Historic Gift Secures the Future of Jewish Life at Tel Aviv University

Over the past four years, Rabbi Eitan Phillips and his wife, Elana, have changed the landscape of Tel Aviv University by creating a vibrant Jewish life on campus. Seen here, Rabbi Phillips (on the right) learning with a student

How JLIC is building a Jewish home on one of Israel’s most secular campuses

When the JLIC couple Rabbi Eitan and Elana Phillips arrived at Tel Aviv University four years ago, they were charged with an ambitious task: building the first formal Jewish infrastructure on campus from the ground up. Tel Aviv University (TAU), located in Ramat Aviv, had long carried a reputation as one of Israel’s most secular campuses. For religious as well as secular Jewish students searching for religious connection, there was little existing infrastructure or central location for Jewish life—no formal Shabbat life, no organized celebration of the yamim tovim, and little Torah learning on campus.

That all began to change in 2022, when Dr. Monique Katz and her family gave the gift that launched the first JLIC (Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus) program at TAU. Now, after four years of growth, the Katz family has made a historic $6 million commitment to sustain and expand JLIC at TAU and Bar-Ilan. The gift—the largest single donor contribution in the history of the OU and JLIC—honors the memory and values of Dr. Monique Katz’s late husband, Dr. Mordecai D. Katz, z”l, a longtime leader in Jewish education and communal life.

JLIC is the OU’s program that places rabbinic educator couples on campuses all over North America and Israel to strengthen Jewish life on college campuses. Couples on thirty-five campuses serve as mentors, teachers and role models to thousands of students.

“This commitment represents more than support for any one program. It’s a vote of confidence in JLIC’s approach to campus life,” says Rabbi Josh Ross, Executive Director of JLIC.

Dr. Mordecai D. Katz, z”l, was a longtime leader in Jewish education and communal life. Courtesy of the Katz family

The donation will help JLIC at TAU deepen its reach and significantly expand its programming.

“Morty Katz, z”l, always taught me that if you want to help people grow, you must invest in their education,” says Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph, OU Executive Vice President and COO. “With their groundbreaking gift to JLIC, the Katz family is fulfilling this very legacy, launching our efforts at Tel Aviv University and expanding our offerings at Bar-Ilan.”

“JLIC supports the students, nurtures their development and allows them to flourish,” says Dr. Monique Katz. “This partnership equips the program with the necessary resources to do that work at the highest level.”

JLIC doesn’t just serve students, it creates community.

Over the past four years, the Phillipses have changed the landscape of TAU by creating a vibrant Jewish life on campus. “We have at least fifteen languages at our Shabbat table each week,” says Rabbi Phillips who, together with Elana, hosts students from all over the world on Shabbatot, sometimes up to sixty students at one time. “We are changing the face of the university by providing a Torah home away from home for hundreds.” In addition to Shabbat meals, JLIC at TAU offers ongoing Torah learning, like Thursday “Lunch and Learns” and weekly women’s chaburot. Other initiatives include the Israel Discussion Forum, which features engaging discussions and debates on “hot topics” in Jewish national life; and the Sacks Leadership Forum, where students study the Torah and thought of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks.

Perhaps the clearest measure of JLIC at TAU’s impact is found not in its programming, but in the individual Jewish journeys it has helped shape. One TAU student, Jack, arrived with little Jewish background and did not know how to read Hebrew. Through chavruta learning with Rabbi Phillips and JLIC events and Shabbatot, he slowly became more connected. At the end of the year, at age twenty-three, Jack celebrated a bar mitzvah, putting on tefillin surrounded by friends and family.

Although Jack moved back to Canada after graduating, the events of October 7 led him to return to Israel. He eventually made aliyah and has remained deeply connected to Jewish life.

JLIC at TAU is different from most JLIC campuses. In the US, JLIC often supports students coming from Orthodox backgrounds, who arrive on campus looking for a familiar religious environment. At TAU, Rabbi Phillips explains, most students arrive with far more varied Jewish backgrounds: Some are post-yeshivah or post-seminary students looking to continue learning while studying at university, while most are from Reform, traditional, secular or unaffiliated homes.

And unlike other college campuses in the US, where students may have access to multiple Jewish organizations and communities on campus, JLIC at TAU is the only resource for Jewish life available to students at TAU. This has resulted in JLIC at TAU becoming a central gathering place for students who might otherwise have remained in separate religious or social circles.

The result is a uniquely diverse community, one in which Orthodox students are not only supported, but empowered to lead. Rabbi Phillips describes students who grew up going to yeshivah giving chaburot, welcoming others, and becoming ambassadors for Jewish life at the university. “Many people are often worried about Orthodox students coming to the university—but what I see now is those students helping to build the very community they would want to have here,” says Rabbi Phillips.

“We offer the full spectrum of Jewish life here now at TAU, with daily minyanim and shuls all around the campus.”

The program has thrived even under extraordinary pressure. JLIC at TAU was only in its second year when October 7 occurred. Rabbi Phillips served roughly 300 days of miluim, including service in Gaza. At times, he would come out of Gaza for twenty-four hours, return home in uniform, host Shabbat and meals for students, and then return to military service, leaving Elana to care for their two children and students on her own.

The program’s growth did not pause during the war; if anything, the need for it only became more important, as students looked for a sense of community and stability during trying times.

The intensity of that period also brought home what JLIC at TAU has meant for the Phillips family themselves. It has not simply been a professional role, but a family mission. “My children have grown up witnessing firsthand what it looks like to live a life of shlichut, of sacrifice and service to our people,” says Rabbi Phillips. “They’ve grown up with people in their house from all across the religious spectrum, and they have seen how each of them has a place in our home.”

For the Katz family, the gift represents an investment not only in a program, but in the future of Jewish life on campus, ensuring that students from around the world will continue to find a Torah home at a university where only a few short years ago such a home did not seem possible. “JLIC doesn’t just serve students, it creates community,” says Dr. Monique Katz.

Tiferet Schafler is a school psychologist for Nassau BOCES at SKA High School for Girls and Lev Chana Early Childhood Center, and an experienced freelance writer.