Hillel welcomes first fellows to Slifka Center

Six years of planning came to fruition on the night of Tues., Jan. 27, when Yale Hillel inaugurated its faculty fellowship program. The ceremony in the Slifka Center, which featured a zinging performance by the Yale Klezmer Band, introduced the first class of fellows: Peter Salovey (psychology), Ayala Dvoretsky (Near Eastern Languages), Edward Kaplan (School of Management), Nancy Maizels (MB&B), Laura Wexler (Women's Studies, American Studies), and Alan Weiner (MB&B).

LIZ OLINER/YH Peter Salovey was one of six Hillel Fellowship recipients.

Aiming "to break down barriers between students and faculty," the program is intended to encourage Hillel fellows and their families to eat in the Slifka Center dining hall. "It's kind of like having fellows in your college," Hillel co-coordinator Justin Florence, TD '00, said.

In addition to fraternizing with students, the fellows will create special education projects of their own. Salovey will lead a forum on "Jews in Psychology," and Dvoretsky hopes to start a bi-weekly Hebrew discussion group.

The fellowship program is not designed to focus exclusively on Jewish issues, however. Chad Berkowitz, TD '00, one of the fellowship coordinators, hopes that the fellowships will promote an exploration of a wide variety of intellectual areas. He said that the program will "attract students who ordinarily would not come to Hillel."

Berkowitz and Marisa Harford, JE '01, led a group of students in coordinating the program. When the students chose the fellows, they "initially feared that [the professors] would turn the offers down," Berkowitz recalled.

Instead, the fellows said that they felt honored to have been chosen. Wexler said, "As soon as I received the invitation, I accepted without the slightest hesitation." Weiner echoed these sentiments. "Faculty often feel isolated from the rest of the campus...and savor the opportunity to interact with students," he said.

Florence said that he was pleased that the program was so well-received. "I was really moved because each of the six fellows had a unique and personal reason for why they wanted to [join] our community. For example, Peter Salovey described being named a fellow as the nicest thing that had happened to him in 17 years at Yale," Florence said.

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