2. SANTA BARBARA HILLEL
THE WEST COAST’S
BIRTHRIGHT HOTSPOT
▸ 4 Birthright Trips per Year
▸ Innovative Programming
▸ Jewish Identity Meditation
▸ If You Really Knew Why I
Came on Birthright…
▸ Cohesive Staff Teams
▸ Bonding before leading
▸ Supporting each other
Santa Barbara Hillel organizes 4 Birthright Trips per year, typically two in June, one in September, and 1 in December. As a staff team, we take time before the trips to set
an ‘intention’ and recall the ‘why’ we work in experiential Jewish education. We build in icebreakers that break barriers and form friendships through laughter, incorporate
activities to dissolve cliques like the Jordan River Raft Draft and mishpachot/families for Israeli soldiers, educational programming that engages students and meets them
where they are at on their Jewish journey whether they are Jewish summer camp veteran or have never been to a Shabbat dinner.
3. Left: SBCC Student Maya Alfandry in Jerusalem, Upper Right: Hannah Greene (pictured on right) smiling after a surf lesson in Tel Aviv, Bottom Right: September
participants rest during a hike in the North
4. SANTA BARBARA HILLEL
IMPROVING RECRUITMENT
▸ September Recruitment vs. December Recruitment
0
10
20
30
40
SB STUDENTS SEPTEMBER SB STUDENTS DECEMBER
4040
32
16
TOTAL GROWTH:
100%
The September Birthright Bus had 16 Santa Barbara Hillel students on it; the December Birthright Bus has 32 Santa Barbara Hillel students registered with deposits. The
total increase in growth from September recruitment to December recruitment is 100%.
5. SANTA BARBARA HILLEL
WINTER 2017 REGISTRATION
0
12.5
25
37.5
50
SB HILLEL APPLICANTS SB HILLEL DEPOSITS EXPECTED TOTAL PARTICIPANTS UNDERCLASSMEN
18
41
3232
We nearly doubled our recruitment from last period going from 16 Santa Barbara students to 32 Santa Barbara students.
6. SANTA BARBARA HILLEL
WINTER REGISTRATION TIMELINE
▸ UCSB and SBCC Students Registered in Weeks 1, 2, & 3
0
10
20
30
40
SEPTEMBER 27 SEPTEMBER 29 OCTOBER 3 OCTOBER 5 OCTOBER 9 OCTOBER 16
404040404040
3229
242018
11
This graph shows the growth of our registration from when students arrived during the last week of September, through the High Holidays, and into mid-October
7. SANTA BARBARA HILLEL
REGISTRATION IN ACTION
▸ Best Practices
▸ Week of Welcome
▸ Hillel-A-Palooza
▸ High Holiday Programs
▸ Individual Text Messages
▸ Coffee Dating
▸ SIGN PEOPLE UP ON THE SPOT!
Engage students at every welcome week program and high holiday event
Set up coffee dates on the spot
Email is not effective in getting people to sign up however it does build brand recognition for Birthright and Hillel
Text messaging has the highest response rate
Signing people up on the spot is the easiest way to secure a deposit
8. SANTA BARBARA HILLEL
WINTER REGISTRATION CHALLENGES
▸ School starts late September - late
start recruiting first years and
transfers
▸ Quarter System Winter Break is
about 3 weeks long - not enough
time to do Birthright and see
family/friends
▸ Winter extensions are difficult
▸ California’s winter weather is better
that Israel’s winter weather
SB Hillel faces some MAJOR challenges in recruitment for Winter Birthright. We worked very hard to overcome these barriers by focusing our efforts on one-on-one
relationship building. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what freebies or programs you have to entice students… what counts is the quality of genuine relationships
you are able to build with students. That is what makes Winter Birthright sell; the additional “perks” that come with the BICEP trip like Israelis for 10 days, unique
programming are definitely good talking points but they don’t make or break someone’s decision for Birthright.
9. SANTA BARBARA HILLEL
MARKETING MATERIALS
▸ T Shirts
▸ Bags
▸ Frisbees
▸ Portable Chargers
▸ Adapters
▸ Flyers
▸ Pens
▸ Social Media - Facebook and Instagram
When tabling, we were sure to have an ample supply of goodies to pass out to students. We had t-shirts, bags, frisbees, chargers, adapters, flyers, and pens that were all
well received by students. The swag is a great way to get students to the table! The interns also distributed flyers to the freshman dorms and posted them on bulletin
boards throughout campus housing.
10. SANTA BARBARA HILLEL
GREEK LIFE
▸ Interns from Greek Life: Sydney
Karmes-Wainer KKG, Vanessa
Better KKG, Sarah Whitman ADPi,
and Olivia Bernheimer AXO
▸ AEPi Recruitment Pizza Party
▸ Collaboration with the Jewish
Greek Council
Greek students are excellent Birthright Interns — they have prior experience in recruitment and outreach and have the organizational skills necessary to balance interning
with their busy schedules. They are reliable team players with vast social networks. I strongly suggest utilizing Greeks for Birthright Recruitment.
I made it a priority to work with AEPi at Santa Barbara Hillel; I worked directly with their president and Israel chair to compile a list of Birthright eligible AEPis, brought
pizza to their chapter meeting for recruitment, and built relationships with many of the members. When news got around that I would be leaving, Mordi Shadpour, a
student I had built a relationship with through Tamid, sent me this text message: Lauren! Hi. I hope everything works out with whatever it is you have to head back home
for. The brothers of AEPi will miss you being so nice to us.
I am proud of the work I did building relationships with AEPi, laying the groundwork for successful AEPi recruitment for the summer 2018 season.
Working with our Director of Engagement, Taylor Millman, and her Jewish Greek Council Initiative allowed me to leverage an existing Hillel committee that was able to
reach out to their chapters and networks to recruit Jewish students at UCSB that are unaffiliated with Hillel.
11. SANTA BARBARA HILLEL
IMPROVEMENTS FOR NEXT SEASON
▸ Improving Intern Team Strategy - using interns more
effectively
▸ Increasing spending - utilizing the budget for post-
programming and pre-programming
▸ Diversifying networks - experimenting with groups outside
of Greek life, Jewish life, athletics
For the Intern Team, I crafted a detailed plan for the quarter which I compiled into binders; these binders included a calendar, a timeline, registration assignments,
recruitment worksheets, and tips and tricks for recruitment. The Intern Plan was difficult for me to balance while I hustled to do my own recruitment. I think the balancing
and delegating is something learned with time.
In regard to budget, I don’t think I realized just how much money I had to work with from CJP, BICEP, MTF, and Hillel International. I am a huge budgeter and am always
looking for the most effective and efficient ways to spend money. I did not see any huge advantages to throwing large sums of money towards programs, swag, etc., for
fear that money would go wasted and events would be unattended and swag thrown away. I wanted to use the materials we already had at Santa Barbara Hillel before
ordering new ones, such as t-shirts, bags, chargers, etc., so as to be environmentally friendly and budget conscious.
Another improvement would be breaking into other networks outside of our current target communities ie: STEM communities, music groups, off campus housing.
12. SANTA BARBARA HILLEL
INTEREST LIST
▸ Interest List
▸ 200 Interested Students
▸ Database Pipeline with
phone numbers, emails,
contact made, and
interactions
I reorganized the Birthright Interest Database to solidify a meaningful pipeline for future recruitment periods. The list has names, numbers, emails, contact made, and
notes. The list is easy to read and utilize and will be a tremendous asset for future recruitment.
13. SANTA BARBARA HILLEL
SPOTLIGHT: SALES TEAM
▸ 6 Interns: 4 from June 2017, 2 from
September 2017
▸ Met individually with all interns monthly
to discuss recruitment and
programming
▸ Strengths: great energy, very social,
excellent engagers
▸ Challenges: these are very busy
students with lots on their plates, have
to find ways to maximize their efficiency
with reasonable time expectations
Pictured: Birthright Interns recruiting at Hillelapalooza
Engaged over 100 students at Hillel’s Welcome Week programming and High Holidays
14. SANTA BARBARA HILLEL
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: BATSHEVA STOLL
▸ Batsheva, BRI June 2017, is an
executive on student government
at UCSB. We had a strong
connection and continued our
relationship after the trip. During
her summer travels abroad,
Batsheva was the target of an anti-
Semitic assault in Budapest. We
worked together to find the best
way for her to share her story. We
formulated a Facebook post that
was liked over 1,000 times and
shared 347 times. You can read
Batsheva’s full post here.
Hi Facebook.
This summer while traveling in Europe with my boyfriend something happened to me.
I’ve debated back and forth whether to go public with it, but after some encouragement and in light of recent events (and with much hesitation) I’ve made a decision.
My only request to you is to finish the story. Don’t leave in the middle without having a full picture. Please read to the end.
A major Israeli soccer team was playing in Budapest at the same time I was there with my boyfriend. Thinking it would be fun, we got tickets to the game. The Budapest
fans were not allowed in the stadium due to a minor penalty the league invoked onto the team after they got in a fight with their ref. So the only fans in the stadium were
Israel fans. Everyone who entered the stadium got a shirt. So the only people who got shirts were Israeli fans. The hard core Budapest fans, however, set up camp
outside the stadium. They watched the game on the screen just beside where their team played.
The stadium was located about an hour outside the city center of Budapest. In order for us to return to our hostel we had to take a bus to a metro that would take us into
the city. On the bus coming back from the game we sat in the back. We saw in the front a group of drunk men being loud, but no threat to us. Then one of them took off
his shirt. Across his back was a giant swastika and above it was the bird of the Third Reich. Gefen and I looked at each other. We knew we needed to steer clear.
The men walked into the metro station in front of us and as they walked they were saluting and screaming “heil Hitler.” I was afraid to say the least. When we get into the
metro station they stopped at the beginning of the platform Gefen and I had to walk to. They were minding their own business until we walked past them. “Hey! Are you a
Jew?” They shouted violently. (They recognized us because of the shirts we got from the game.) We said no and kept our heads down and kept walking. They followed.
“Give us your bag,” one said. We kept walking. “Let us touch your girlfriend,” said another. Finally, they decided they wanted his shirt from the soccer game.
We stopped walking and placed ourselves in the middle of the metro platform with about 40 to 50 people surrounding us. We didn’t want to isolate ourselves. The men
continued unphazed. “Give us your Jew shirt.” They said. Their words became worse. “Your grandparents died in Auschwitz.” “Hitler should have finished the job.” “My
grandparents killed your grandparents.” “Dirty Juden.” “Burn in hell.” Then their words became threats. Looking at Gefen they told him he was going to die tonight. They
said that they are going to push him in front of the train. One of them had a black garbage bag that he laid on the ground before us as if to signal a body bag. “Don’t let
us hurt you in front of your girlfriend.” I was too afraid to cry. My mind wondered. I was outside my body watching this happen to myself. I am living in 2017. So why does
15. SANTA BARBARA HILLEL
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: AARON FREID
▸ First year from Berkeley, California
▸ Signed up for Winter Birthright
▸ Applied to Onward Israel
▸ Engaged via Birthright: now comes
to Shabbats, Kosher cookouts, and
other Hillel programs!
Aaron is an enthusiastic first year student from Berkeley, California who immediately caught my attention. He is energetic, kind, thoughtful, and hard-working and we
formed a great relationship right from meeting him during Welcome Week. Through coffee dating and talking at programs, I worked to get Aaron signed up for Birthright.
During one of our meetings he said, “You know how you told me to find someone older to ask for guidance and getting through college? You are that person for me.” This
moment was one of the most significant moments in my time as a staff — I felt like I was making a difference to a student as a mentor and I am so thrilled to see just how
far Aaron will go. Even though I am leaving Santa Barbara Hillel, Aaron knows I will always be a listening ear for his problems at home and at school and will help connect
him to opportunities in which he will thrive, such as Onward, UCDC, and study abroad.
16. SANTA BARBARA HILLEL
PRE TRIP PROGRAMMING
▸ Orientations:
▸ November 8:
▸ All You Can Eat Hummus Bar
▸ Videos
▸ Speaker: Sgula Dershowitz from
StandWithUs
▸ Information
▸ Follow Up Orientation
November 29
At the November 8th Orientation, we prepared an All You Can Eat Hummus Bar for our students with 10 different types of hummus, pita, veggies, and refreshments. We
showed captivating and exciting videos to our students and had them participate in a “Choose Your Own Adventure” activity where we simulated an Israel adventure to
get them excited for the trip while informing them on packing list, itineraries, and logistics.
17. SANTA BARBARA HILLEL
POST TRIP ENGAGEMENT: JUNE
▸ 7 Alumni with 2 events
▸ 6 Alumni with 3+ events
▸ 72% of Current UCSB BRI
September Alum with 2+ events
▸ Events include High Holidays,
Shabbat, Hillelapalooza, Kosher
Cookout, Quesadilla Reunion, Avi
Avital Lunch and Learn, Rabbi
Denise Egger Lecture, and AIPAC
101
18. SANTA BARBARA HILLEL
POST TRIP ENGAGEMENT: SEPTEMBER
▸ 6 Alumni with 2 Events
▸ 7 Alumni with 3+ Events
▸ 86% of Current UCSB BRI
September Alum with 2+ events
▸ Events include High Holidays,
Shabbat, Hillelapalooza, Kosher
Cookout, Quesadilla Reunion, Avi
Avital Lunch and Learn, Rabbi
Denise Egger Lecture, and AIPAC
101
19. SANTA BARBARA HILLEL
BIRTHRIGHT ALUMNI REUNION PROGRAMS
▸ Quesadilla & Study Night
Birthright Reunion
▸ Reunion Dinners
▸ Birthright Group Shabbat Dinner
Tables
▸ Engaging Alumni at existing Hillel
programs — Welcome Week,
Shabbat, High Holidays, Israel
speakers, lectures, and weekly
Hillel programs
A vision I had for the quarter was integrating Birthright alumni with Hillel’s typical programming. Students naturally want to spend time with their friends from Birthright
and I realized through talking with them and following them on social media that they were doing this reunion socializing organically.
21. SANTA BARBARA HILLEL
BICEP WINTER BUS
▸ Dynamic programming - graffiti
tour, Rainbow of Rights LBTQ
rights tour of Tel Aviv
▸ 2 SBCC Students
▸ 30 UCSB Students
▸ 18 underclassmen
▸ Brooke Kopel, AS Senator
▸ Shirel Benji, SSI President
Highlight students:
Brooke Kopel, Student Government Senator
Shirel Benji, SSI President
Gabi Hacker, Chabad
Rachel Greenberg, Chabad
Aaron Freid, Future Onward Israel Participant
22. SANTA BARBARA HILLEL
TRANSITIONING STAFF
▸ In transitioning staff, we look
forward to continuing the
relationship building with our BRI
Alumni, reaching new students,
and providing 80 amazing
Birthright experiences in Summer
2018!
▸ Thank you IACT and CJP for an
amazing few months! It has been a
joy to work for you! - Lauren
Kerner
A huge thank you to Santa Barbara Hillel staff, Israel Outdoors, CJP, IACT, and Michael Eglash! Michael, thank you so much for your guidance and support throughout
these past few months - I am grateful to have worked with you and wish you all the very best!
