We were! But now we’re Assembly, which fits us better. While we started literally as the “office of innovation” inside of Hillel International, we’ve outgrown that name.

A lot of our team proudly worked for Hillel for years. We draw deep inspiration from Hillel’s commitment to pluralism, innovation and Torah. Hillel’s focus is college students. Ours is the “home to home” space, from when you leave your home until you set up your own. That overlaps (sometimes) with college, but tends to be a little later in life. So, for the sake of clarity, we made Assembly into a separate entity.

Good questions! This word is used a lot, so it takes on many different meanings. We mean something where Jews come together, live (in real life), drawing from the Jewish tradition of text, ritual and our calendar, with a sense of vision and responsibility. It’s a big tent definition. Our job is not to say who is in or out, but to push us towards deeper, more fulfilling forms of communal life.

This is just not our expertise. You have to do what you know how to do. We admire those who pioneer this work, but it is not our focus.

Our main focus is North America, but occasionally collaborate internationally if it is the right partnership.