As a student at Emory, Joel Frankel was active in Jewish life. He was president of Emory Students for Israel, active in Hillel's JBiz Roundtable, and went with Hillel on an alternative winter break trip to Guatemala. The consumate networker, Joel was always finding ways to bring people together. In short, Joel was a passionate community builder on campus.

Joel graduated from Emory in 2007 to pursue a business careeer in New York, where he worked as an analyst for Nielsen’s Business Consulting Services Group. His journey eventually brought him to law school at Washington University in St. Louis.

Joel has now found a way to mesh his professional aspirations with his personal passions. Joel recently began working for the Jewish Federation of Saint Louis as the Israel Engagement Professional - a job devoted to finding, connecting with, and bringing together young Jews returning from programs in Israel.

“My goal is to get as many young adults as possible involved in the Jewish community in St. Louis, helping to create a vibrant and sustainable community where young adults play a major role,” says Joel.

This is networking of the highest order. Joel describes his approach as "consierge-style service" by getting to know people on an individual basis and helping them plug into existing, appropriate Jewish programming and venues. “After connecting with people individually, I leverage the structures already in place to connect people to each other,” he explains.

Joel's experience at Emory as a leader and community builder no doubt gave him the experience and skills to do an exceptional job in this new role. We wish him continued success and look forward to see the many ways in which Joel will make a valuable impact on the Jewish community.

Former Hillel student president, Robert Bernton (B'09), has recently launched a new company called “The Kosher Express”. The company’s mission is to deliver high quality kosher meat directly to the consumer’s door.

During his freshman year, Rob successfully led an effort to create a kosher meal plan on campus. Soon after its inception, students began to gather from across the University twice a week to eat, shmooze, and have fun. Sometimes talking for hours, students used this kosher meal plan as a vehicle to improve their experience on campus. (Since then Emory University has adopted a full-scale kosher meal plan offering 11 meals per week.)

Russell Gotschalk (C'07), an Atlanta-born musician, filmmaker and producer, is taking the Atlanta Jewish cultural scene by storm. A Hillel-organized Birthright Israel trip in winter 2006-07 inspired Russell to get more involved in the Jewish community. During his senior year, he began to work for the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival and continued working there post-graduation. A die-hard music lover, Russell noticed a major cultural gap in Jewish Atlanta: where was the music?

In 2009, Russell established the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival (AJMF), which launched in June 2010 with a sold-out live show featuring four oustanding Jewish music groups at the Apache Cafe in downtown Atlanta.

During the development of AJMF, Emory Hillel director Michael Rabkin asked Russell to take on a special project that would bring fresh and hip Jewish music to our local college campuses and begin to raise visibility for AJMF in the community.

Thanks to a special grant from the Charles & Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation and support from the Consulate General of Israel to Atlanta, Hillels of Georgia hosted an Israel hip-hop & raggae duo for a two-month residency this past spring. AXUM, the latest international musical sensation out of Israel, is the collaboration of two young Jewish Israelis: Tedross, an Ethiopian Israeli and Judah, a Yemenite-Moroccan Israeli. They have taken the Tel Aviv dancehall scene by storm and have even appeared in a recent promo for a popular Israeli TV show.

Russell served as AXUM's manager during their extended music residency booking them gigs at Emory and other campuses, local clubs, public schools, and parties. There was rarely a night they weren't working. And during the day, Russell had them in the studio collaborating with local musicians.

To cap it off, Russell, whose production company is called Rusky Productions, shot a video for AXUM's song, "War inna Babylon," and set it to visually stunning Atlanta backdrops. AXUM joined Athens-based raggae band DubConscious in the studio in Atlanta to record the track, remixed the vocals in Tel Aviv, and sent the final track to Russell to put to his emotionally charged video back in Atlanta for a truly global Jewish music experience.

Take a look at the final cut after the break, and learn more about the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival.

This evening, about 40 young Emory alumni gathered for a casual cookout at the Marcus Hillel Center to reunite with old friends and meet new people while checking out Hillel's new digs. Many alumni - some of whom met at Hillel as students and eventually married - brought their kids for an awesome evening of great food, fun, and reminiscing.

Thanks to event co-chairs Heidi Geller and Dan Karen for their leadership in making this such a successful event! Thanks also to all the host committee members for their efforts in recruiting friends and fellow alumni to attend.

Missed the event but interested in getting more involved with alumni activity? Leave a comment below, or click on "Get Connected" above to be in touch.