Heart to Heart
Interview with Hart Levine, founder of Heart to Heart Outreach Organization
Background
Orthodox is a branch of Judaism that practices the religion following laws and ethics of Torah according to Talmudic texts. Within the Orthodox groups there are ultra-Orthodox and Modern Orthodox groups. Ultra-Orthodox Jews are more conservative while Modern Orthodox Jews assimilate to the modern secular society but preserve their values and beliefs. Members of this group often attend Jewish schools, synagogues, and practice religion at home while also being members of society at large. It is common for children to attend Jewish day school but continue their education at a university. Many people marry and settle within the Orthodox community, which allows for a close-knit network. Modern Orthodox Jews often engage fully with the larger Jewish community.
Research
Many religious groups build communities to preserve religious beliefs and traditions. Schools, community centers, and places of worship usually play an important role in building a religious community. But there many examples of citizens organizing events and starting movements to preserve their traditions. For this project I wanted to research grassroots methods of religious organization focusing on the Modern Orthodox Jews. I interviewed Hart Levine, a member of the Modern Orthodox Jewish Community and a founder of the Heart to Heart outreach movement. Hart grew up in Jewish Orthodox community where most people practiced the religion and followed Jewish Orthodox traditions. When he went to college at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia he encountered a diverse student body with people from different religious and cultural backgrounds. Keeping his religious traditions was really important to him so he became involved with Hillel, the largest Jewish organization on college campuses. He realized that there was a very large Jewish population on campus yet only a small group of people attended events organized by Hillel. From his experience in college he started a movement to help create student-run Jewish organizations and events to build communities on college campuses across the country. Today the movement is known as Heart to Heart, a small play on his name, Hart, and a way to emphasize that anyone who is passionate about involvement can share their experience and empower others.
Getting Involved
When I ask Hart how he became involved in starting his own community outreach organization he says, “it starts from when I was growing up, being involved with my family and my school. Jewish life and being Jewish was always very important to me.” He was surrounded by a community where religion was very important. Involvement with local synagogues and community was an important part of his upbringing. When he went to college encountered a very diverse student body. He says, “for the first time I was part of a community where not everyone was Jewish, and not everyone who was Jewish had Judaism as such a big part of their life.”
Heart to Heart: College Outreach
Most students at the university knew about organizations like Hillel and often came to the big event at the beginning of the year but most of them, for various reasons, never returned. He says, “I realized there was a gap in the Jewish community, there was a large Jewish population but 70 percent were not involved on the regular basis.” Hart and a few of his friends decided to have an experiment and hold a Shabbat dinner at the dorms and invite some people they casually knew around campus who were Jewish but never attended any events. “I thought if there’s anything I can do to bridge that gap but everyone said, there are organizations working on that, there are rabbi working on that, there are whole institutions whose sole focus is to do that.” Yet the organizations were not effective in reaching the majority of the Jewish population. This is not only true for the organizations at the University of Pennsylvania but for campuses and residential communities all over the country. Sometimes religious institutions can be intimidating to some and may push people away from getting involved. This was the case with many students on campus. Hart says he though, “well what about me, Hart Levine, a sophomore in biochemical engineering. I wonder is there is a way I can get involved in this, or be a part of trying to shift this.” This kind of proactive thinking was what got Hart to start the grassroots organization of events to get students involved in Jewish life. Community organizing happens when people take initiative to look for ways they can contribute and better the involvement of others in various community events. One time during his sophomore year, Hart and his friends cooked a traditional Shabbat meal and invited 15 people to join. He said it was a totally different experience because for the first time people were there not because it was an obligation but because they were friends getting together for a Shabbat dinner. Some of the students said that they couldn’t believe how beautiful Shabbat could be and they wished they could be more involved with events like this. At the event Hart found that these students were interested and passionate about religion and wanted to be involved but didn’t know how. From that point on he decided to dedicate some of his time to help reach out to students on campus and work with established organizations to make them more efficient. He learned that students had a different experience when peers reached out to them and empowered them to stay connected with their religion. With help and funding from the Jewish organizations on campus, Hart and his friends ran 35 intimate Shabbat dinners by the end of his senior year and were able to reach many members of the Jewish community at UPEN. When he was graduating, he wondered if the energy of this movement could be taken to a greater scale and he decided to put aside his degree in biochemical engineering for two years to pursue the community outreach project that he started. He admits that at first he didn’t know what it was that he was doing but overtime his project began to take shape. He pitched his idea to OU, The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, and they asked him to come work for them. He collaborated with OU and Hillel and wrote down what he learned from his experience in college into tips and applicable strategies. In his first year he traveled to colleges around the country and spoke to students about their college experience creating a welcoming community for Jewish students of various cultural backgrounds and degrees of religious involvement. The project still continues today and it became known as Heart to Heart, which is a small play on the name Hart, but also a way to emphasize that anyone who is passionate about involvement can share their experience and empower others. Hart’s story is just one example of how grassroots methods of organizing can have a strong impact on the community.
Community Beyond College
Today Hart lives in Washington Heights, a neighborhood with a large Jewish population. He uses his neighborhood as an outlet to bring the ideas from his college outreach project into his community. Hart and his wife Yael often run Shabbat dinners, Passover Seders, Purim parties and other events for their neighbors and friends in their apartment in Washington Heights. They hope that these events can help people stay connected to Judaism and the Jewish community. Events like these are other methods of grassroots community organization that bring together people to share religious traditions. Centralized events and organizations, like Jewish community centers, have many advantages in building a community because they provide support, education, and a place for people to share experiences. But organizing small scale events is an important part of building a community because it creates more personal relationships between people. In a city like New York, it is not always possible for religious institutions and establishments to reach the entire population. Grassroots organization is important because it allows people to be part of tight knit communities and not feel overwhelmed by the scale of diversity New York City. It brings a sense of belonging and empowers people to be part of religious traditions not only though institutions but through their own experiences.
Reflection
I found this research project very interesting. I have a personal anecdote with Hart Levine that demonstrates the extent of his involvement in the community. One day my friend and I went to a Shabbat dinner at Hart’s apartment in Washington Heights. It was our first time in the neighborhood and we couldn’t figure out how to get to his address. My friend jokingly said, “let’s just scream out ‘Hart Levine’ and someone is bound to turn around who knows him in the neighborhood and help us out.” As he said that sentence pretty loudly, a man walking in front of us turned around and said, “are you looking for Hart Levine?” This is a completely true story. A stranger on the street heard Hart’s name and knew exactly who he was because of the events he organizes in his community. Hart became a community leader figure through his involvement in preserving Jewish traditions and sharing his experience with others.
Written By:
Anna Kryukova
