This week, Hillel is bringing more than 1,000 student activists, professionals, partner agency representatives and lay leaders to Washington University in St. Louis for the Hillel Institute, an annual conference that combines student and professional training. Over the course of the program, Hillel will train hundreds of Jewish students in how to engage their peers and help them advance their Jewish journeys through meaningful conversations and experiences. Many of these young people will go on to help needy communities at home or abroad through Hillel-sponsored alternative breaks or will travel to Israel for the first time through Taglit-Birthright Israel.

You can follow all the action on Twitter #HillelInst #Hillelengage. In addition to sessions on building Jewish identity through peer engagement, professionals and students will gear up for a fall that may include increased interest in the Middle East activity on campus. A new program will be launched to foster civility on campus and promote intergroup understanding through the discussion of life’s “big questions.”