Orthodox Educator at Harvard Hillel to begin Summer 2025
Harvard Hillel is looking for a dynamic educator to help build a warm, compelling Orthodox community for students, faculty, and staff. The ideal candidate will make Jewish tradition meaningful to students, especially female Orthodox students, through teaching, mentorship, and pastoral care. They will be an exemplar within a pluralistic community and use the deep wisdom of Judaism and Torah to inspire the Jewish community and the wider Harvard community. They will guide student leaders within the Orthodox Student Minyan, fostering personal religious growth, Jewish observance, and leadership on campus.
This role is 12 hours/week, 10 months/year with June and July off.
Key Responsibilities
- Mentorship and Pastoral Care: Build substantial relationships with at least 40 female undergraduate and graduate students, through pastoral care, chevruta, teaching, and mentorship.
- Orthodox Student Advising: In strong collaboration with the Orthodox rabbi, serve as a halakhic and hashkafic guide to Orthodox female students, as necessary.
- Orthodox Exemplar in a Pluralistic Community: Represent Orthodox Judaism within the broader Harvard community, supporting observant students' needs (kashrut, Shabbat, chagim). Engage students interested in exploring Orthodoxy as well as those from day-school backgrounds.
- Collaboration with Hillel Staff: Work closely with Hillel staff to plan and execute programs, attend meetings, assist with events, and report to the Campus Rabbi. Assist the rabbinic team and the student-facing staff team with planning and engagement goals.
- Shabbat Hospitality: Host students regularly in your home for Shabbat and holiday meals to bring a sense of home and close community for students away from their families.
- Jewish Education: Offer one high-level Jewish class each semester directed primarily to Orthodox female students, designed to enhance students' Jewish knowledge and connection to texts and tradition. Learn with students regularly in chavruta.
- Shabbat and Yom Tov Planning: Support students and the rabbinic team in planning meaningful Shabbat and Yom Tov celebrations, including at least one off-site Shabbaton for the Orthodox community.
- Conversion Support: Support students seeking Orthodox Jewish conversion, liaising with the Orthodox rabbi.
- Shabbat and Holiday Programming: Collaborate with the Campus Rabbi, the Orthodox rabbi and the rabbinic team to plan and implement a vibrant variety of Shabbat and Chagim opportunities, in-home, in the Hillel building, and throughout campus.
What You’ll Bring To The Job
- Have a strong background in Jewish learning and Orthodox community building. Degrees in education, Jewish studies, social work, or rabbinic ordination are welcome.
- Experience in engagement and building meaningful relationships, and previous experience in program visioning and implementation.
- Relevant work experience in Hillel, youth movements, camping, or experiential Jewish education with Orthodox communities.
- A strong knowledge base of Jewish content, ranging from traditional Jewish texts to contemporary Jewish wisdom, culture, and unconventional Jewish sources. An ability to transfer knowledge of these texts through engaging teaching.
- A warm, engaging, approachable personality with a commitment to creating an inclusive, warm, and welcoming Orthodox community that falls within a vibrant, pluralistic Hillel community.
- Expertise in leading complex conversations and creating classes about Judaism in a way that is approachable and meets students at various points in their personal Jewish journeys.
- A commitment to and passion for creating Jewish community.
- Confidence in initiating and running programs, intrinsic motivation; a willingness to admit what you don’t know, and excitement to learn in those areas.
- Creative problem-solving, proactive communication, and collaboration. An ability to collaborate and communicate across teams both inside and outside of Hillel.
- Curiosity about everything. You are hungry to learn, and ask insightful questions before offering solutions. You are just as much a learner as you are an educator.
What You’ll Receive
- Competitive salary range of $30,000-$35,000 for 12 hours/week, 10 months a year.
- A network of students, parents, and university partners who will inspire you, and become life-long professional resources and partners.
- Opportunities for professional development, mentoring, and Jewish study.
- Colleagues and support from across the Hillel movement.
- Travel opportunities, both domestically and internationally.
- A comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance, Tax Deferred Retirement Plan, Life, AD&D, and Long Term Disability insurances, Flexible Spending Plan, generous vacation/sick time, and parental leave.
- Plenty of Hillel and university swag.
About Harvard Hillel
Harvard Hillel is the Jewish center of the world’s greatest university. Home to 500 Jewish undergraduates and 1,800 Jewish graduate students, Harvard Hillel’s mission is to train a generation of Jewish students to lead a divided Jewish community in an uncertain future - by helping mentoring them as they create an inspiring, life-shaping community of meaning with and for one another during their years as students.
Cambridge, Massachusetts is a rapidly growing observant Jewish community with synagogues, independent minyanim, an eruv, kosher restaurants, and hundreds of observant Jews. Students, young professionals, young couples, and families call "Camberville" home. We also have many Jewish resources including mikva’ot across the river in Brookline, Brighton, and Newton.
About Hillel International
In 1923, Rabbi Benjamin Frankel started Hillel with humble means, a noble mission and a breathtaking vision: to convey Jewish civilization to a new generation. Today, Hillel International continues to enrich the lives of Jewish students and is the largest Jewish campus organization in the world at nearly 1,000 colleges and universities across North America and around the world. As Hillel evolves as an organization, the mission remains steadfast: to create lasting connections with every Jewish student that foster an enduring commitment to Jewish life, learning, and Israel and train them to become the next Jewish leaders.
Hillel is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating an accepting and inclusive environment for all.
