Job Description

The Hillel Foundation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, located at The Margie K. and Louis N. Cohen Center for Jewish Life, seeks a skilled Program Director for the largest Hillel in the state of Illinois. The successful candidate will work to strengthen and sustain a meaningful, vibrant and pluralistic campus Jewish community through programmatic and administrative initiatives.

With around 3,500 hundred Jewish students, some 10% of the student body, the Cohen Center Hillel boasts a two-year-old state-of-the-art building and a talented professional team, including an Israel Fellow, a JLIC rabbinic couple, and an Engagement Coordinator, as well as dedicated student leaders. The Cohen Center Hillel sends more than 125 students on Taglit Birthright Israel every year, hosts 85 – 160 students every week for Shabbat, and connects hundreds of students to meaningful Jewish experiences.

The Cohen Center Hillel is the first Hillel ever, founded in 1923. It is a division of The Hillels of Illinois, and an integral part of the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago (“JUF-JF”) and Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, located 150 miles south of Chicago, is a thriving classic college town, with a population of 100,000 residents and a permanent Jewish population of around 1500. UIUC is one of the premier (Big Ten) public universities in the United States, and has a strong Program in Jewish Culture and Society. A major center for the arts, the campus attracts dozens of nationally and internationally renowned artists each year to its widely acclaimed Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

The responsibilities reflect the position’s status as Executive staff. He or she will work collaboratively with staff and students to develop and implement vision and strategy for inspiring and empowering students at all levels of engagement with Jewish life:

Engage Jewish Students
• Oversee the work of the Engagement Coordinator, especially in the ongoing development of the Engagement Team initiative.
• Organize and evaluate large-scale Welcome Week programming, including but not limited to Quad Day, Welcome Barbecue, and Freshmen Outreach programming.
• Coordinate, implement, and evaluate major Jewish holiday programming and observances on campus, in active collaboration with the student leadership.
• Advise and oversee the Shabbat experience, empowering students from diverse Jewish backgrounds to create and lead pluralistic Shabbat services and programming.
• Develop and lead immersive experiences, especially Alternative Breaks.

Nurture Empowered Leadership
• Support and encourage the members of the Student Leadership Council in creating programmatic initiatives.
• Direct leadership training programming for current and future student leadership.
• Provide support for existing student groups, and foster the development of new student groups to provide diverse offerings for the Jewish student body.
• Advise the three minyanim (Reform, Conservative, Orthodox) in developing innovative and meaningful community, services and programming.

Executive and Administrative Responsibilities
• Create an overall programmatic vision for Hillel and oversee its implementation in all departments.
• Supervise and professionally evaluate the Engagement Coordinator and Executive Intern for Program.  Further development of this area may involve supervision of the Israel Fellow as well.
• Manage the program budget and its relationship to the full Hillel budget.
• Function as the liaison to the kosher caterer, ensuring a synthesized balance of programmatic, financial, and logistical needs.
• Oversee all publicity, including website maintenance, student newspaper advertisements, weekly email newsletter, and other promotional materials, such as the Guide to Jewish Champaign-Urbana.

Transition Management
• In collaboration with the Executive Director, implement a plan to identify important institutional knowledge and ensure that it is documented prior to the departure of outgoing staff.
• Participate in the process by which new program professionals are hired, trained, and integrated into the staff.

To Apply: 
Please apply at www.hilleljobs.com by clicking on “Current Openings.”

PLEASE NOTE: Applicants should include a copy of their cover letter and resume in the same document when applying for this position. Please upload this document as a word or PDF file. When you upload the document, the system will create an unformatted version of your resume as a snapshot in your application. The formatted version of your resume will also be attached to your application, and will be used during the hiring process.

Job Location Champaign, IL, US. Position Type Full-Time/Regular