By Shoshanna Shachtman, Director of Wellness and Mental Health at Hillel of Colorado
Mental health continues to be a growing concern for college students, shaped by academic pressure, social expectations, uncertainty about the future, and the pace of campus life. For Jewish students, those challenges can sometimes be layered with additional emotional weight — family histories, communal narratives around safety and responsibility, and a constant awareness of the world beyond campus. These layers don’t always announce themselves clearly, but they can quietly influence how students experience stress, anxiety, and belonging.
In recent years, many students have shared how helpful it can be to understand anxiety not just as an individual experience, but as something connected to history, culture, and community. When anxiety is placed in context, it often feels less isolating and less personal — and more like something that can be acknowledged, talked about, and supported together. Creating spaces where these conversations can happen openly is a critical part of supporting student wellbeing.
In the coming weeks, Hillel of Colorado, in partnership with the University of Denver and Judaism Your Way, will host a wellness event centered on Unlearning Jewish Anxiety by Caryn Aviv. What will make the evening stand out isn’t just the book itself, but the way students will engage with it — thoughtfully, honestly, and in their own words.
The event will feature a student panel reflecting on themes from the book and how they show up in everyday life. Rather than treating anxiety as something to fix or move past, the conversation will focus on understanding where it comes from, and how Jewish history, family narratives, and communal expectations can shape the way anxiety lives in the body and mind.
Students will talk about pressure — academic, communal, and internal — and how responsibility, safety, and identity can quietly influence how they navigate stress. For many, the book has offered language for experiences they’ve felt but haven’t always known how to name.
The tone of the evening is expected to be calm and reflective. A key part of the conversation will be looking at what happens when anxiety is understood instead of avoided. For many students, learning where anxiety comes from — and how it has been shaped by history, family, and community — can shift the way it shows up day to day. Rather than immediately feeling overwhelmed or self-critical, students may find it easier to pause, take a breath, and respond with more clarity and self-trust.
This kind of understanding won’t make anxiety disappear, but it can change the relationship students have with it. Knowing that anxiety isn’t random or personal — and that others carry it too — can make it feel less isolating. That awareness can create room for gentler self-talk, healthier boundaries, and a greater sense of agency in stressful moments.
There will likely be moments of recognition as students hear parts of their own experiences echoed by others, alongside pauses that invite thought rather than immediate answers. The goal isn’t to arrive at conclusions, but to create space for shared understanding.
Following the panel, the conversation will open to the wider group. This event will be open to the broader community, and we hope to welcome Jewish mental health professionals who are interested in listening, reflecting alongside students, and participating in a thoughtful, intergenerational dialogue.
After the panel, time will be opened for questions and conversation. This part of the evening will be less about commentary and more about connection — offering space to sit with the ideas together and respond in ways that feel genuine and unforced.
At its core, this event is about slowing down and letting students lead the way. It’s about recognizing that wellness doesn’t always come from solutions, but from being seen, heard, and understood within community.
We look forward to gathering for this conversation and continuing to create space at Hillel for thoughtful dialogue around mental health, identity, and belonging.
For more information on the event go here.
To register for the event go here.