In light of the numerous Kesher groups operating throughout North America, we have long felt that there is a need for a guidebook that would help students organize and program Reform Jewish activities on their campuses.  The idea for this comprehensive guidebook originated in 1997, but the manual itself reflects the combined efforts and ideas of many individuals. Several booklets previously published by the UAHC, such as Doing the High Holy Days on Campus and Doing Your Own Creative Shabbat Service on Campus, prepared by Nancy Greenfield, as well as Planning a College Retreat, have been incorporated into this text.  Additional materials have been gleaned from numerous sources, including the University of Michigan Office for Student Activities and Leadership, the Web site of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, and the sites of other Jewish organizations.

Certain individuals deserve special thanks for their involvement in this project under the guidance of Rabbi Jonathan Klein, Director of the UAHC College Education Department, 1997-2000.  Lisa Claybon (University of Michigan, ’99) helped make this undertaking a reality. A student who served as president of the University of Michigan Kesher and later as a 1998 summer intern for KESHER, Lisa brought incredible diligence and insight to this project and helped organize and format it. As the 1999 summer intern for KESHER, Stephanie Kolin (Brandeis University, ’01) subsequently made substantial contributions to and edited the existing materials. Many additional resources that were created or edited by Stephanie Kolin can be found on the KESHER Web site. We extend our heartfelt thanks to both Lisa and Stephanie.

Throughout this manual you will find programmatic examples from actual Kesher chavurot (groups). Some of the leaders of those chavurot, including Elissa Baum of Ohio State University and Naomi Jacobson of Brandeis University, generously allowed us to use their group’s texts and resources. The song-leading tips come from Rabbi Jonathan Kraus, who taught at Camp Swig in 1985.

The most monumental step forward in the creation of new liturgical resources occurred when Adam Schaeffer, serving as the Jewish Campus Service Corps (JCSC) Fellow at Duke University Hillel, found a phonetically mapped Shareware Hebrew font with vowels that could be used on standard word processors.  This discovery opened up a world of opportunity for the distribution of liturgy.  Joshua Miller, the former JCSC and Program Director at Berkeley Hillel, has utilized that font to create numerous resources for this guidebook.  The Havdalah liturgy in this book was created with the use of this revolutionary font. We are thankful to both of these individuals for providing KESHER and the Jewish people with this invaluable tool.

To all those mentioned above, to those whom we have inadvertently excluded, and to the countless individuals who have served as an inspiration for them, we are extremely thankful.  May this be just the first edition of an evolving work that is inspired by new ideas for bringing Judaism into the lives of students throughout North America. May it help students take ownership of our Jewish heritage, which is “a tree of life to those who hold fast to it.”