Ava Brenner grew up in Arlington Heights, Illinois, one of three Jewish students in a class of 500. Her town of 75,000 people has no synagogue. Her father grew up Conservative Jewish, and her mother was a Lutheran teacher, so Ava's Jewish life came in "bits and pieces": prayers at home, the traditions, the Hanukkah fun. "It made me who I am," she says.
In 2022, Ava won a gold medal in karate with Maccabi USA at the Maccabiah Games in Israel. Surrounded by thousands of Jewish athletes, she carried a worry. She had never been bat mitzvahed and had never gone to Hebrew school. "I tried to keep it a secret," she says. She wondered if she was "Jewish enough" to be there. Shabbat dinners, a group celebration on a hill in Jerusalem, and a day at Masada helped. So did training in the desert heat alongside athletes who had grown up very differently from her.
When it came time to choose a college, Ava was touring campuses not long after October 7. At each school, she asked students and tour guides what Jewish life is like at Miami University in Oxford she heard that the university takes antisemitism seriously. She enrolled without knowing much about Hillel. She found out about it at the campus Mega Fair, in her second week of school.
Then came the Hillel welcome barbecue. Ava almost skipped it. Walking in alone felt like too much, but her roommate, who is not Jewish, told her to go. So, she went and she kept going back.
The semester was still hard. "I felt like I couldn't find my people," Ava says. She came close to transferring. What changed things was Friday night. Shabbat at Hillel gave her "something to look forward to" every week. Nobody minded when she showed up ten minutes late, in a T-shirt and shorts, in the middle of services. One week she got sick and missed dinner. Her friends noticed, made a full plate, and carried it to her dorm.
"I felt like I had a community," she says.
Today, Ava is a sophomore. She's a biology major on a pre-med track, vice president of the fencing club, and, when she is home in Illinois, a karate teacher for kids with special needs and for adults. At Hillel, she is the one who spots a freshman hovering by the door and pulls them in. Her advice to high school seniors is simple: go to "the things that you're second guessing." Her message to anyone on the fence about their Jewish identity: "No matter what you are, you can come eat."
Stories like Ava's are what our Annual Campaign makes possible. At Hillel at Miami University, 796 free kosher Shabbat meals were served last school year, giving students a table to come back to, week after week.
Your gift saves a seat at the table for a person looking for a place to belong. Give today at jewishcincinnati.org/give.