Hi and welcome. My name is Iqbal Akhtar for another
episode of Interfaiths for our courses here at
Florida International University. We're very
honored to have John here, who is the director
of Hillel here at Florida International University.
So I'll let him introduce himself and talk to
us a little bit about his background and a little
bit about his life story. Okay, great. Yeah.
My name is John Warrick. I'm the, like you said,
executive director of the Hillel at FIU, which
is the Jewish nonprofit organization here on
campus at FIU. We're on 700, I think, plus campuses
around the world. Each one operates independently.
Some at private schools are embedded in the university.
But here at public school, we are our own entity.
uh but we're on campus we pay rent for that and
so we are a proud tenant here at fiu we work
with students directly building Jewish community,
educating Jewish students, building future leaders
of our Miami community. We also do a lot of work
with non -Jewish students, interfaith type stuff,
helping others understand Judaism and understand
Israel, understand Jewish people's relationship
to Israel, and fighting anti -Semitism, which
is big now. So we do work with administration
and faculty behind the scenes just to make sure
FIU is a safe place. We have a great relationship
with... The FIU PD also, which is a group we
work with. They're fantastic. And so, yeah, certainly
in today's day and age, we do a little bit of
everything. Previous generations might think
of Hillel as like, you know, giving you matzo
ball soup when you're sick or something like
that. But, you know, it's more dynamic these
days. There's a lot more going on on campus.
And the Hillels are stepping up around the country
to do that kind of work. That's great. Talk to
us a little bit about your, where did you grow
up and sort of your experience being Jewish in
America? Yeah, so my path to this job is a little
interesting. I grew up here in Miami, in the
North Miami Beach, Aventura area, which is a
heavily Jewish populated area. I think Aventura
outside of Tel Aviv is the most dense population
in the world of Jewish people. So when you grow
up in that, you just assume that the rest of
the world is even similar. And it is not. Even
down here on campus, it's worlds away sometimes.
So I grew up in that. I went to Jewish day school
at Sinai Academy. And I spent time in the JCC
at Michael and Russell JCC up there. So I was
always involved in Jewish life. You know, Bar
Mitzvah confirmed, you know, doing doing all
that sort of stuff. You know, in college, I was
less involved in Jewish life. And so when this
opportunity for this job came up, I really thought
about myself in that position. And, you know,
if. I had had the right leaders, the right guidance
in that world, I probably would have been more
involved. And so I actually switched careers
for this. I was in journalism for a long time,
a lot of entertainment journalism, magazine work.
I co -authored some memoirs with some people.
I moved to LA for a little while, a little stint
there, Hollywood style. But I was volunteering
a bunch. I was really drawn to the work. And
then this job opened up and they needed a community
person to be part of this, which is why I got
the job without maybe the right resume for it.
But because I was a community person, because
I could connect with donors and they saw my passion
for working with students, I was able to come
on board here. And we took a startup, Palel,
and we've made it pretty big. Yeah, no, I mean,
I think the work that you've done in transforming
it has been quite remarkable and the impact that
you're having on. with students, just talking
to the students that are part of the dialogue
group and how much you guys mean to them. Talk
to us about how your mission changed after October
7th. So we've always done, which is interesting,
we've always done the anti -Semitism work. We've
always done the Israel education work. I think
after October 7th, more people were paying attention
to it. And so it was good to be able to say,
hey, we're already doing that here at FIU. Because
like I said, a lot of Hillel's are, because our
students are community students. A lot of them
are either from Miami and will likely be here
after graduation or they're international and
they're from somewhere else in the world. And
they're looking for this specific type of community
as opposed to a college campus in a college town
where. The people are there for the four years
and then they're going to go back to wherever
they came from. They're creating more of a home
away from home and we're creating a this is your
home. So, you know, become a leader in your home
and take care of your city and take care of your
community. So with that in mind, we always knew
the education part was important. We always knew
certainly the outreach to other organizations
and other student groups were important. And
so we were kind of always doing that. Even so
much as we partnered with Jubalong, an organization
that puts up billboards, pink ones you might
have seen, a little provocative at times, that
fight anti -Semitism. And we partnered with them,
it was before October 7th, well before, on a
billboard that went in Miami and it had our Halal
logo on it. And we were the first Halal to do
that. And looking back, people were like, oh,
is that really something you should do? But certainly
post -October 7th, everyone's like, oh, we were
on top of this. What was the message on that
one? I think he said something like, we are,
however many years at the time, removed from
the gas chambers. A billboard about anti -Semitism
is not too much or something like that. And then
we had shirts and we gave out shirts on campus.
And that was a big campaign that went well. And
we saw a lot of people come over to the table.
Christian, Muslim students come over and talk
to us. And again, all before October 7th. And
we had real positive feedback. So where post
-October 7th, I think we had a lot of support
that you didn't see on other campuses. That's
interesting. Yeah, no, I mean, the work that
you guys do is very important. You know, I'm
trying to understand a little bit more about
Hillel's relationship to the community here in
Miami. So how did the students get connected
to the larger Jewish community in Miami? Right.
So there's obviously synagogues of all types
of observance levels throughout Miami and certainly
parts of Aventura. I mean, it's everywhere you
look. And so we'll connect students there sometimes.
We also do some programming with the JCCs. There's
three major JCCs here in Miami and then another
one in Broward that's pretty big. And so we'll
often partner with them on programs. The Jewish
Museum, which is part of FIU, we'll do programming
with them as well. And then there's a ton of
organizations. For every micro group, you could
say, there's a Jewish organization that does
stuff for that. And there's also... community
service type programs, Israel -related organizations.
We're constantly partnering with them whether
they come to Canvas or we go to them to really
connect the students to the community at large.
The main partner in all of this is the Greater
Miami Jewish Federation. One of our goals is
to be part of the feeder pattern of programming
that exists. So, you know, you might be in Jewish
preschool and then maybe day school, and then
there's high school programs and trips to Israel,
things you can do. And then we want to be that
for the college. And then when they graduate,
there's, you know, professional programs through
a federation and other organizations and so on
and so forth. And we really try to connect them
as much as possible to, and then to individual
leaders as well, people in the community who
are doing big things, whether it's. religiously
or culturally or just as people who give back
in the Jewish community, we try to connect them
to as many leaders as possible. Okay. One of
the things that's become a very hot topic right
now is the U .S. relationship with Israel. Talk
to us about what does Israel mean for the American
Jewish community? Yeah, I mean, certainly...
For the American Jewish community, a lot of us
here are a couple of generations removed from
the Holocaust, either directly or indirectly.
So we've grown up with that education. And we
see so often Holocaust survivors say in testimonials,
I was Polish, my father was Polish, my grandfather
was Polish. We were so... Polish before we were
even Jewish until the Holocaust started. And
then our neighbors turned on us and said, no,
you're Jewish, you're not Polish. And so that
mentality of I'm a Jewish American, I'm not an
American Jew, is something that sort of we grow
up with. And because of that, Israel's existence
is that safe haven. you know, is the place we
know where we can go. And even though from the
outside world might feel dangerous, it actually
to the Jewish people feels like the safest place
on the planet. And, you know, so, and it's often
said that the Holocaust as in a result, I mean,
Israel is in a result of the Holocaust, but the
Holocaust would not have happened had Israel
existed. And so that, that sort of a Jewish person's
mentality over Israel is that because we have
uh our our ancestral homeland as a place to go
for safety um history won't repeat itself and
so that that's built into the mentality of it
um plus just as you know regardless of you know,
how your religious observance, as we were talking
about earlier, Israel offers a lot to the world
as a tourist even, right? So to go there and
to get off the airplane and walk to Ben -Gurion
Airport, just the feeling you get alone as a
Jewish person, I can't describe it. But, you
know, when I was a kid, the first time on the
March of the Living, after going to Poland and
seeing the concentration camps, you literally
kiss the ground when you get to israel like because
you're just so happy to be there and so now even
now everyone films you know it's like the new
version is everyone just films themselves walking
down the ramp at ben -gurion airport and it's
like here i am this is that this is my thing
and um yeah there's a real it's just a real emotional
tie that's might be hard to explain but it's
uh it's everything to the jewish people um I
think, you know, we've been doing some work on
sort of interfaith dialogue, and I think that's
something else that's kind of important. Talk
to us a little bit about what is Hillel or just
generally kind of a Jewish perspective on sort
of interfaith relations, interfaith dialogue.
I mean, look, it's very important. You know,
we are 2 % of the population in America, 0 .2
% in the world. You know, we are... A minority
in every sense of the word, yet so often we are
spoken of in ways that doesn't make sense, almost
as if we are a majority in some places. And so
really to combat that, we have to be having conversations
with everybody. And it's also to learn about
others as well. We don't thrive living in these
bubbles. And I've mentioned Aventura before.
That is very much one of those. And so for young
people, it's important to understand. the world
but in turn it's also important for us to tell
the world about us otherwise they're going to
read something on the internet or even sadly
in the regular media today that's just that's
going to be false and they're going to believe
it and there's going to be a hatred that grows
because some of the same dialogue antisemitic
dialogue has existed in different forms but basically
the same for thousands of years and I think what
we see now, especially post October 7th, is it's
never actually going to go away. But as Jews,
we can have the conversations to fight it constantly,
to not give up on it ever. And so I think that's
very important. And we do it here on campus,
you know, for all those reasons. Right. We want
to be part of. the larger fabric of FIU and what's
going on and what's popular and what's great
here. And we also want to be able to have those
important conversations. And it's been tough
post -October 7th. A lot of the dialogue that
has gone on for a long time in the community,
it didn't seem like it worked. A lot of people,
we felt, turned their backs on the Jewish people,
even within this community here in Miami. And
so it's been difficult. But I don't think it's
something that anyone should ever give up on.
In fact, I think it's even more important now
because what we've seen, I think, in the dialogue
course we're doing is that it's really outside
voices that are influencing the conversation.
It's not necessarily the Jewish students and
the Muslim students who can't figure it out because
they actually have more in common than they have
different. It is a very loud outside voice who
likely can't even find Israel on a map. who decides
how you know these world politics and usually
without any real solutions just with anger and
so the dialogue really brings people together
who actually have a vested interest in what's
going on which i think is important absolutely
i mean that's the thing i've also we saw in this
kind of these sessions that we've been having
which have gone really really well it's just
to see the shared lived experiences, right, of
being minorities, of, you know, trying to live
your law and sort of the faith in the United
States. I mean, a lot of similarities in terms
of the way that it moves through the world. And
so it's interesting that the way that the Israel
-Palestine thing has been essentially... weaponized
by ideologues, right, to kind of create division
between people and faith communities. And I think
that that's something that, you know, hopefully
this is the start of kind of larger programming
to be able to bring in bridges between these
communities. And, you know, like I was saying
earlier, my recent trip to Israel, I think that
it was remarkable to see kind of how much integration
and kind of the success that Israel has had in
terms of drawing in. I think that was something
else that was quite remarkable is that it's a
society that has been able to draw in vast amounts
of like talent and resources to develop itself
as a society. And that's like, I think it's a
positive. An example, I think, to countries in
the larger Middle East whose governments don't
work, whose economies are failing. And I think
also the resolution of the Palestinian -Israeli
conflict eventually, I think, will also help
to, you know, reintegrate, I think, the Jewish
people back in the Middle East. Jews have been
in the Middle East for more than 2 ,000 years.
So there's no reason, at least among the Muslim
world and even older, it goes back thousands
of years. So the question is, how do we create
new relationships that echo some of the older
partnerships that existed in the past? It's really
important, even theologically and culturally,
to have that interchange. Yeah, absolutely. And
I think I think it's more like 4000 than 2000.
Yeah. So it's right. It's it's a very long time.
And then what we see, you know, now is unfortunately,
Israel is really the only place where Jews live
in any real amount of numbers anywhere in the
Middle East. People talk about what's going on
in Israel, which they always say is the size
of New Jersey. If you zoom out on the map a little
bit, you can see it tells a much different story
of Jewish life that used to thrive in Iraq and
Iran and other places that doesn't exist anymore.
And so on one hand, Israel is this amazing place,
but also I think Jews thrive all over the world
and we shouldn't be forced to one space either.
You know, that's that's the dynamic. And then,
of course, you know, when you when you go and
you go to Israel, you go to visit, you see it's
it's a pretty remarkable place that is not at
all what you read about in some cases. But then
then there's always the idea of, well, well,
Jews don't deserve to be there either. Or, you
know, they're doing these things. for some nefarious
reason. Their technology is great, but somehow
that's bad for the world as opposed to good.
And so that's always an uphill battle for the
Jewish community is we do something that we're
proud of and people want to take it away from
us in some way. And that's an everyday struggle
with Israel. But certainly in America here, too.
People say, oh, you control Hollywood. Well,
A, that's not true, as we see with a ton of protests
and things that are happening. And Jewish impact
on Hollywood is because at the time, it was one
of the few jobs that the Jewish community could
have because there was discrimination against
Jewish people. Catch 22 of, okay, fine, this
is the only thing we're letting you do because
nobody cares about it in the moment. And then
we turn it into something pretty decent and it's
like, oh, you have too much power. And there's
a constant cycle of that in anything. Same thing
in banking and money lending. Those were jobs
that Jews were allowed to do. And here we are.
One of the things that's important, I think,
in Judaism is this idea of tikkun olam. Can you
talk to us a little bit about what that means?
Yes. It means to repair the world. It's, I think,
a pillar of Judaism that, you know, belongs in
every Jewish life. And so, you know, we're constantly
doing that at Hillel is how can we, you know,
part of our outreach and part of our work in
the community is how can we better society? And
I think we, you know, we all kind of live with
that in our minds as something that's important
and something that we should be focused on. Now,
the question is, how do you repair the world,
right? And so, you know, sometimes you have to
say to yourself, well, I need to be healed myself
before I can heal others, right? Or our community
needs to be healed before it can help others.
And too often, you know, we are currently in
the state of the world, our state, certainly
of America, I'll only speak for America, but
it exists everywhere, is we're so polarized as
a society. where does the Jewish Takkun Olam
really take place? If you're now trying to support
something because this is my, I'm supposed to
support, I'm supposed to help, but then it's
actually hurting other people or in some case
your own people in the process, it becomes more
difficult. So that's a conversation a lot of
people are having of what does Takkun Olam really
look like in 2025? and how we best serve the
community in that capacity. You would think it
would be easy, right? You would think it would
be easy. Hey, we just want to help everybody
we could help. But, you know, sometimes when
you help one, you hurt another. And especially
today, it's tough. What's unique about Miami
in terms of your experience? I mean, you live
in different places. What do you think is unique
about the types of people and kind of the religious
institutions here in Miami for the work that
you do? I think because when you think about
South Florida in general, Dave Broward, Palm
Beach County, the numbers are pretty large. So
when you combine it together, and I do think
there, I think we're connected in a way that
you might not see in other places. Even New York
and LA, there's a lot of separate things going
on. Whereas I think in Miami, and maybe I'm just
biased from it, but I certainly felt it when
I lived in LA. Miami feels like one big family.
in a sense. And even when we argue among each
other, you know, based on, you know, religious
observance, for example, or based on, you know,
we have people from different parts of the world,
you know, for a lot of first gen American Jews,
especially here in Miami, and they might come
with a different set of customs, you know, and
how they see Judaism. But yet, when push comes
to shove, we do really feel connected in a way
that I I don't see anywhere outside of Israel.
And I think that's special. And I think all the
organizations act in that way. You see a lot
more positive interaction between Reform and
Orthodox Jews, between Ashkenazi and Sephardic
Jews, between the Israeli community so embraced
here that we have a pretty large population.
And again, the Greater Miami Jewish Federation
does an amazing job of making all that happen,
bringing people together. And, you know, our
Hillel is just a small sort of subset of that.
But we we really are a microcosm of the whole
city because we get we get the students from
all over Miami, different communities. In so
many cases, we'll have a student who grew up
in Aventura where everyone in their class is
Jewish. And then their friend that they met here
at FIU went to, you know, Coral Reef or some
different high school down south. that maybe
they were the only Jewish person and maybe they
had one other Jewish friend. And now they're
here at FIU together and they're sharing their
shared experiences. And Miami's really special.
And just like for me personally growing up here,
I run into people, everywhere I go, I run into
someone I know. I can't go to dinner anywhere
in this entire county without running into a
Jewish person, probably, who I know. And I just
don't think... Even New York and L .A. and Chicago
and those major cities are built in the same
way. What about being here at FIU? What is your
experience been like here at this university?
I mean, I think FIU is great. I think I've been
here. I'm in year eight now and it just grows
every year. You know, I always talk about the
apartment buildings on 8th Street. They didn't
exist when I first started. And now this year,
there's like 9000 students living on or around
campus, including those buildings. And I mean,
that's such a huge change. You know, our Hallel
space, which backs up to 8th Street in PG6, it
used to be in like a bad location because the
dorms are on the other side. And now with all
those buildings, all of a sudden we're in this
great location. And so like you see that growth
and you see what they're trying to do with some
of the athletics and what they're trying to do
with the Greek system and some of the other programs.
And they're really successful. Like you can see
the growth. The hard part is we are, as someone
who went to University of Florida, we're like
100 years behind, you know, what these other
state schools were doing. So on one hand, the
growth is really exciting and it's exciting.
You watch it every year. But there's still a
ways to go as far as student life goes, as far
as, you know, just the way that it's a very big
university to the way people interconnect. Like
even you and I should be a lot easier for us
to meet. But like we didn't until recently, just
because of how massive the university is. So
the communication gets tough. But it's a great
place for Jewish students. More and more, they
are deciding to stay here. I think that because
the price is right, you can work and intern in
a great city like Miami while you're working.
And then FIU keeps climbing the ranks educationally.
And so it really is a win -win. And then we see
that with the law school, medical school, all
those things as well. So it's really a great
place. And, you know, University of Miami might
have won a couple of football championships in
the 80s or whatever, but, you know. It's a long
time ago. I think it's our time here at FIU.
Okay, that's wonderful. I guess looking forward
to the next couple of years, what are the major
challenges and opportunities you see as director
of FIU? Well, certainly we've outgrown our space.
I would love a larger space, create a larger
home for Jewish life here on campus. And space
is very limited, as it is everywhere, but certainly
here. There's like new buildings going up every
day that certainly take precedent over a Jewish
student organization. And so, yeah, the growth,
it's a good challenge to have, but it is a challenge.
And then also, yeah, connecting students more
and more to campus life in general, I think is
very beneficial. If you start to see the football
games packed and the basketball games packed.
you'll see more action at Hillel because of that.
People need a reason to stay on campus. And yeah,
we do well on social media, but there's still
so many people who don't even know we exist,
which you would think would be impossible because
Hillel internationally has been around over 100
years. And so you would think parents, grandparents,
somebody would say, oh, is there a Hillel? And
then they would go look it up. But so often,
especially when you think of first generation
American students, they... they're just not aware
of what it is that they have here. And so that's
always the challenge is getting the word out.
But again, the growth is exciting. You know,
I see us doing more and more for those who live
on or around campus and, you know, growing that
way. And plus, and continue to connect people
to the community. As students graduate and I
see them involved in other things, that's always
exciting for me. So the more of that we can do,
the better. Okay. And what's your final message
to your pitch for Hillel? Final pitch. I think
it is for students to not just give it a chance,
but to really try to understand the work we're
doing. Because, again, they might see Shabbat
dinner and say, well, I have Shabbat dinner with
my family, so I don't need Hillel. But we offer
so many programs, so many ways to grow, so many
ways to connect to Israel, so many ways to connect
with other students or academically or through
their careers or connect to the community at
large. There are so many things that we can do.
And by the way, if we're not doing it and it's
something you want to do, we can make that happen
also. So we really are a space where anything
can happen. And we want everybody to realize
that. And also for the non -Jewish students that,
you know. Come find us. Don't be afraid. If you
have a student group out there and you want to
do something with the Jewish students and we
can work on something together, we love that.
But again, it's hard to like communicate a lot
of times. They don't understand that we also
have, you know, outside funding to bring to the
table. So, you know, you need a nice meal at
this event. You know, you count on Hillel to
make it happen. And so there's there's ways to
make it work. And, you know, we'd be thrilled
to do any of it. Well, I'm very grateful for
your partnership and for really sort of, you
know, working with us in terms of trying to develop
this dialogue and connecting sort of Muslim and
Jewish students and just generally the students,
I think, at large to sort of get to know more
about the Jewish community and Jewish students.
And I think that connection and sort of greater
understanding will lead to, you know, a much
better relationship among faith communities and
particularly for Jewish students. They're very
difficult. difficult time yeah yeah absolutely
one of the big takeaways from from the course
is this reminder that we're both about two percent
of the population in america and when if you
read the articles and you see what's on social
media you would think that it was much more yeah
so i think when we focus on that four percent
we can we can do a lot of great yeah no it's
crazy because like on the jewish side they're
like okay well the jews control the world and
then muslim side muslims want to impose sharia
law on everybody and like they're about to like
take over america and you're like you're barely
anything in the population so it's unfortunately
there's this um you know this the scaremongering
that politicians use and sort of ideologues use
and just kind of also the media media ecosystem
has become so fragmented that it really takes
a lot of effort and time um to put positive images
and narratives out there and i feel like what
we're doing in terms of literally just getting
people together is one of the strongest ways
to be able to combat that, you know? Yeah. I
remember, Jewish people have never decided an
election in the history of the United States.
And so it doesn't matter to the masses how the
Jews are voting on anything, like in any major
city, nationally especially. And yet you hear
that conversation so often. And yeah, that's
the kind of stuff we... We have to change the
narrative. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, John, thank
you so much for taking the time to talk to us
and looking forward to our work together and
our dinner later this evening. All right. Thank
you. Thanks a lot, John.