Get to Know Josh Levine!

Background

Hillel Executive Director Josh Levine grew up in the San Fernando Valley of LA. He then went on to study political science at Brown University in Rhode Island. After receiving his undergraduate degree, he served for a year as a Coro Fellow. This is a nine-month fellowship in public affairs and policy that lines participants up with a different internship every few weeks in a different sector of public life. He completed his fellowship in New York City, gaining experience in governmental agencies, non-profits, political campaigns, labor unions, media companies, and more. After this post-college learning program, he attended law school at UC Berkeley for three years. From there, he clerked for two federal judges in Boston and Detroit and then practiced law in Los Angeles. After a while, he switched gears and became the camp director at Alonim, a Jewish sleep-away camp in LA. Ten years into this position, he moved to become the camp director at Camp Herzl in Twin Cities, Minnesota. During this time, he realized that he really liked working with people in college, “who are making major decisions about their own lives, as well as how they want to show up for one another and build community, and create opportunities for Jewish community.” He then sought out jobs where he could work with people at this age. While interviewing for Santa Barbara Hillel, Josh remembers thinking to himself, “I’ve found that great creative, chill, driven kind of energy. This place seems like a good fit.” He recalls, “Especially when I met the students on the search committee, I thought, yeah, I really want to spend time with these people, and dream with them, and create with them.” Another bonus of this position was its ability to accommodate Josh’s desired wardrobe. “While Minnesota is an awesome place to live, Santa Barbara in January is just a little more livable. I like wearing a T-shirt and jeans. And I want to do that for more months of the year.”

Josh Levine couldn’t sit still if he tried. In his eyes, there is always something that can be worked on and improved for the benefit of the community. He developed this mentality while working at Jewish sleep-away camps, and carried it over to Santa Barbara Hillel. Josh finds purpose in thinking creatively and problem solving. His favorite aspect of our Hille is getting to use these skills in collaboration with its students. Josh describes, “One thing about this Hillel is that it has a number of strengths, and there is clearly a desire by a lot of people for it to be even better at what it does well, as well as it to do better at things it can do better at doing. I like that we don’t have it all figured out. That there’s a lot of work to do, to make it as great as it can be. Personally, I like coming to places…that are looking to recreate, build on what’s working but also throw out what isn’t working, and make things awesome!” 

Interview Questions

Describe a time in college when you had to get out of a sticky situation. 

“I just remember, I always wrote my papers to the last minute. Even if I started them early, which I oftentimes didn’t, I would always finish at the last minute…I was lucky I had a printer in my dorm room. I would print them, and I’d literally be running to drop them off before the building closed, sometimes with a stapler in my back pocket, because, you know, I was in such a rush. I had to get inside the building before 4:59 and 59 seconds.” 

Would you rather fight 1000 mouse-sized elephants or one elephant-sized mouse?

“One elephant sized mouse…having only one target, there’s no way around it. There’s also a focus. The focus presents itself, so it will force me to focus, and then I am pretty confident in my abilities to do something to shake it up–and also, it's an elephant that is a mouse! And I’m an integrated human! So, I think I’ll be okay, ultimately…I’ll just dodge and weave around, something to take that mouse, which is not used to being so tall, off balance. Because once I get that mouse to fall, I’m littler, so I can take that to my advantage.”

What fruit would you be in a fruit salad? 

“Avocado. I am a big believer in a couple bucks more for some avocado. You only live once, it's really good for you, and no one ever says ‘I wish I had less avocado.’”

Chanukah Questions

Do you have any Chanukah traditions?

“I love Chanukah music. Just having the music playing, spinning a dreidel–I can get very competitive with dreidel spinning. I don’t have very many dreidel party tricks, but I have a good sense of what’s coming up. Yeah, eating latkes, happy to help. Any time someone’s making latkes, I am happy to help them.”

What’s your favorite Chanukah song?

“A number of them jog specific memories for me. I have a clip somewhere on my computer of my little brother, when he was younger, singing ‘Chanukah Oh Chanukah’ with his little voice. So that’s why I hear a certain song and they bring back certain memories.”

“‘Mi Yimalel’ is such a beautiful…its such a positive Chanukah song that I think holds its own in the December Chanukah/Christmas season.”

What’s the best sufgania filling?

“I don’t like them. I’m not a filled pastries kind of person. Do I like regular donuts? Yeah, simple, glazed, hot off the presses from Krispy Kreme.”

What’s the weirdest gift you’ve ever received?

“Sometimes my parents want me to expand my wardrobe so they will get me some really weird shirts. I think lately my mom sees an Instagram ad and it's like oh, thank you, so much, for this towel shirt that you think would be a cool shirt to wear. It all comes from a very genuine place, but yeah. It was like…a quilt! It was a quilt shirt. With the kind of material of quilt, kind of the look of quilt, like I was wearing a blue-ish quilt. And it was very… quilty. It had that quilty quality. It was a quilty pleasure. But it wasn’t such a pleasure. I returned it. I found the receipt and returned it. I appreciate the effort, but I’m gonna stick to my lane.”

How are you celebrating Chanukah this year?

“With family. Well, one way I’m celebrating is with Hillel! Even though it isn’t during Chanukah technically, last year Chanukah was one of our biggest Shabbat dinners, when it was Chanukah themed, so I just like that we get to do it together here. That’s going to be great. And then, also lighting the candles. The Chanukah blessings are so beautiful, and there’s so many intentional aspects of Chanukah. Just the ritual of lighting the candles–you have to have the order in which you light them, and all the blessings every night. So lighting the candles is how I’ll be celebrating, ultimately.