Aaron Forkash’s task in the last year was not unlike that of an Army recruiter.
As a Hadassah and San Jose Hillel outreach worker at South Bay colleges, his “job is to bring Judaism and Jewish life to campuses.”
With a fellowship co-sponsored by both organizations, the 1997 Jewish studies graduate from San Francisco State brought a marketing flare to his outreach efforts.
In March he booked Israeli electronic-fusion recording artist Yair Dalal, an Israeli-born Jew of Iraqi descent.
While promoting the event, instead of just posting fliers around the San Jose State campus, Forkash also got several professors in the music department to announce the gig to their students. The key was appealing to the target audience.
“I have no background in marketing, but I’m just out of college and I know what’s cool,” said Forkash, who lives in San Francisco and attends Congregation Beth Sholom. “There are Jewish students out there who have preconceptions that Hillel is for nerds or that Hadassah is right wing, because the focus is on Zionism. The stigma is stronger than reality. I try to combat that. My job is to break down the preconceptions.
“I bring Jewish things to the students on their own terms,” he added. “It works very well.”
Last fall, San Jose Hillel selected Forkash, 24, for its postgraduate internship program called the Jewish Campus Service Corps Fellowship.
Hadassah, selecting 10 from a nationwide pool of 80 JCSC interns, awarded Forkash a fellowship as well.
“What’s appealing about Aaron is his enthusiasm, passion and drive,” said Ilan Wagner, coordinator of the Hadassah Fellow program at the New York headquarters. “He’s bubbling with ideas and is very extroverted. He will go out, meet people and excite them with his ideas.”
Forkash has programmed events focusing on Hadassah’s projects, which include Israeli, health and women’s issues. He organized a delegation of students to hear Dore Gold, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, speak in San Francisco and brought Shalom Onn, a Moroccan Jewish rabbi, to deliver a talk at San Jose State.
“He was able to bring several facets of Israeli society to the campus. He’s brought unusual things and that’s what attracts people,” Wagner said.
Forkash said he operates under the assumption that “there are Jewish college students who would not normally seek out Hillel. They might know about it but think we’re right-wing religious fanatics.” His goal is to reach them.
In addition to San Jose State, his territory at San Jose Hillel includes Santa Clara University, nearby community colleges and the surrounding region. His office is based out of the Addison-Penzak Jewish Community Center in Los Gatos. He also has a Web site: www.sjhillel.com
Hadassah’s partnership with Hillel on the JCSC Fellowship program grew out of the organization’s desire to expose Jews to a stronger Jewish presence on campuses. “It is a crucial juncture for people choosing a career path and possible mates,” Wagner said.
Forkash said his role is not to “impose values, teach dogma or get anyone to make life-changing decisions. I’m just trying to expose them.”
Since the fall, Forkash has seen about an 80 percent increase in active participation at Hillel. “Before I came, there was a small core group of students. Now, there’s 200 on the mailing list,” he said.
When Hillel members come up with an idea, Forkash lets them run with it. One event in the planning stages is an open-air havdallah gathering on July 4, which would include fireworks. “Maybe we’ll call it `Exploding Havdallah,'” Forkash said. “It’ll be great.”
A couple of pivotal life experiences led Forkash to seek out the yearlong fellowship, where he spends 60 hours per week.
Describing himself as committed to “helping ensure a robust Jewish future,” Forkash said his activism and “involvement in liberal Zionism” was inspired by spending the 1994-95 academic year at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, studying politics, Jewish history and the Talmud.
Returning to San Francisco State, he said his tolerance was tested by anti-Semitic speech and incidents involving Palestinian students and some members of black nationalist clubs.
He and others staged events and formed coalitions with the divergent groups “to hash these issues out.
“Sometimes it was discouraging,” Forkash said, “but I just kept doing it because that’s what needs to be done to make any progress. I made friends with blacks, Palestinians and Jews. It was a great way to bring Jews together.”
After the summer, Forkash will work for a year in his family’s Oakland-based scrap metal business, adding that he would eventually like to go back to school to study Jewish history and philosophy. “I will always be active on some level in the Jewish community,” he said.