By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
It has taken four years, $12 million, an innovative design team, and a steady vision to realize the dream and dedicate the new Karen Mayers Gamoran Family Center for Jewish Life, new home of Hillel Foundation for Jewish Life at the University of Washington.
The weekend festivities that kicked off the official opening began with a major donor gala on Thursday, June 3, that hosted over 220 people located on the same property where the Jewish student organization has been operating for the last 51 years.
It is also the dream of Hillel staff and leadership that the newly expanded 20,000-square-foot facility will blast open opportunities for student activities, study, art, culture, community and good old-fashioned schmoozing.
Approaching the building from the sidewalk, visitors are met by two, eye-level, naturally shaped monolithic stones brought down from the Cascade mountain range.
The interpretive plaque recalls the story in Genesis, in which Abraham erects a monument of stone in a place he called Beth-El, a proclamation that God was in that place.Rabbi Dan Bridge hopes all that enter the new Hillel site will also find God in this new place.
“This is a place to find your Jewish roots and to find your Jewish place in the world,” said Bridge, who has been executive director of Hillel at UW since 1988. “We can have classes, daily study, performances and recitals. Student art will go up on the walls. We’ll have shows. We’re talking about doing some classes for Jewish Studies in the building. We have the potential now to reach out to young adults from all kinds of backgrounds who really want a place to hang out and meet other Jews.”
A tour and reception open to the public on Sunday, June 6 was followed by a Torah processional from the temporary rental space across the street to the new facility, where a mezuzah was affixed to the doorpost of the new site. Washington Mutual, GLY Construction and First American Title Insurance Company sponsored the activities.
“On Friday night we had 200 people here,” said Bridge. “There was an egalitarian traditional minyan for 100 people, and there was a guitar-led minyan for 50 and there was an Orthodox mechitza (partition separating the women from the men) minyan for 30. Those kinds of things we could never do before. Then the 200 people came together downstairs for dinner in the dining room. We’ll continue doing that.”
Besides the sheer increase in square footage, the exterior of the building has attempted to integrate with the other buildings that surround it on an historic tree-lined park block surrounded by fraternity houses.
Margaret Sprug, project manager at Miller/Hull Architects, said they made an effort to keep the façade as compatible as possible with the other design elements in the neighborhood, using cast-in-place concrete, fir and stucco.
It’s the interior of the building, she says, that will hopefully stir the Jewish soul.
“We have a Jerusalem stone wall and everyone can identify with that Jerusalem stone,” said Sprug, who is not Jewish herself but felt very confident in her understanding of Jewish tradition by the end of the project. “I think it’s a spiritual key for the building.” Sprug said Bridge and Hillel project manager, Stan Piha, who brokered the property deal, were also involved in the design choices.
The stone wall is the centerpiece on the main floor. It rises to be visible on the second level due to the open stairway.
“The main thing that anchors the building is the atrium stair,” Sprug continued. “We saved some of the light fixtures from the other building, refurbished them and put them in the main room, and we also saved the ark doors. The sandstone material from the [old] exterior is now the floor of the Sukkah Court.”
Other spaces for students and community members include a living room with a fireplace, a worship space, performance hall, a study and library, a dining hall and a kosher kitchen.
Another unique feature of the new Hillel – though not yet completed – will be a teaching garden that will feature plants chosen for their Biblical importance and connection to Israel.
“It will have verses from Torah and Tanach that will refer to environmental issues and will talk about our responsibility on the earth,” said Bridge, “but also we’re planting the seven species of Israel in the garden. We hope to have that be a place just to relax, but also to bring groups in and teach students about the roots of environmentalism and Judaism and responsibility in taking care of the earth.”
Hillel board president Michele Rosen believes wholeheartedly in the benefits that will come from the new space. She has seen, first hand, how a new building can increase community involvement exponentially.
“We visited a ton of Hillel facilities around the country,” said Rosen, “and the same thing ran true for all of them. A new facility ramped up their program attendance. This facility is beautiful. It’s so authentic to who we are. And when you have a really healthy Hillel, you have a healthier Jewish community.”
Rosen also applauded the diversity of donors that contributed to the building campaign.
“We had a handful of major donors who gave $1 million and several who gave at $250,000 and over,” said Rosen. “We had many gifts at $100,000 and lots from $10,000 to $100,000. Many of those who gave at $10,000 and under were loosely connected [to Hillel].”
Rosen said that building the new Hillel has filled a vacuum in the community and will only continue to make the Jewish community even stronger.
Meanwhile, Bridge is continuing to develop his dream.
“We’re going to try to keep the Café open to 10 or 11 p.m. most days,” said Bridge. “Right now we have only Friday night services, but we will probably be doing something on Saturday morning as well.
“Down in the basement is the Keller Fitness Center which will have two recumbent bikes, an elliptical trainer, a big set of free weights and cable crossovers. We also have a game room in the basement that has a ping pong table and it’s going to have foosball. It will be finished very soon. We’re going to expand a lot.”