As someone who was interviewed for the recently released report titled “Students with One Jewish Parent” from the Edgar M. Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at New York University, and having just returned from speaking at Hillel’s University Summit, I was heartened to hear that even after a short time working on the college campus, people are confirming what JOI has been saying for quite some time. With nearly 50% of students on campus who identify as Jews coming from interfaith marriage—and all that implies—it means that Hillels will have to change many of their program strategies and their programs if they want to reach this elusive population.

We are not advocating that Hillel change the effective work that it is doing to reach its core population. Rather, we argue that if it wants to reach the more than 70% of students that it is currently not reaching on most campuses, then it has to move beyond the Hillel building and into the public spaces of the university for starters. This was confirmed in our study A Flame Still Burns and in the numerous recommendations we have made to Hillels as a result of our pilot program on university campuses.

After six years working directly in the field, JOI is seeing major institutions like Hillel open itself up to our way of thinking. There is still a lot of work to be done and there are many Hillels yet to join us in our efforts but we are thrilled by the progress we have made so far.