only in Charlottesville but also in Richmond, Hampton 
Roads and Northern Virginia. Later, he may cast his net even more widely. 

	Also, breaking with the recent past, Bisno is asking for donations 
($100 for individuals, $250 for families) from Jewish faculty and staff in 
exchange for tickets to the High Holiday services, although he stresses that 
no one will be turned away.

	The size of the Jewish population at U.Va. is hard to determine, 
but using an estimate of 8 percent of the student body of 18,000 students, 
Bisno figures there are about 1,400 Jewish students at U.Va. Last year, 
hundreds of students participated in a broad range of Hillel 
activities.           

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	For more information, call Rabbi Aaron Bisno at (804) 295-4963.  
Television reporters should contact our TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.

                                                             October 1, 1997