When Adam Weisberg left the Bay Area after college graduation he planned to return in less than four months.
Instead he was gone for 10 years — as his involvement with Jewish organizations took him to Israel, Bulgaria, the Midwest and the East Coast.
He’s now been back for three years and plans to stay for good.
The newly appointed executive director of U.C. Berkeley Hillel is growing roots. “In the past year I’ve bought a house, gotten a dog and had a baby [with wife Rachel],” he said. “I finally feel as if I’m settled here.”
Weisberg officially replaced former Hillel director Rona Shapiro on July 1. Chosen from a nationwide pool of 30 applicants, he had been serving as interim director since January.
A former teacher and consultant for the Washington, D.C.-based Hillel International Center, and assistant director at Ohio State University’s Hillel, Weisberg also served as director of the Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center’s summer day camp.
He was tapped for the Berkeley Hillel position because of his strong background in Jewish education and the positive response he has generated among community members, according to Lauraine Jaeger, board president of Berkeley Hillel.
“I’m crazy about Adam,” she said. “I think he has an extraordinary personality and an ability to relate to people — he’s like a magnet for the students, board and community.
Jaeger also pointed out that Weisberg is an organized administrator with “Jewishly” ways.
The 1986 U.C. Berkeley graduate didn’t always plan to find a professional niche in the Jewish community. An English major, he dreamed of becoming a lawyer or possibly even “a great writer.”
“I regard it as sort of an accident,” explained Weisberg. “I certainly didn’t have any concrete plans. One day I just looked around and realized that all the steps I had been taking we’re directing me towards work in the Jewish community.”
Weisberg’s path to Judaism began at a young age. He grew up in a Jewish household in San Francisco and participated in Jewish activities throughout college. There he wrote for the Jewish student magazine, “Ha’etgar.”
Upon graduation, Weisberg joined Project Otzma, a year-long volunteer and educational program in Israel.
“It’s the most integrated into the life of Israel that a young Jewish person can get without moving there and living there,” said Weisberg. “I got to know Israelis in a very profound and direct way.”
At the end of his term he was offered a job as assistant national coordinator for Project Otzma in New York. He attended graduate school in the Jewish Theological Seminary of Columbia University.
He then spent two years in Bulgaria with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a national organization which does global relief work.
“With the transition from communism to capitalism in 1989, I knew I would be [in Bulgaria] at a vital time,” said Weisberg. “It was amazing to see this highly secular community completely motivated to learn about Jewish values and culture — knowledge for knowledge’s sake.”
Weisberg wants to bring that same thirst for knowledge to U.C. Berkeley. “The challenge now is to move beyond Hillel’s doors and involve more students.
“I hope over the coming years students will see Hillel as a place filled with creativity and thoughtful services,” said Weisberg, an avid storyteller and environmental activist. “I also hope the greater community will look to us as a resource.”
Some of his goals include reinvigorating Hillel’s major educational programming and a first-ever attempt at endowment funding with the Jewish Community Foundation of San Francisco and East Bay.
Jaeger said she is confident Weisberg will achieve his goals, and go above and beyond them as well.
“Adam will be capable of creating such a welcoming, non-judgmental atmosphere that I’m expecting to see a flocking of students, community and lay leaders to Hillel,” she said.
“Everyone will feel welcome with him in the realm.”