University of Maryland Hillel is entering a new chapter, having settled into its brand-new building with a larger staff.

The organization recently welcomed a new executive director, assistant director of student life, business manager, Springboard fellow and Israel fellow.

And Maryland Hillel’s longtime executive director, Rabbi Ari Israel, stepped up as its CEO.

“With our move into the new building, we realized we needed a different staffing structure to support the growth and the opportunity ahead, both from a student engagement perspective, as well as an oversight perspective,” Israel told Washington Jewish Week.

He invoked the Hebrew phrase “m’shaneh makom, m’shaneh mazal,” which means “when you change your place, you change your destiny.”

The Ben and Esther Rosenbloom Maryland Hillel Center underwent construction starting in fall 2024. The team recently moved into the building, which will be open to students in August, followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony in October.

“We have moved into the belly of the social beast on campus [in] downtown College Park, [in] closer proximity where a lot of the upperclassmen live, where the Greek [life] community lives and where students socialize,” Israel said. “So we are hoping that our new location is going to augment our participation numbers, involvement, leadership opportunities and community building.”

“Maryland Hillel is embarking on an ambitious next phase — one that requires leadership depth to match its scale,” Ross Charkatz, the president of Maryland Hillel’s board of directors, said in an announcement.

“It’s the right opportunity for us to get the right team on board,” Israel said, adding that Maryland Hillel has both returning staff members and new professionals.

The two new leaders are well-versed in the Jewish communal world.

Marty Rochlin, who joined as executive director in May, previously led Camps Airy & Louise for 12 years. Before that, he taught and served as an assistant principal in various local public school systems.

“I was curious about what the next thing could be, and the opportunity at Maryland Hillel came to me unexpectedly,” Rochlin said.

Rachel Gordon, the new assistant director of student life, came from Johns Hopkins University Hillel as its assistant director.

“I love working with Jewish college students,” Gordon said. “I love creating meaningful Jewish experiences for them. I love being part of their growth and their Jewish journeys. And being part of Maryland Hillel is such a cool opportunity because it’s such a huge, dynamic, diverse community.”

She looks forward to working with Rabbi Israel, who has led Maryland Hillel for the past 24 years.

“We’re really lucky to have Ari because the institutional knowledge that he has is just unparalleled,” Gordon said. “He’s been here for so many years and he knows everybody and how things work. Being able to rely on him for feedback or ideas or just to bounce things off of has been really, really helpful, because he knows the community a lot better than we do.”

One of her priorities is getting to know students’ names once they arrive on campus come August.

“The main thing that I see as a challenge, but also as something that is a cool opportunity, is that there are so many students that all I want to do is get to know all of them,” Gordon said. “There’s always going to be more and more that I haven’t yet met.”

In her previous role at Hopkins Hillel, the organization served about 400 undergraduate students and 300 graduate students. By contrast, Maryland Hillel’s student population is close to 6,500.

“At Hopkins, I knew everybody and everybody knew me, and that’s my goal here,” Gordon said. “Also, as lofty as it seems, to get to know 6,000 Jewish students.”

Hilary Rappaport, the former Springboard fellow from fall 2024 to this spring, is now a full-time staff member as Maryland Hillel’s director of engagement. Sophie Glazer is the new Springboard fellow.

One of the Maryland Hillel team’s goals is to continue expanding its community and allowing student leaders to “take the reins of their own Jewish journey.”

“We’re not going to be isolated just in this building,” Israel said. “We’re going to continue to have a footprint all over campus.”

Rochlin similarly hopes to “take Hillel out of the physical space” by tabling across campus and holding events outside the building.

Because UMD’s campus is so large, students who live far from Yale Avenue may not often attend events at the Hillel center.
“How do we meet you in the middle or make it worthwhile to come over here?” Rochlin asked.

The answer could be weekly Shabbat dinners as a way to gather UMD’s Jewish community.

“That should hopefully be a joyful reason to drop whatever you’re doing and come wrap up your week and have community, then set off on your weekend,” Rochlin said.

“The new space is really awesome, but it’s not the end-all, be-all,” Gordon said. “We’re lucky that we now have this greater capacity to do more things, even do them simultaneously because of all the space and staff that we have, and we really can try to reach all different types of Jewish students in all of the different areas that they are interested in and excited about.”

These programs might include events that are more religious in nature, or they could be a quiet study space or access to leadership and service learning opportunities. Rochlin and Gordon hope this programming is like a boomerang in that attendees will return for more.

“And then it’s a relationship, not just an activity,” Rochlin said.

zbell@midatlanticmedia.com