Parent's Council
Mazel tov (congratulations!) on having a new Bearcat in your family! We are thrilled to welcome your student to campus. We intend to support their collegiate experience from the day they step onto campus, until long after they attend their graduation ceremony. Hillel at Binghamton will be here to steward your child through their academic career and help them navigate their burgeoning adulthood in a safe place on campus. In order to best provide students with their Jewish home away from home, we are launching a Parent’s Circle to help you stay connected with campus and your student, to advocate for their needs on campus, and to help them develop Jewishly in their identity -- equipping them with the tools and resources essential to continuing their Jewish journey long after their Binghamton experience.
Your student is now a member of a vibrant, diverse, and caring Jewish community in Binghamton, New York. Hillel at Binghamton will always be a consistent place for them throughout their time. With more than 4,000 Jewish students on a campus, our aim is to meet each individual Jewish student and engage them through unique and tailored Hillel experiences that meet their needs. We assist each and every student in building and maintaining their Jewish community at Binghamton University.
To achieve these goals Hillel at Binghamton has a staff of seven professionals working in partnership with more than twenty student leaders. These leaders engage Jewish campus life through fifteen different subgroups encompassing a wide variety of communities your student might be interested in. We have so much happening each and every day, there is rarely an evening that lacks an opportunity to engage with Hillel at Binghamton. If your student is interested in philanthropy, we encourage them to be part of our thriving Challah for Hunger chapter. Do they love music and voice? They should consider auditioning for Kaskesset, the only Jewish a cappella group on campus. Whether your student is hearing from an Israeli speaker hosted by our Bearcats for Israel chapter, learning with staff as part of the Jewish Learning Fellowship, digging deep into environmentalism through a Tu-BiShvat experience, or any of our many weekly and daily events, they will be joining a community of one of the largest student groups on campus -- both in terms of active participants and amount of programming. All students on campus have a space within Hillel at Binghamton to forge their own Jewish future.
This has not been a typical year, but that doesn’t change our enduring commitment to building Jewish life at Binghamton University. Despite the challenges COVID-19 has presented us with, we have been recognized by the Student Association and the Binghamton University Interfaith Council for our safely executed virtual engagement opportunities. We have accomplished an increase in engagement in many ways, for example, in one model of online programming, we provide materials at a safe pickup location on campus and later host the event synchronously. It has been refreshing to see some of our smaller events from the past grow this year in the virtual environment.
As excited as we are to welcome your student to campus – we are equally as excited to welcome you to your own incredible network of Binghamton Parents. While your student is attending Binghamton University, we have one resounding value guiding our work: there isn’t anyone in the world more important to us than your student. That, more than anything else, is why we are here doing this important work, for your student and with your students.
