Arts Editor

There's Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, the prominent scholar and civil rights advocate, with students at Washington University in St. Louis in 1968, not far from two stuffed, fabric camels used by Hillel to promote the Birthright Israel program.

There's David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, speaking at UCLA in 1967 while students protest outside, as well as a stuffed bear labeled "Michigan" and wearing a Maryland sign, with the names of both universities written in Hebrew.

Also on display is a photo of former Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) -- a Holocaust survivor whom Hillel brought to the U.S. to study after the war -- and a place mat titled "Gillel" in Russian (there is no letter h in Russian) and used at sedarim in the former Soviet Union.

These are some of the items -- photos, documents and artifacts -- that make up the exhibit celebrating 85 years since the founding of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life.

"We wanted to highlight how things have changed and stayed the same over the years," says Jeff Rubin, associate vice president for communications, who put together the exhibit of five panels and five showcases. It is located in the lobby of the Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Building in the District, home to the organization.

For example, in 1923, Rubin explains, many Jews believed that the price of success was abandoning the Old World ways of their parents on campus. So at the University of Illinois where Hillel started, the question was: Hasn't the time come when a Jewish student could educate his mind without losing his soul?

Today, Jewish students are "coming from a place of not knowing, of not understanding" their heritage, he says. This requires getting to students "from a different perspective.

"The exhibit shows how we are engaging students differently from the way we did then, as well as the organizational and structural changes that have taken place over the years."

The panel on "Engagement" depicts photos of students on trips sponsored by Birthright Israel -- the program that pays for young Jews to visit the Jewish state -- young people dancing and still others performing in a play.

"The point is that there are many entry points into Jewish life and that we are trying to engage students where they are -- if it means with a drama group, being involved with fraternities and sororities -- we are constantly seeking new ways of doing that," Rubin says about Hillel, which works with Jewish students at more than 500 colleges and universities in the U.S., Canada, FSU, Israel and Latin America.

Another panel highlights empowering students. "We are taking students to the next level -- to leadership -- showing them how they can become leaders in the Jewish community, whether professionally or as a lay leader," Rubin says.

One showcase demonstrates the continuity of Jewish student activism, featuring documents, pamphlets and photos dealing with the campaign for Soviet Jewry, the one against South African apartheid and the 2002 rally for Israel.

A newspaper clipping from a Wisconsin Jewish newspaper in 1923 illustrates the organization's early commitment to its ideal. In the article, a student complains about Jewish life on campus at the University of Wisconsin and voices a desire to make it better.

That year, the university became home to Hillel's second branch.