Campus Rabbi

Cornell University Hillel

Role Overview

Join the dynamic team at Cornell Hillel as the Campus Rabbi to transform the lives of students and shape the present and future of Jewish life at Cornell University. As an authentic and passionate Jewish teacher, you will provide visionary leadership for the Jewish community at Cornell through grassroots community organizing, spiritual connection, and thought leadership. As a community organizer, you'll reach out, identify, develop and maintain relationships with students both engaged and less engaged with Jewish life. You will increase the level of involvement and commitment of students in all aspects of Jewish life on campus. You'll use your magnetic personality to inspire students to make Judaism integral to their life choices and Jewish values. Working collaboratively with staff and student leaders, you will infuse Hillel's programs and initiatives with meaningful Jewish content and provide frameworks for the continued growth of our students.

You'll get the opportunity to work with high achieving, dynamic students at an Ivy League campus while helping shape future leaders. Cornell students are motivated, intelligent and involved leaders in many areas on campus including clubs, greek organizations, and through academic programs, and are consistently building career oriented skills. You will also have the opportunity to offer spiritual guidance and comfort to a generation of students that recent studies indicate feel isolated and disconnected.

What You'll Do

• Oversee all aspects of religious life and learning at Hillel, in partnership with staff and student leaders.
• Coordinate, implement, be present for and evaluate all aspects of Shabbat and Jewish holiday programming and observances on campus. Be creative in imagining what engagement with the Jewish calendar can look like for a diverse population of students. Recruit students to partner in planning and delivery. Ritual responsibilities include but are not limited to: organizing and leading High Holiday services and Passover seders, as well as creating and leading exciting programming around Hanukkah, Tu B'shavt, and Purim.
• Create educational content and manage our fellowship programs to bring creative, meaningful, and relevant approaches in Jewish learning to students from a wide range of backgrounds.
• Develop students' Jewish literacy and empowerment through regularly scheduled Jewish learning opportunities that span diverse backgrounds, interests and multiple Jewish perspectives. Your teaching will range from traditional Jewish texts to contemporary Jewish wisdom, culture and unconventional Jewish sources.
• Be an accessible and approachable figure on campus, proactively meeting and developing student relationships, including those not previously engaged with Hillel.
• Provide non-judgmental pastoral counseling, support, and when appropriate, referrals to trained professionals.
• Be a Jewish resource for student leaders and for Hillel staff as well as a willing partner and ally to other campus partners (for example, faith groups, affinity groups, faculty, staff, etc). Be an ambassador for Hillel to the Office of Spirituality and Cornell United Religious Works.

What You've Accomplished

• Entrepreneurial mindset. You love discovering new opportunities to impact religious life and learning and you are not afraid to take calculated risks to further your mission. You have a track record of innovation. You are looking to build something.

• Strong Jewish content knowledge of the Jewish tradition. You should have mastery of traditional Jewish texts,contemporary Jewish wisdom, culture and unconventional Jewish sources. You can frame and illuminate contemporary experience through Torah.

• Genuine excitement and infectious passion for celebrating Jewish rituals and festivals and for Torah study.

• Ah'avat Yisreal. You have a deep connection to the Jewish people, to the Jewish future, and to Israel.

• Commitment to Jewish pluralism and relationship-building. You believe that there are multiple, equally valid, paths within Judaism and you are excited about helping individuals discover and journey on the path suitable to them.

• Strategic planning skills. You think strategically about how to reach, and impact students not involved in the traditional networks, and can utilize methodologies of community organizing to manage and strategize for success.

• Solution-driven orientation. You see problems not as impediments but as challenges to overcome or learn from.

• Proactivity. You see what needs to be done, without others having to point it out - and you get it done. You are able to adapt as you seek out opportunities and encounter challenges.

• Organization and efficiency. You keep track of, and responsibility for, the many moving parts in your work, you plan carefully to deliver to agreed timetables. You are punctual and respectful of other people's time.

• Excellent interpersonal skills. You are an effective communicator and a great listener. You are instinctively curious about others and people enjoy talking to you. You have an outgoing personality and love meeting new people. You are comfortable and confident in crowds. You are a people peron.

• Team player. You work well within a team and value the insights and experiences of others. You appreciate structured supervision as a means of accountability as well as a growth opportunity.

What You'll Receive

• The salary range for this role is $100,000 -$135,000 based on experience.

• A comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance, pension plan, life insurance, Long Term Disability (LTD), Flexible Spending Plan, generous vacation/sick time, and parental leave.

• Great professional development, mentoring, and skill building opportunities.

• A highly-motivated, skilled, passionate team of colleagues invested in your success.

• Cornell University University perks include discounted gym and library membership.

About Cornell Hillel

Cornell Hillel is housed in Anabel Taylor Hall, home of the Cornell United Religious Works. Jewish students make up approximately one-quarter of the student body on the Ithaca campus, approximately 2,500 students. Cornell Hillel currently engages a talented professional team of 13 full time and one part-time professional. Cornell Hillel is currently in the process of a capital campaign to build a new home for Hillel on campus - a $30 million project that is expected to take five years. This is an exciting period of time to be involved in a growing organization - already one of the top ten Hillels in the country.

Cornell Hillel is located in Ithaca, NY, which combines small town life with a world class academic/college town community. Ithaca has been named one of the top 100 places to live, a top 10 recreation city, the best green place to live, and one of the "foodiest" towns in America. Cornell University is one of the world's foremost institutions of higher education, with seven undergraduate schools and five graduate schools located in Ithaca, NY, in the Finger Lakes Region of Central New York State.

Cornell Hillel is affiliated with Hillel International. Hillel International enriches the lives of Jewish students so they may enrich the Jewish people and the world, and envisions a world where every student is inspired to make an enduring commitment to Jewish life, learning and Israel.