Prizmah’s newest report demonstrated that day school alumni on campus have a stronger connection to their Jewish identity and to Israel, and more frequent participation in Jewish life on campus, than their peers. Seeking to match our research findings with stories and insights from a campus professional, Odelia Epstein, Prizmah’s director of knowledge, research and data, interviewed Adena Kirstein, executive director of the George Washington University Hillel.
Odelia: Please start by telling us about yourself and your background.
Adena: I was born and raised in Roanoke, Virginia. That starting point very much shaped my sense of Jewish communal life, and how important it is to be a part of it and take a leadership role. Coupled with this was the fact there was no Jewish day school in Roanoke. I felt a yearning and interest in stronger Jewish education, and in opportunities beyond what was available in Roanoke. I spent my formative college years and beyond in New York City, where, oddly, there was often less of a sense of communal responsibility: it’s easy to blend into the crowd and not take as much of a role with Jewish communal life. I always felt the coupling of those two cities and Jewish experiences shaped me into the leader I am today.
I moved to Washington in 2009 and started working at GW Hillel in 2010, first as the assistant director, then as the executive director. I’m the proud mom of three kids, two at Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School and the third hopefully joining them next year.
Odelia: Can you tell us about Jewish life at George Washington University?
Adena: At GW, we know of about 3,000 individuals who raise their hand and say, I want to be part of the Jewish community. Beyond that fact, there are still many questions: Do they have one Jewish parent or two? Are they self-identifying? Are they just curious? But those are the students who have raised their hands to say they want to be a part of Jewish communal life in some way.
Over the past year and a half, as you might imagine, we’ve seen a major surge. We saw nearly twice as many students last year as compared to the year before, and are on track to surpass last year’s number this school year. But interestingly, we’re noticing that they’re more likely to come to lower entry point opportunities. They just want to feel that sense of belonging, to not have to explain themselves and to feel a certain sense of community by just sitting in our building or hanging out with other Jewish students.
The question and challenge for us now is to figure out how to transform that energy that many in the Jewish world are thinking about after October 7 and make sure it sticks. We want those engagements to be depth-driven, helping a student continue to evolve and grow in their Jewish identity development. I want my students to be proud, confident, rooted Jews who are not simply defining that identity based on sadness in the world.
Odelia: On a national level, our research has found that Jewish day school alumni on campus are distinguished from their peers without a Jewish day school education. From your experience at George Washington University, what do you see?
Adena: If I could encapsulate what day school grads have at a Hillel or on a campus that their peers don’t, it’s a sense of Jewish self-confidence. I think a lot about the imagery of a reed. The reed is deeply rooted underneath the water. When the wind comes, the reed can be pliable enough to deal with whatever may come its way. That’s certainly been more pronounced since October 2023.
When I was reflecting on this question, I thought about a day when our kosher dining hall had been closed. It was a minor fast day, Tzom Gedaliah, which admittedly many of our students don’t know about. I was touring around with someone alongside our non-Jewish chef at the entrance to the restaurant.
A student I don’t know very well approached the entrance. We informed her the café was closed and she promptly responds, “Oh—Gedaliah, right?” And I thought to myself, this is a day school grad. It was so obvious to me that she had the knowledge base to make a Jewish choice, what my friend Sarah Hurwitz, in her upcoming book, would call a “knowing Jew.”
Now that doesn’t necessarily mean this student doesn’t eat on Tzom Gedaliah. This young woman was clearly coming to eat lunch that day at the café. When she remembered it was a minor fast day, I’m sure she went to find food somewhere else. This concept of a knowing Jew is one I’m thinking a lot about as it pertains to day school; it’s one thing to reject your tradition or to opt out of challenging Jewish conversations without actually knowing what you’re rejecting. It’s another thing to have the textual, cultural or faith base to make an educated decision about how you want to live your life as a Jew. That feels SO vitally important to me at this moment in time.
To have knowing Jews on campus, not only is it powerful for the individual, but I also think it has ripple effects. Her friend next to her had no idea what she was talking about. I would hope that as they left, she tells her who Gedaliah was and why there is a fast day. That Jewish knowledge base and Jewish self-confidence spreads.
Odelia: Our data suggest that day school grads are four times more likely to feel a strong connection to Israel. What does this look like in day-to-day campus life—whether it’s in student organizations, cultural events or informal conversations?
Adena: This is a question our team has spent a lot of time considering lately. Going back to this Jewish self-confidence piece, day school grads seem to have an intuitively more nuanced view about what’s happening. They understand that not agreeing with an Israeli policy doesn’t mean they aren’t still a Zionist. They don’t feel torn up about it. They don’t feel like if they see something on Instagram, it will throw them off, and they need to make a new decision and figure out who they are and make a new square for themselves to tell the world about.
A hard conversation we’ve been having in Hillel recently is that a small subset of students who are not day school grads have said to us, We know you’ve said it very clearly that yes, you are a Zionist organization. You believe that Israel has the right to exist, and that you also don’t check our Zionist card at the door. We know we’re welcome, and that we don’t have to define our identities on Zionism. And yet every time we walk by your building, there are hostage posters in the windows, and there are yellow ribbons sitting out, and there are Israel magnets on the fridge or Israel mugs in the cupboard. And to us that feels hypocritical. I think the core of what they are asking is, Is the Israel conversation defining us, as a Hillel?
That is a very hard question for me to chew on. My first response is to feel defensive; but then I say, Listen, this is the reality. This is how they’re experiencing it, and we need to consider it.
The reason I share this story is because I feel personally that a day school grad understands intuitively the hostage posters are not in the window because I’m making a political statement as a Hillel. The hostage posters are in the window because my brothers and sisters are in pain, and I feel as a Jew that I need to empathize with that pain and try to help make it better.
I think day school grads don’t have to draw lines in the sand in certain ways. They know what Israel does and does not mean to them. It is a place. It is a state of mind. It is text. It is history. It is holidays. It is so much more than just a political Instagram conversation or a campus protest, and so that helps them navigate the Israel conversation from a very different starting point.
Odelia: Over half of day school alumni feel “very close” to the Jewish community. Could you describe a situation where you witnessed a day school alum taking on a leadership role or uniting the Jewish student community in a meaningful way?
Adena: The joy of being in a job like this for 15 years, and I’m sure for any day school administrator or teacher, is that you get to see cycles of life. A student who was a day school grad came to mind, who arrived as a freshman many moons ago, sadly when his father had just died. He was thinking about saying Kaddish, how he was going to be able to do it in a community that didn’t have a large, observant population. Immediately, he jumped in by necessity, but also because he knew how to. He was able to float more fluidly between Jewish spaces. It didn’t feel like he had to negotiate between Hillel, Chabad or the local Orthodox synagogue. He felt like his people were everywhere, and he floated everywhere, and he’s just a good soul.
He was equipped, when he arrived, to lead his peers. We’re not a Maryland or a Columbia, where there are hundreds of observant students. He understood, It’s on me. Right away, he took on a role as one of our engagement interns, working with students who had never had any Jewish education. He was also the president of our Jewish Student Association.
After college, he returned to a larger Jewish community to teach in a public-school setting. After a very meaningful experience as a teacher and administrator, he is now a day school principal. That story to me is such a beautiful one. His Jewish education had rooted him, but he knew he could use those values in a variety of settings.
Odelia: In your experience, what unique skills or knowledge do day school alumni bring to their college community? Is it textual study, Hebrew language proficiency, or perhaps a sense of communal responsibility—and how does that show up practically?
Adena: For me, the biggest piece is, there’s a certain quiet confidence around Jewish identity. Many students arrive on campus, and they literally lean away. They’re like, I’m kind of Jew-ISH. They lean out. Is that lean-out part of their discomfort? Is it part of their lacking confidence? They don’t feel that they have a place at the Jewish table in the same way that our day school grads do. Day school grads don’t do it in a way of, Look at me, I know so much more than all of you. I think they just feel like, I’m a Jew. You’re a Jew. We’re here together.
That not only serves them well personally, but they also model that for their peers, which is so powerful.
Odelia: Are there any final words you’d like to share?
Adena: All eyes have been on college campuses. People want to know what’s going on, what’s wrong, and they want to put out fires to make things better. I respect and understand why people want to do that, and I’m so grateful to those who do. But I personally am not a firefighter. And in a moment of immense fires, that leads to a natural question: What are we doing here?
In my mind, we’re trying to spark something in people. I firmly believe that any Jew has a small flame within, and the hope is that at Hillel, we can help that flame to strengthen. If they come to campus and that spark has never been brightened, it’s an uphill climb, especially in the world that we’re living in. That, to me, is the ultimate power of a day school education. I pray my children’s fires are being lit each day they walk into school, in ways large and small.
I want to end with a story. The other day we had a meeting with execs from different federation agencies at Milton [Gottesman Jewish Day School]. All were discussing the challenges at hand that we face. In the middle of the meeting, we had to pause, because over the loudspeaker three students started the Birkat Hamazon. A child ended by wishing all a good afternoon. The head of school was next to me and said, That was your daughter, wasn’t it? It was a sweet moment to catch as a parent.
Then an older exec addressed the group and said, I have to tell you, I’ve known about this school for a long time. I remember the challenges around it being built, and I just want us to pause for a minute. How beautiful it is that this meeting just got interrupted because there are hundreds of Jewish children in this school that had to pause and say Birkat Hamazon.
He was exactly right. There is some magic that happens when you are in this immersive experience, and you are learning deeply, and you are connecting the dots textually about holidays and the parsha of the week and our modern world and so much more. How do we work collectively to make sure more students and families feel that day school is a financially feasible choice that is worth making? As a parent and as a Hillel director, I believe it is a choice to provide for your students a certain level of Jewish self-confidence that will serve them in the wider world for many, many years to come.
