By ROCKNE ROLL
The Jewish Review
Greater Portland Hillel is gearing up for a new academic year with a new – and expanded – staff.
Andy Friedland has joined the staff as Director of Jewish Student Life, while Jesse Weiss is PDX Hillel’s new Springboard Innovation Fellow, taking over for Maddie Herrup after the completion of her term and her departure for rabbinical school. They join Executive Director Hannah Sherman and Jewish Agency for Israel Fellow Linoy Yechieli, who has extended her fellowship role through the end of the upcoming academic year. 
“There truly could not be two better people for growing our staff team and expanding the work that we’re doing,” Sherman said of Friedland and Weiss. 
Weiss, a California native with family in Israel, recently graduated from Reed College, where she was president of the Jewish Student Union. She recalled working extensively with Herrup to grow and revitalize Reed’s JSU and looks forward to engaging with those who look to make similar strides in campus Jewish life. 
“I didn’t feel like my job was done in terms of supporting Jewish students in the city,” Weiss said. “If I had known about [JSU and Hillel] when I was a freshman, I think I would have had a significantly different time in college. I probably would have had a much more positive experience.”
Friedland has been a Portlander since 2023, working as an in-house substitute teacher at Portland Jewish Academy. His path has taken him from his bachelors degree to teaching English in China, leading AmeriCorps disaster relief efforts in Mississippi to five years at the Anti-Defamation League in Connecticut, culminating as its associate director and playing a major role in responding to antisemitic incidents throughout the state. He left the ADL to get his master’s degree in education from University of Connecticut, followed by teaching humanities at secondary schools in Connecticut before relocating to Oregon with his wife, who is a family medicine resident at Oregon Health and Sciences University. 
In his new role, Friedland is looking forward to expanding Hillel’s impact for students – from supporting more programs on campuses to enhanced Jewish education projects. 
“We’re here to create space where everyone can be a member of this community, whatever background they come from, whatever their beliefs are, and we can communicate across those differences and make space for everybody,” Friedland said.
Expanding PDX Hillel’s professional team has long been one of Sherman’s goals. She said that Hillels all measure engagement through both breadth – how many students are coming through the door – and depth – how many students are coming through repeatedly. As PDX Hillel looks to expand the number of campuses it services this year, having the staff resources to focus on both those areas will be an immense plus.
Sherman had hoped to recruit Weiss to take on the Springboard Fellowship, only for Weiss to initially announce her plans to return to Southern California after graduating.
“It was truly the best turn of circumstances when she decided to stay here,” Sherman said of Weiss. “Having that institutional knowledge and the relationships she already has with everyone [at Reed College]; the president, all of these different people on DEI staff. Being able to carry on those relationships, especially in this political movement, is so important.”
Sherman was very particular about finding the right candidate for the Director of Jewish Student Life role – it’s a new position that’s being built from scratch, and unlike the Springboard and Israel fellowships, it’s not a temporary gig. When Friedland’s application came in, Sherman had a feeling she had found the right fit. 
“From the minute I saw his resume, I thought this is already, on paper, exactly what I’m looking for,” Sherman said.
That continued on through interviews. 
“He’s the nicest, friendliest person in the world,” she continued. “Combined with his skills, all of the antisemitism work that he did, his work as an educator; all of those different pieces together make him the perfect fit for this role.”
The additional staff resources will be indispensable for PDX Hillel as classes resume, along with a likely resumption of the issues that seemed to make each day an all-hands-on-deck scenario post Oct. 7. Sherman is looking forward to  being better able to respond to student needs and promote an uplifting, forward-looking version of Jewish life on campus with this expanded team. 
“We’ve talked about goals for this year and our overarching goal and theme is reclaiming Jewish joy. I think that we missed so much of that last year because we had to,” Sherman said. 
Learn more about Greater Portland Hillel’s work in the coming academic year at pdxhillel.org.