THON--Together Without LImits

This past weekend was truly incredible. 708 people standing on their feet for 46 hours straight, all to raise an amazing $9,563,016.09 FOR THE KIDS!! An enormous amount of work was done to make this event happen--from the overall committee and all the captains and committee members organizing the logistics of the weekend to the THON chairs working with their organizations to go on canning weekends throughout the year. Words can not describe the emotion felt when a child tells you that he does not want to survive his treatment, but rather he wants to live his life. The tears were streaming when a father was talking about is daughter, who lost her battle not to the brain cancer she originally had but to leukemia, a second cancer she had after she had already conquered the brain cancer. THON is a place where kids suffering from cancer and college students can be kids again. It was a weekend of water gun fights, balloons bouncing and soap bubbles popping. Congratulations to Penn State for raising so much money in the fight against Pediatric Cancer. Congratualations to Penn State Hillel for raising an amazing amount of money through our canning weekends and THONvelope letter campaign. Congratulations to our THON chairs, Brittany Musaffi and Naomi Silverman for doing so much work to make our fundraising efforts so successful. And finally, congratulations to Naomi Silverman and Meredith Devine for dancing their hearts out for 46 straight hours.

Here are some pictures to highlight the weekend:

The total revieled after 46 hours of THON in the BJC

Dancers Meredith and Naomi and I on the floor of the BJC during THON weekend

You Had Me at Hillel

Hillel Goes Speed Dating! and here's what participant Sarah H. said about the event:

Tonight was one of Hillel’s greatest social events of the year! The day after Valentine’s Day celebration was full of rose, balloons, candy and chocolate as the Hillel student board transformed the basement of Irvings bagel shop into a romance filled environment. Over the almost 3 hours of speed dating, I met about 40 different guys for mini-dates. There were a lot of familiar faces but many new people which was really exciting. All in all it was a great night of schmoozing and fun, I’m looking forward to seeing if any new couples start dating that met at tonight’s event.

It really was a fantastic event. The candlelit tables set the mood as 100 students filled the basement at Irvings to meet that nice Jewish boy or girl they've been looking for. As Sarah said, there were many familiar faces, but just as many if not more new faces! It's great to see so many students getting involved with Jewish life in a fun, social way. We're looking forward to making it an even greater success next year. Check out the story about the event in the Daily Collegian

Tu B'Shevat

My favorite part about Tu B'Shevat is that it comes in the middle of winter when everything is drab and dreary outside. This is a spring festival, celebrating life and growth. Well, yesterday was the perfect day to celebrate this holiday. It was icy and grey and snowing all day long, and then we walked into the room in the HUB, covered completely with brightly colored fruits and grape juices. It was just a beautiful sight. The service, led by Dana and Sam, was short and sweet, but we covered the different fruits and the different cups of wine intermixed with some readings, interpretations and songs. Earlier in the day, Penn State Hillel spread the word about Tu B'Shevat by passing out free pots of parsley in the HUB. Students were curious and intrigued by what we were doing. Many had no idea what Tu B'Shevat was and we were able to teach a little about Judaism to many students. Check out the story in the Collegian written about the Tu B'Shevat seder!

Happy New Year!!

I hope you all are enjoying the beginning of the new year :) Penn State Hillel is having an amazing time starting the new year off in the Holy Land with Taglit-Birthright on Bus #10. Read about what they're up to below. Have a happy and healthy new year!!

Hi friends and family!

Shalom from Israel! How great it is to finally be here! We are so excited to have arrived safely, soundly, and happily in Israel, and everyone is having a fantastic time! After landing in Tel Aviv yesterday, we met our Israeli staff, all of whom are awesome. Erad, our tour educator, is incredibly knowledgeable...he has yet to be stumped by any of our questions; our guard/medic, Stas, keeps us laughing with his jokes; our bus driver, Rafi is great and is navigating through the cities with expertise.

After a brief orientation, we spent the night at Kibbutz Maale Hachamisha. We were off to an early start this morning as we drove through many different landscapes on our journey north, from the desert (where we saw camels, Bedouin villages, and the Dead Sea, all of which we'll get to explore fully later on in the trip), to the mountains of the Golan Heights. We waved at Jerusalem but will have to wait until next week to explore the city :).We spent the afternoon in Tzfat, the home of Jewish mysticism, or Kabbalah. Despite a bit of rain, we had a great afternoon of shopping and walking around the city, talking to locals, and of course...eating falafel and shawarma :) The meals have been great so far (we all know this is important!), and we're off to bed to rest up for another busy day.

We're looking forward to the coming days, and hopefully we'll get a chance to write again soon.

Until next time,

Bus #10

LATKEPALOOZA

Welcome Back!!

Wednesday night, Penn State Hillel held its first ever LATKEPALOOZA. This Hanukkah party was complete with driedle, gelt, a hanukkiah and what was supposed to be a latke eating contest. There were over 200 people that showed up to celebrate the festival of lights with us! Unfortunately, there were not enough latkes for the contest. However, we did have an eating contest. Instead of scarfing 36 latkes in 2 minutes, contestants had to eat two slices of pizza and open, unwrap and eat three pieces of chocolate gelt. All of the competitors got Latkepalooza t-shirts for their fast eating, but the two fastest, Matt and Rachel got giftcards to the Penn State Bookstore. The event was filled with schmoozing and nashing and at the end of the night a few large games of dreidle broke out. Overall, it was a fantastic way to welcome Penn State students into this winter holiday.

Some more news: the new Student Board has been fully selected!! There are 16 students on our new board and we are so excited for this upcoming semester and year. At their next meeting, they will begin planning programs for the spring semester :)

Thanksgiving Shabbat

The table was set, the food was cooked, and students were arriving for Friday night services. But this was not your ordinary Shabbat. While the tables are set every Friday night, this night Friday night was different. In addition to the usual challah and grape juice, there were silver silverware, gold plates, festive napkins and cranberries galore. The food was not usual either. This week, Becky, with help from our usual chef Marisa, cooked a delicious Thanksgiving feast, complete with butternut squash soup, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, sweet potato pie, sweet and sour meatballs, corn bread, pumpkin pie, oreo pie, pumpkin muffins and homemade apple cider! On top of that, we had our second Alternative Shabbat, a discussion based service. This week's topic was the difference between being an American Jew and a Jewish American, with the conversation discussing the meaning of these two terms, if they apply, and under what conditions they apply. Overall, it was a very special Shabbat, our last service before the Thanksgiving break. So from all of us at Penn State Hillel, have a relaxing and joyous break!

What a Blast!!

Hillel does laser tag. Pictured here is one of the blue teams about to go into the laser maze against one of the red teams. We split the group into four different teams, played a few practice rounds to get used to the layout and the way the game worked and then we competed for points. The teams that weren't playing had the chance to relax and hang out, nosh on some pizza and talk strategy for their next round. Overall, it was a very exciting night!!

Tonight, we are pumped for our 5th Annual Thanksgiving Shabbat. Cooked, as always, for students by students, this Shabbat will be the last before Thanksgiving break. In addition to our regular Reform and Conservative services, tonight will feature an Alternative Shabbat Discussion about whether you believe you are a Jewish American or an American Jew. It sounds like a good topic. Check back after Shabbat for an update on the discussion and the new student board!!