During spring semesters at George Washington University, Klara Walny often wondered, “Where are all the Jews?”

The Washington, D.C., resident knew that GW was ranked among the top universities for Jewish life and Jewish student population, but said she didn’t see those statistics reflected in the school’s Jewish events.

“We’re known to have such a large Jewish presence, but also when you go to GW Jewish events, once you hit midpoint first semester through the end of second semester, you’ll see fairly minimal engagement on weekly, more consistent events, like Shabbats or regular programming,” Walny said. “I really got upset about this, especially because the main people [who] attend those events second semester are very much underclassmen, which is totally fine, and they should absolutely be engaged.”

But for Walny, who is a rising senior, this discrepancy posed the question: “Where is my Jewish community?”

“I know it exists and I know it’s there, but they’re not being engaged,” she said, adding that fellow Jewish students shared the same observations.

Walny approached GW Hillel’s engagement associate Noah Scholl for answers. Scholl told her about a leadership and engagement fellowship he was running for Jewish students through GW Hillel. Walny will begin as a Jewish engagement fellow in the fall.

She’ll receive training in relationship-based engagement, community organizing, leadership development and event planning while creating Jewish experiences in community with fellow students.

“We’re engaging one cohort and [determining], ‘What do these students need?’ ‘What are the opportunities, programs [and] events that they’re looking for?’, and how can we either connect them to something that already exists or create something for them to then utilize?’, which should be really exciting,” Walny said.

She acknowledged that college students are often busy and may not have time to attend an event every week. “But I think a big part of Jewish community … is that they’re supposed to meet you where you are,” Walny said. “If those programs are not doing that, let’s make that happen.”

The fellowship is far from her first foray into Jewish student leadership — Walny served as the vice president of GW’s Jewish Student Association from May 2025 to May of this year and remains an active member.

As a Maccabi Task Force fellow, she recruited, interviewed and took 20 non-Jewish students on a Birthright-style trip to Israel in the summer of 2025.

“It’s truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience getting non-Jewish GW students for free to Israel to experience [the country],” Walny said. “To have GW students, who are so in tune with geopolitics, on the ground, learning and meeting all the different people from all facets of life and engaging in those conversations with the speakers [and] the guides was such an interesting and cool experience.”

She added that the experience elevated her relationships with fellow GW students outside the Jewish community.

Walny is also actively involved with Hillel International. She’s been an Israel Leadership Network fellow since the start of her junior year and will continue for the upcoming year. She also served as a GW Israel on Campus Coalition fellow.

“I heavily engage with the Chabads on campus and the Hillel, and I also have connections with some of the local synagogues and the other Jews in the area, whether I know them from summer camp or we’ve connected or met through one of the programs I’ve been to,” Walny said.

Walny has recently attended more events with Young Jewish Professionals DC, a project of Chabad. “Your Jewish community is always there for you,” she said.

“My Jewish identity is such an important piece of who I am,” Walny said. “It really helps talk me through bigger decisions I make in my life, and I’m so fortunate — both in the Chicago and D.C. area[s] — to have so many Jewish opportunities available to me.”

Through conversations with friends, Walny realized that not everyone knew about all of these Jewish communal experiences and organizations.

“So I really take initiative, especially with my role on campus as a Jewish leader, to connect students to the Jewish opportunities available to them,” she said.

Walny’s deep involvement with Jewish life stems from her upbringing in an “incredibly Jewish area” of Chicago. Growing up attending Chabad and Camp Young Judaea Midwest, Walny was a “huge advocate for Jewish life” throughout middle and high school. With the help of her Hebrew teacher, she founded a Holocaust awareness assembly at Glenbrook North High School, which has since expanded to an annual initiative for juniors.

Rather than have students sit through a lecture, Walny sought to make the program engaging and memorable.

“One year we did ‘connecting music and art,’ and we involved the band and orchestra program[s],” said Walny, who was named an “18 Under 18” honoree by Jewish United Fund her senior year of high school.

After high school, Walny spent a gap year in Israel through Masa Israel Journey’s Young Judaea Israel Year Course.

She applies her years of Jewish communal experience to her role as a campus leader at GW.

“My goal is definitely continuing to engage in Jewish life on campus, surviving my senior year and leaving the GW Jewish community and D.C. Jewish community a better place than when I left it, whether that means bringing one more person to one more event [or] starting a new fellowship program,” Walny said.

zbell@midatlanticmedia.com