After Graduation

Alumni with an interdisciplinary degree in Jewish studies go on to further their educations in top graduate schools and seminaries around the globe. In addition, graduates apply their studies in fields ranging from academia to ministry and more.

Benji Berlow ’06 took both his psychology and Jewish studies majors to serve in the heart of techdom as program director for Hillel of Silicon Valley. Supporting Jewish campus life, Benji serves San Jose State and Santa Clara universities and De Anza, Foothill, and West Valley colleges.

“Hillel of Silicon Valley gives students the space to enrich their college and graduate experience. We celebrate Jewish holidays and offer free weekly Shabbat dinners, plus networking events, ski trips, Israel trips, and social action projects,” Benji says. “My greatest achievements with Hillel have been the change I see in students, from questioning whether they are Jewish to challenging themselves to explore more about themselves to owning their Jewish identity.”

In his role, Benji draws from his own breadth of undergrad experiences. “My psychology background helped prepare me for my work in a Jewish nonprofit, not only in understanding social behavior and development with the students with whom I work but also the technical ability to create evaluations for my work and understand the meaning of statistical analysis generated from surveys and questionnaires, he says. “My work with organizations like Hillel, Marquis Players, Debate Team, QuEST, and other on-campus groups gave me the confidence to speak and perform in front of groups, organize and plan meaningful events, advertise to college students through various mediums, and more. I would not be able to do the work I do now without my Lafayette experience.”

In an age when people are searching for something to hold onto, Heather Stoltz ’00 expresses her faith through an unlikely—and tactile—medium, cloth.

“Last March, I left my full time job as community service coordinator at a Reform synagogue to focus on my art.  I created a sole proprietor business, Sewing Stories, for my fiber art,” Stoltz says. “I create fabric sculptures and quilted wall hangings about social justice issues and Jewish texts.”

While pursuing a master’s in Jewish women’s studies at Jewish Theological Seminary, Stoltz rediscovered her artistic side, electing to submit her thesis as a work in fabric. Originally a dual major in Jewish studies and mechanical engineering at Lafayette, the Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi honor student says, “Since I regularly design new art pieces with no idea how I will actually create the piece, my problem-solving and engineering skills come in handy!”

Stoltz supplements her income as an administrative assistant for the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance while finishing her current work in progress, a sukkah (free-standing hut used for the Jewish religion of Sukkot) that depicts the heartbreak of homelessness.  “Working on Temporary Shelter has been an intensely powerful experience,” she says. “I began about a year and a half ago interviewing men and women staying in faith-based shelters and felt an obligation to share their stories through my art.”