After four years leading George Mason University Hillel, Rabbi Daniel Novick will return to George Washington University Hillel as its executive director in December. GW is where Novick began his Hillel career as GW Hillel’s assistant director in 2018.
The Washington, D.C., resident will oversee GW Hillel’s efforts to “create meaningful experiences, programming and community for Jewish students and sustain a strong relationship with the university and other partners,” according to an Oct. 13 press release.
“I’m excited to return [to GW Hillel] and be with those students and build Jewish community with them in the heart of D.C.,” Novick said.
GW is home to about 3,000 Jewish undergraduates and 1,500 Jewish graduate students, making up one of the largest and most active Jewish student populations at an American private university, according to the press release.
As the assistant director from July 2018 to May 2021, Novick said he learned a lot on the job under the mentorship of Adena Kirstein, GW Hillel’s former executive director.
“I felt invested in as a professional,” he said. “During my time at GW Hillel, I learned so many core skills: organization, management, supervision, community building, innovation.”
The next step in his career was at the helm of Mason Hillel in Fairfax.
“For more than four years, Daniel has had a transformative presence at Mason,” a statement by Mason Hillel read. “He has been a trusted advisor and mentor for thousands of students, while leading Mason Hillel to remarkable growth and national recognition… He’s had a tremendous impact at Mason Hillel, but we are thrilled for him and the GW community.”
What drew Novick back to GW Hillel was its “incredible community” and opportunity: “I was always impressed by how [GW students] have the strong desire to combine their learning and their passions with action in the community.”
That community could look slightly different than he remembers. Novick left GW Hillel during the height of the pandemic as the organization began construction on a new building. That building, the Gewirz Center of Hillel at GW, is now open as of September 2021.
“It’s a ripe opportunity right now to imagine ‘What could be the GW Hillel of the future?’ We’ve grown so much. The building is there. The student body is there,” Novick said. “This is a ripe opportunity, in my opinion, to really envision some good strategic directions and take bold actions to imagine the possibilities.”
This innovation encompasses some of what Novick learned in rabbinical school.
“There was a kind of core understanding in community organizing that you don’t do for others what they can do for themselves,” he explained. “That’s at the backdrop of everything I do from an innovation perspective as a Hillel director.”
Novick takes a student-centered approach, from initial “discovery interviews” to figuring out what makes each student whole by listening.
“That process of innovation is so core to how I look at Jewish community,” Novick said. “That is what I will be bringing to GW. I always say my first steps are to get to know the people, observe the people, look at what they’re doing, where they are, where they’re going, what they’re seeing and what they’re feeling, then work with them to build from there.”
He said this approach is something he implements at GMU through the NOVA Summer Network, an eight-week cohort of college-age students and young adults in northern Virginia. The network received the 2023 Innovation Award from Hillel International.
“That’s what I’m excited to do at GW,” Novick said.
“[Novick] created award-winning programs, drove remarkable growth, and showed what’s possible when you combine innovation with deep care for students,” Adam Lehman, the president and CEO of Hillel International, said in the press release. “Now we’re thrilled he gets to bring all of that experience back to the place where his Hillel leadership journey began.”
This new role will cut down on Novick’s commute time, as he will soon join his wife, Adas Israel Congregation’s Rabbi Sarah Krinsky, in working in the nation’s capital. Nevertheless, he described the transition as “bittersweet.”
“I grew up in the northern Virginia Jewish community, so it was such a privilege to be able to work in my home Jewish community and to build a Hillel model in northern Virginia that I believe will be long-lasting and continue to grow from here,” Novick said. “In that regard, it’s bittersweet, and I’m excited about the possibilities of the leadership that could come in to take [Mason Hillel] from here and working with whoever that person is as a colleague down the road at GW.”
Novick remains optimistic about this new chapter in his professional life.
“I really believe in the possibilities and the growth of the D.C. Jewish community and GW Hillel’s role in all of that, as someone who lives in D.C. and whose family is in D.C.,” he said. “I’m personally invested in how GW Hillel can play a part in that.”
