Jewish Arts Festival 2026

Hello world! I’m Sadie, your springboard fellow here at Hillel 818. For those who don’t know, I run lots of (mostly art) programs for our students, I teach a course on Jewish art and wisdom, meet with students one on one, and a bunch of other things. And even more importantly than what I do here, I hope everyone enjoyed the fruit and cheese at Jewish Arts Fest!

I’m going to start with a lot of “thank-yous”.

Thank you to the students who submitted their beautiful artwork.

Thank you to students for coming to Makerspace, my weekly arts and crafts class, where every week we learn something new together.

Thank you to the community that shows up for Hillel, for the students, in support of Jewish creativity and student art.

I want to emphasize that only 3 of the artists presented at Jewish Arts Fest were an art or design major…everyone else has learned these techniques in a short amount of time here in Makerspace this semester, or honed their craft on their own without formal instruction. I am so proud of each and every one of my students.

Also, a big thank you to the donors who helped fund Makerspace and continuous art programming. Without your support I could not run these programs that produce such awesome pieces and joy all around.

Thank you to my Hillel team for helping me turn our social hall into this awesome gallery event.

It takes a village. Now more than ever, community is so important. Jewish community is so divided, polarized, and threatened. In spite of our differences, whether you’re orthodox, conservative, reform, converted, half Jewish, jewISH—

In spite of our differing political affiliations and backgrounds, fields of study, 

Despite despite despite all the hardship and terror in the world we live in—

We have each other. Community. This sense of belonging here at Hillel. That’s what our theme “shalom sweet home” is about:

shalom, hello, goodbye,

peace, safety, wholeness.

Our greetings to each other are rooted in wishing for peace. I want to reinstate that home can be a place, a person, or community. 

The art at Jewish Arts Fest explores feeling at home and at peace in our Jewish identities, bridging these themes of community, heritage, and memory.