Todd Kristol’s family got involved with Hillel at the University of Delaware over three decades ago, starting with Kristol’s grandparents, and Kristol continues the legacy of service and commitment to the UD Jewish community today.
He became involved with the UD board of directors over a decade ago and now serves as president. The Kristol Center for Jewish Life has been a home for UD’s Jewish community for over 30 years.
What does the president of the board do for Hillel?
We try to serve as counsel and guide for the longer term [future of the organization] with strategic decisions. We also try to focus on making sure that we’re continuing to fulfill our mission as an organization. We largely leave the day-to-day operations and programming to the executive director and her staff. Over the years, the board has overseen the growth of not only the programming that occurs at our Hillel but also the financial security and having consistent staffing.
What is so important to you in supporting UD Hillel?
It’s a way to be involved with and support my personal Jewish heritage. It’s also a way for me to continue my family’s involvement in a cause and in an organization that we believe in. My grandparents, parents and the rest of my family really believe strongly in higher education, and the values of Judaism and Hillel are a perfect fusion of those two things.
It’s become particularly important to me and my family since Oct. 7, which really reminded us all that there is still quite a bit of antisemitism in the world, and Jewish students now, probably more than ever, need a safe and secure place on campus to celebrate their heritage and to be around other Jewish students. I think all the things that we always cared about have become even more pertinent in the last two years.
What’s the importance of having a Hillel on campus?
It’s critical that there’s a place where they [Jewish students] can participate in the more ritualistic elements of Judaism, whether that’s Shabbat dinners and other meals, celebrating holidays, High Holidays, and gathering for those types of things.
How will the new building that UD Hillel recently broke ground on boost the organization’s profile and impact on campus?
The importance of this new space is that we can have the size and functionality to do the other things that the organization does so well: activism related to Israel, organizing trips like Birthright Israel for students at UD to visit there, providing a place where they can work, study and meet on things that are more secular in a safe space.
But we also are really fortunate in that the location of our building is really at the heart of UD’s campus, and it allows us to maintain Hillel’s presence and visibility for generations to come, and it really is a testament to the welcoming nature of UD to the Jewish community.
What are the effects of raising Hillel’s profile on campus?
What we’re hoping is that [now that] we have a larger space and are a more visible presence on campus, we will continue to attract more Jewish students to UD. We’re very proud of the university because, unlike a lot of other universities across the country, the number of Jewish students has consistently grown over time. Jews are becoming increasingly welcome over the decades.
And we believe that can continue and should continue, and so this new building is really going to be a testament to that growth and an invitation for future growth. We also hope that this building, because it will be large enough and modern and will have indoor spaces, will also be a place that welcomes non-Jews on campus to not only learn about what Hillel is doing and what the Jewish student community is doing, but to be just a functional and open community space.
How does your Jewish identity impact you?
My daughter teaches Jewish culture in Hebrew at our local synagogue. We were talking just yesterday about what she teaches, and she said, ‘I really try to focus more on the values and culture of more than the specific rituals.’
There’s a word that she often uses, the word chesed, which refers to the values of compassion and positive action. There’s no perfect English translation, but for me, being able to have a part of my life and my existence, doing something for the Jewish community, the Jewish people, is very rewarding, and it means even more to me now, as my own children have reached [college age].
Particularly now, where there’s been so much conflict on American campuses, I want them to go off to college and into the world being proud of and displaying those values. It’s very rewarding for me to know that my two children will both be active in Hillel, and they’ll carry those values with them, and they’ll wear them as a badge of honor.
