The Power of Conversation

We've been thinking at Hillel about the power of conversation. So many of the most meaningful experiences in my life have been real conversations with people who matter to me. Talks on long car rides, on swings, over breakfast. These are transformative moments. At Hillel, we're trying to capture these meaningful moments by practicing the art of conversation.

Last summer, I took a student named Adam on Birthright. We were sitting late at night in hotel hallway. He was telling me how he wishes he could stay in college for more than four years, that four years isn't enough to learn everything he wants to learn, to explore everything he wants to explore. "Sometimes I wonder why I'm a business major," he said. "At the end of the day, strategic management will help me run a business, but it doesn't really excite me."

He asked me what I studied in college--English and Jewish studies--and if I enjoyed it. I did. He asked me what my favorite class was. I really loved this class on the poetry of Emily Dickinson. For a whole semester, we poured over her 1700 poems, reading closely, probing deeply. I loved that a single poem could hold at the same time contradictory meanings, that neither meaning was less real or less true.

I asked what his favorite class was. "My freshman seminar--the Arab-Israeli Conflict. I'm a news junkie, so I loved learning about a subject that's still unfolding in the world. Something that isn't just in a text book and isn't just theory, but is actually happening in real people's lives."

He was looking for meaning.