Leah Berman-Kress and the Jewish Student Association

In 2019, Marketing and Communications major, Leah Berman-Kress ‘22 founded Chatham’s Jewish Student Association (JSA) with help from the Office of Student Engagement and the Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh. Within a few months, Jewish students had built a safe and reliable community on campus and the larger Chatham community took notice, awarding them the Outstanding New Student Organization Award in the spring of 2020. We chatted with Leah to learn more about why she chose to found the organization, what the process looked like, and her larger aspirations for the JSA at Chatham.

what made you decide to found Chatham's Jewish Student Association & what DID that process looked like?

Leah Berman-Kress

Leah Berman-Kress: After the shooting at Tree of Life, I felt like there wasn't a strong Jewish community on Chatham's campus. I was lucky that I knew a few other Jewish students and we worked through that together. But I knew that there had to be more people out there looking for support. Former Dean of Students, Zauyah Waite and current Dean of Students, Heather Black created a space for Jewish students to tell the administration what they needed after the shooting. While we were talking, I realized we all needed very similar things. I thought, Why isn't this already a thing? It was so helpful to know that there were other people going through the exact same thing I was and that they were right here on Chatham's campus. We just had to figure out a way to connect.

The process for starting the organization wasn't bad. I worked closely with Associate Director of Student Engagement, Emily Fidago, and the Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh, which is basically a Jewish Student Union for all campuses in Pittsburgh. They helped me write the Constitution and Emily helped me edit it to fit Chatham's standards, then we got started from there.

What types of activities does the Jewish Student Association host?

LBK: We usually have a club meeting every other week. We had a Shabbat dinner planned for the week that COVID shut everything down. We had all the decorations and food ordered—everything was ready to go. We're really hoping to pick that back up in the fall if we can. Education is a big part of what we want to do. Last year we were working on engagement and putting out feelers to see what the campus wanted and needed. We're planning on doing more events this coming year.

What do you mean when you say education?

LBK: For example, every year on Sukkot, there's a Sukkah built outside of the library but non-Jewish people don't usually know what it is. There's nothing to say 'This is what this is for. This is meaningful, it's for a holiday, etc.' We're planning to create a flyer that explains what it is and why it's there. I think that'll be really helpful. It's meaningful for the Jewish community but if you don't know what it is you may be wondering, Why is this here? Both years I've seen it, I've heard people ask, "What is that?"

Can you talk about a particular experience you've had with the JSA that means a lot to you?

LBK: I don't know if I have a particular memory but I know that it's really nice to be together because we are such a small population on campus. There aren't that many Jewish students but there are about fifteen of us in the organization. It's great to be able to get together and talk about Jewish traditions, holidays, and customs that we would have to explain to other people. We try to make it a super safe space for everyone to talk about whatever they're comfortable with. We've also had a bunch of students who aren't Jewish come to the meetings who just want to learn about what Judaism is. That's something we really support. If you are interested or want to help enrich Jewish life on campus, you are more than welcome to come. You don't have to be Jewish.

Chatham JSA logo

What kind of work do you want to do after college and has your work with the JSA influenced that at all?

LBK: Yeah, I have a background in volunteering and nonprofit work. Right now, I'm working at the Jewish Association on Aging in their marketing department. After college, I hope to either go to grad school or get a job somewhere in the nonprofit world. I think when your job has more meaning behind it, more than just making money, that's really fulfilling.

What's something that you wish more students knew about the JSA at Chatham?

LBK: I wish more students knew that we're super welcoming. You don't have to be Jewish to come. If you want to learn, we're happy to share our knowledge with you and just get together. We're still pretty new so we've been trying to advertise as much as possible that we exist. We're always looking for members and we're a super welcoming and inclusive community that welcomes new ideas. We don't want to be the only ones coming up with the ideas; we want to hear what other students want. We definitely want to hear from the campus community about what they think would be valuable and what they think would be fun.

Do you have any advice for other students looking to start their own organizations on campus?

LBK: Emily Fidago and the Office of Student Engagement will help you in any way you need. Emily walks you through the process of filling out the application and helps you with the Constitution. She also helped me with the details of planning the event that we were supposed to have. I could just pop in her office or email her. The Vice President for Chatham Student Government (CSG) is always the designated student organization leader, so they offer a student perspective, and I found her to be super helpful as well.

Thanks to Leah for chatting with us. To learn more about the JSA at Chatham, follow their Instagram: @jsa.chathamu.