Contact: James Carskadon

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Leaders of Mississippi State University’s Jewish student organization, Hillel, recently were featured in Jewish Scene magazine.

Hillel President Jacob Craig and past-president Joseph Metz each wrote first-person essays that were published by the Jewish community magazine. The two MSU students discussed their experiences growing up Jewish in Mississippi, where less than one percent of the population is Jewish, according to the Pew Research Center. Craig is a sophomore mechanical engineering major from Brooksville, while Metz is a senior history major from Clinton.

“A lot of people don’t realize there are religious Jews in the South,” Craig said. “This was a way of sharing our story to the wider world about how it is to be Jewish in the South.”

Both students wrote about the difficulty of finding strong Jewish communities in their hometowns. Because of that difficulty, Metz was motivated to make MSU a place where Jewish students could embrace their faith with fellow students. To accomplish that goal, Metz set out to grow Hillel when he transferred to the university in 2014.

“I wanted students in Mississippi to not have to go to universities outside the state,” Metz said. “I wanted them to be able to stay here. I knew the only way to do that would be to make Hillel appealing.”

MSU’s Hillel chapter was started in 2009. It is under the umbrella of Hillel International, a global Jewish campus organization with a presence on more than 550 college campuses. Metz has seen the group triple in size since he arrived on campus, which he credits to the support of Hillel members and the university community. Metz and Craig both thanked MSU President Mark E. Keenum for his support.

The student organization has worked to create more programming and increase its visibility on campus in recent years. Hillel has hosted visits from two Holocaust survivors, Jewish Battle of the Bulge veterans and a panel on Judaism, among other activities. Craig said Hillel will continue to have more events this fall.

Metz and Craig’s articles can be found at www.jewishscenemagazine.com/2016/03/growing-up-jewish-in-mississippi/ and www.jewishscenemagazine.com/2016/07/growing-up-jewish-in-mississippi-2.

For more information on Hillel, visit www.facebook.com/MissStateHillel or contact Craig at jac1177@msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.