The Jewish Federation's
H eadlines
Hillel International
CEO Adam Lehman
Talks COVID,
Digital Change
N AT I O N AL
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
March 6 & 7
S a t u r d ay, M a r c h 6
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S u n d ay, M a r c h 7
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to ensure that those who are hungry
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4 Eve n t Co - Ch a i r s
B oa rd Co-Chair s
Ca m p a i g n Ch a i r
Danielle Weiss and
Mitch Sterling
Gail Norry and
David Adelman
Sherrie Savett
FEBRUARY 4, 2021
JEWISH EXPONENT
ADAM LEHMAN TOOK over
Hillel International in January
2020 after spending decades as
a volunteer in Jewish institu-
tional life, serving as a board
member at his synagogue
and the Jewish Federation of
Greater Washington and as
a founding member of the
D.C.-based Jewish a cappella
group JewKvox.

He made the leap to Hillel in
2015, serving as chief operating
officer until he got the top job
on Jan. 7, 2020.

Now, as colleges start
thinking about beginning
a second fall semester amid
the pandemic, Lehman spoke
about how Hillel has adjusted
to reality — and found new
opportunities — during the
past year.

You participated in Hillel as
an undergraduate and today
your daughters are doing
the same. What’s the most
important difference between
your experiences?
There are a few big differ-
ences. First and foremost, we
have invested in talent across
the Hillel movement in a way
that ensures that wherever a
Jewish student is showing up
for school, there’s the oppor-
tunity to have a great Hillel
experience. When I was in
college, there were several
campuses where you had a
strong Hillel presence, but [at]
a lot of schools ... the resources
weren’t there, and the talent
wasn’t there. We’ve now got
examples like both of the
schools where my daughters
attend [Tulane University and
Adam Lehman, CEO of Hillel
International Courtesy of Hillel International
Washington University in St.

Louis], where you’ve got robust
staff who are bringing not only
passion, but real skill in how to
engage every Jewish student,
regardless of the background
they’re coming from.

Were there things that were
on your agenda for leading
Hillel that you’ve had to put
on the back burner because of
the pandemic?
By virtue of the pandemic,
we absolutely did shelve some of
our aspirational growth plans.

My hope coming into my role
was that we could take what is
already a really broad footprint,
in terms of having engaged more
than 140,000 Jewish students a
year, to an even higher level.

Our aspiration is to engage every
Jewish student.

We have the happy distinc-
tion of being almost 100 years
old at this point, and so one of
my strategic themes coming
into the job was focused
on how we could enter our
second century with strength
and sustainability from a
resource point of view. With
the pandemic, we obviously
reimagined, and had to shift
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