The Bronfman Center recently opened the Global Center for Jewish Life. What is the Center and where is it? Why was it created?
The goal of the Global Center is to create the infrastructure for Jewish students studying abroad to have access to opportunities for Jewish engagement and connection with local communities. Although thousands of American Jewish students study abroad every semester in ever increasing numbers, there is still no coherent program or curriculum to bind them to the local Jewish communities at their study abroad sites. This project demonstrates to NYU’s Global Network University how Jewish global connections can powerfully enhance its students’ experiences all over the world. There isn’t a building or one set location for the Global Center. Rather, I work and travel between all of our European sites to help tailor the NYU Jewish student experience to each location. I often refer to myself as the ‘traveling Bronfman Center!’
What are the primary goals for the Center in its first year? What is your role and how are you planning to achieve those goals?
Right now a good deal of my job is reconnaissance. I work to build connections and networks, market the program, and learn about each European city where NYU has a campus. When I touch down in a new locale, I meet with NYU administrators to talk about the program; students to gain an insight into how they’ve experienced Jewish life abroad and what they might be looking for; and I work to find everything Jewish happening in that city. The resources I gather are used both to connect the students I meet with the religious, cultural, or communal opportunities they might be looking for, and to bolster the resources we’re able to offer the study abroad sites and students who are thinking about study abroad in the coming years.
As I understand it, you hope to educate students not only about global citizenship generally, but about a uniquely Jewish global citizenship. How will you do that?
The deeper goal behind this project is to foster a sense of Jewish peoplehood. We want students to see that there are indeed vibrant Jewish communities all over the world, not just in America and Israel. We also want them to learn that Judaism across Europe often looks very different than anything they could have imagined back home. But despite the differences and distance, as Jews we are all part of a global people, and strengthening those bonds helps us to share our culture with one another, preserve traditions, and stand together both in moments of celebration and mourning. When a Jewish student eats a Shabbat meal with a Jewish family in Paris, spends a holiday in the Great Synagogue of Florence, or talks about life over a beer with a German Jewish student in Berlin, they are building those connections. Instead of simply consuming European culture as they hop from city to city on weekends, they are becoming enmeshed in it. When language is a barrier, often they can turn to Hebrew. When the world is overwhelmed by ugliness and anti-Semitism, they can serve as allies. We are creating opportunities for students to build networks and friendships based on a shared history and commitment to their heritage, all the while learning more about the world around them. This not only enhances their study away experience and personal development, but they are then also able to bring these components back to the New York campuses and to the Bronfman Center.
Can you give us some examples of the kinds of activities and programs the Center organizes? What activities do you have planned for this term?
We’ve coordinated Shabbat meals, holiday celebrations with the local communities, walking tours and theatre trips. Recently we coordinated a fantastic teleconference between NYU Washington Square, NYU DC, and NYU Paris entitled, “Global Advocacy: Addressing Modern Antisemitism,” which can now be watched online. Here is the link: http://www.nyu.edu/global/global-academic-centers/washington-dc/nyu-washington–dc-events/global-advocacy–addressing-modern-antisemitism.html#doubleBox_nyuimage_1
Last week five students from New York came to Paris over their spring break to show solidarity with the French community in light of the escalating antisemitism, and to learn more about French Jewry. We visited the Musee d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaisme; the Hyper Cacher, site of the fatal attack in January; local Jewish student organizations, the CRIF (French federation), and more. We also spent a day in Brussels where we met with the European Union of Jewish Students, the Community Center for Secular Judaism, the Belgian Jewish Museum, and the European Parliament. The students walked away with a stronger understanding of what it means to serve as an ally to a strong but worried community, and with a commitment to continuing and building upon the connections that they made, each with personal projects.
You are spending this term traveling among NYU’s European sites. How do you identify opportunities for local engagement at each site? Can you share what you have found most rewarding thus far? Most challenging? Has anything been surprising?
Google is a fairly magical tool, I must say. But on top of hours of simply researching online, I put in the legwork. I walk the city, I show up and introduce myself. I leverage my connections for introductions into the Jewish community, and one introduction becomes five, which then become 20, and soon I have a fairly comprehensive picture of resources on the ground. In smaller cities, that means knowing all of the communities and communal leaders. In larger ones it means finding the local Jewish student groups, a variety of communal leaders, and the lists of synagogues and kosher restaurants. Most rewarding has been seeing students’ faces light up when I tell them that there is a synagogue around the corner, or a holiday event, or that there is a vibrant community waiting for them to return in New York. Most challenging has been dealing with some of the community politics, natural as they are. There’s an old saying that if you have three Jews in a room you have four opinions… The most surprising thing to learn was how difficult it can be for students to find these resources on their own, and even once found, to step far out of their American NYU bubble and join a new community. The Global Center and I are building the bridges to make those first steps that much easier.
Do you have plans to visit other NYU sites?
Aside from the European sites, I’ll be visiting NYU Tel Aviv in May to run a 5-day seminar at the end of the semester entitled, “Issues in Contemporary Israeli Society.” I traveled to Copenhagen following the attack on the synagogue in February to show solidarity with the community. I’ll also head briefly to Warsaw in April to visit the Museum of the History of Jews in Poland, curated by NYU’s own Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, to learn more about the seat of Ashkenazi culture, and see how we might partner in the future.
I understand that you are an NYU alum. When did you graduate and what did you study? Did you study abroad while at NYU? If so, where and how did that inform your NYU experience and how does it influence your approach in this role?
I graduated in May 2013 from Steinhardt with a B.S. in Media, Culture, and Communication. I actually didn’t study abroad because I couldn’t imagine being away from all that was happening on the square for a full semester. Instead I found my own ways to travel. I studied in Israel the year before I started NYU, and spent my spring breaks and summers backpacking, visiting friends, and attending conferences in Prague, Abu Dhabi, Ghana, and Nepal, to name a few. I knew that I wanted the experience of living abroad, out of my comfort zone, and becoming a part of a community, so after graduating I spent a year teaching English in Samut Sakhon, Thailand. I have learned what it means to be Jewish and to sometimes struggle with my Judaism and my observance in places where many people have never even heard of a Jew. I found those struggles forced me to define what kind of a life and community and commitment I wanted for myself. The role I’m playing now, helping others find their own definitions, was a natural next step.

How can current students reach out to and connect with the Global Center for Jewish Life?

There are so many ways! They can follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and reach out via email to Bronfman.global@nyu.edu with questions or to subscribe to our listserv!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NYUGlobalCenterforJewishLife
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BronfmanGlobal

The photos are of Chelsea and the students from last week’s Paris trip (at the Eiffel Tower, above) and from a Purim holiday celebration in Florence (directly above).