At Harvard Hillel last Thursday, 40 students stood witness to a break from the past 60 years of the Jewish organization’s history.

While a traditional reading of the Torah, a collection of the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures, started the coordinating council’s meeting last week, students at the gathering were led—for the first time—by a female undergraduate, Anna M. Solomon-Schwartz ’06.

Last week’s monthly meeting to plan upcoming events marked the official turnover of Hillel’s highest undergraduate position to Solomon-Schwartz.

Although over the last 10 years, according to Solomon-Schwartz, Hillel’s Undergraduate Steering Committee has had a balance of men and women, Solomon-Schwartz’s term marks the first time a woman has been elected to the presidency of Harvard’s largest Jewish organization.

“Because Hillel is a community that is welcoming to such a wide variety of students, it’s fitting that it now has a female president,” says Solomon-Schwartz. “My election is consistent both with the increased opportunities for women nationwide as well as Hillel’s progress in serving an increasingly diverse group of students.”

When placed in a religious context, Solomon-Schwartz’s presidency might seem a bit unconventional.

“In the conservative denomination [of Judaism], it is common for women to be in positions of leadership. It’s more seldom in Orthodox communities,” says Josh I. Rosenbloom ’05, who served as president last semester and is an Orthodox Jew.

But Rosenbloom says it isn’t strange to see Solomon-Schwartz step into his position this year.

“The president is basically responsible for everything at Hillel, but it is a secular position,” he says. “It’s just like being president of any other large organization on campus.”

FIRST LADY

Solomon-Schwartz says that being a woman has never held her back at Hillel.

“I have flourished as a woman at Hillel. It’s a very supportive, diverse community,” says Solomon-Schwartz.

As a modern Orthodox Jew, Solomon-Schwartz alternates between going to Orthodox services and those of the student conservative minyan on campus. She says she has always been impressed by the positive relations between the Jewish denominations at Hillel.

“That was one of the reasons I had wanted to come to Harvard and to be involved with Hillel. People here go beyond being respectful and want to understand each other,” she says.

Solomon-Schwartz ran for president unopposed and easily won in an informal vote of raised hands.