Over the past two weeks, I’ve gotten two links to YouTube videos featuring some aspect of Hillel-ness: one of Wayne Firestone’s presentation to the recent Professional Training Conference (at which CK and I made a Bookstein-requested appearance) and this one of Pitt Hillel trying to take their substantial offerings to students via the internet.

Obviously, the internet and YouTube (Google Video and others) are great ways to reach the youth. The Pitt Hillel is more of a promo than a viral vid; I doubt it’s going head-to-head with any of the SNL videos about people who spend a Lazy Sunday watching the Chronic-WHAT-cles of Narnia, or putting their privates in boxes and giving them as Christmas presents. But it’s appealing and features kids you wouldn’t mind getting to know–if they were to ask for some advice (and they haven’t), I would say that the video should be shorter. Kids these days? No attention span. In fact, I bet that unless you’re one of the Pitt Hillel people reading this, and you’re under 25, you probably aren’t even reading this paragraph.
But if you are in that age range and think I’m wrong, what better way to prove me wrong than coming to our conference in March and telling me in person! You should remember that a certain Hillel already went viral last year, with the Jewyakasha videos (Jewlicious tacos, “off the chain,” and before the Borat movie, even!) and of course the fabulous Jewlicious 2.0 video recap…

Which reminds me to issue a not-too-subtle reminder to stay alert: registration for Jewlicious 3.0 (March 9-11 in Long Beach, CA) will open soon, and with 770 members of our Jewlicious 3.0 Facebook group and a maximum of 500 spots (although really, I don’t think we should even accept that many), it’s going to be a race to register…

About the author

Esther Kustanowitz

For more posts by Esther, see EstherK.com, MyUrbanKvetch.com and JDatersAnonymous.com.

5 Comments

  • Esther i try to add you as a friend in facebook but you never accepted my requested. I even send you a message asking you to add me, you still ignore me and i dont the reason why. Is it because i was not ashkanazi or euro backgrounds, that explains alot to me..For the previous sentence i felt that way, but i still wanna why..

  • Whoever the unknown is, here’s my Facebook policy. If I don’t know you, or I don’t know where I know you from, or if you don’t send me an email telling me who you are, I don’t add you, generally speaking. That said, I’ve been having very erratic email access lately, so if you want to tell me who you are and that you know me from Jewlicious, that’s fine. And as for MySpace, I rarely even check there anymore.

  • I just watched the Pitt video and found it targeted not towards the youth but rather towards prospective donors who might like to see an assortment of diverse, personable college students tell of their positive Shabbat experiences at Hillel — and then to invite them to finance these Shabbat dinners. It was likely posted on YouTube not as a marketing tool but rather as an addition to another directed form of targeting the right audience — whether as a DVD, a supplement to a section Hillel-JUC’s website targeting donors, etc.

    But I’m glad you mentioned “Lazy Sunday” — if only to remind me that this video which CJC at Penn did to advertise an event. “Lazy Sunday” parodies still make me cringe (this one is no exception), but it shoots more closely towards the example you’re making in the post.