Fall 2026: A New Year, a New Name, a New Format
I can’t wait to welcome new and returning students back to campus this week—especially because this year the start of the academic year corresponds almost exactly with Rosh Hashanah.
It’s a new start for all of us, all at once—and while I find the coinciding new years to be logistically challenging, I can’t deny the synergy that can build when they come together. The clean slate for the soul that we aspire to in the Jewish New Year arrives with the academic and social restart of the College new year. On so many fronts this is the time for students to choose and invest in the directions they want to go this year.
To add to all this newness, this digital newsletter is also sporting a new name and a new format. I have long felt that the old name, “Hillel Hayom,” didn’t fully describe the content of the newsletter or the scope of Jewish life on Middlebury’s campus. This newsletter has always covered stories about alumni, Jewish studies classes, the School of Hebrew in the summer and the Hebrew and Israeli society program during the school year, Jewish art and sacred objects in Special Collections, connections with the local Jewish community, interfaith programming, and of course our Jewish student org, which also has a new name: Jewish Association at Middlebury (JAM). These activities form an interdependent ecosystem of Jewish life on campus and allow for the pathways to being Jewish at Middlebury to be as different as the students who take them.
All the different programs, events, activities, and faculty and staff who mentor students contribute to the student experience in Jewish life. Many students use multiple entry points to enrich their Jewish life and identity, while some may throw their whole effort into one thing—minoring in Jewish studies or being on the leadership board of JAM, or helping Hebrew Professor Michal Strier and her husband, Tamir, cook one of their legendary meals. There is no one way to do it, just as there is no one way to be Jewish, and we are proud that Middlebury provides so many different pathways to Jewish enrichment. The name “Hayom at Middlebury,” which translates to “Today at Middlebury,” captures this ecosystem and the newsletter that reports on it more accurately.
May this New Year be one of new synergies for all of us—the meeting of different aspects of our lives in ways that reinforce and elevate each other. And may we all continue on the life journey of finding the true names that describe who we truly are.
Shana Tova U’ Metuka! Have a sweet and good New Year!