UF Hillel

Chicken Soup

Norman H Lipoff Hall

The magnificent 23,000 square foot Norman H. Lipoff Hall, completed in October 2004, replaces beautifully the fifty year old Hillel House that most alumni remember. The building serves as a community center for the students and a space to host free weekly Shabbat services and meals for students during the fall-spring academic year. With the opening of Norman H. Lipoff Hall, we have experienced exponential growth in attendance at Shabbat services and meals and various programs that we provide for the community.

Norman H. Lipoff Hall is now able to offer room rental to community members/groups, campus groups, and individuals. If you would like to inquire about facility rental, please check out our Facility Rental page or email Lisa for more information.

The Living Room Gallery

The Living Room Gallery is an artistic space dedicated to pluralistic Jewish art and culture that provides students with an open-minded platform to celebrate how diverse Jews encounter our traditions in un-traditional ways. Based on a strategic partnership with the University of Florida's School of Fine Arts, and open to submissions from across the state, the gallery is open to many multi-media platforms including painting, drawing, sculpting, film, installations, photography, and much more.  For more information please email Rabbi Yoni (yonikb@ufhillel.org). 

The University of Florida Hillel Rose Colen Library

The University of Florida Hillel Rose Colen Library is located on the second floor of Norman H. Lipoff Hall. The books are classified in sections so they are easy to find by topic.  The library has Judaica books ranging from Jewish cooking to Jewish history and much more. The books are available for use within the library.  If you would like to check a book out, please see Corey Smith in order to do so. This room can facilitate a lecture for up to 100 people, a meeting for up to 50 people, or small weddings/simchas.

View a virtual tour of the Rose Colen Library.
Click here to reserve this room.

Aliyah Bet & Machal Museum

North American Volunteers In Israel's War of Independence

The Museum of American and Canadian Volunteers in Israel’s War of Independence is located in the University of Florida Hillel, Gainesville, Florida.  It relates the history of the approximately 1,250 American and Canadian men and women, including Jews and Christians, who risked their lives in the service of the Jewish people from 1946 to 1949. They served on the ships to smuggle Holocaust survivors through the British blockade into Palestine or as volunteers with the Israeli armed forces.  The volunteers aboard the ships participated in Aliyah Bet ("Immigration B"), the effort to thwart England's extremely-restricted "legal" immigration quotas for Palestine with clandestine immigration. Those serving in the armed forces were known as Machal, the Hebrew acronym for mitnadvei chutz l’aretz – “volunteers from abroad."

The museum is sponsored by American Veterans of Israel, the organization of Aliyah Bet and Machal veterans in the United States and Canada. It also draws extensively upon the Aliyah Bet and Machal Archives in the University of Florida Libraries.  Ralph Lowenstein, Dean Emeritus of the College of Journalism and Communications at UF, is director of the Archives and primary creator of the museum, opened in 2005.  The Hillel museum spawned a duplicate museum at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and a virtual museum on the Internet.  As an 18-year-old college student, Lowenstein was an American volunteer in the 1948 war.

Come by our Hillel to see the Aliyah Bet & Machal Museum first hand, or click here to view the virtual museum. 

Building Hours

Academic Year (mid-August through April except for winter and spring break)
Monday - Friday: 9:00am - 9:00pm
Saturday: open by request
Sunday: open by request
Holidays:

The building is open for programs on Jewish holidays but is closed for national holidays.  The administrative offices are closed for Jewish holidays and national holidays.
Summer Hours (May-July, early August, winter and spring break)
Monday - Thursday: 9:00am - 9:00pm
Friday: 9:00am - 4:00pm
Saturday and Sunday: Open for specific programs

Virtual Tours

Entrance Lobby 1 Lobby 2 Dining Hall
Upstairs Foyer Multicultural Room Living Room Weinberg Conference Room
Game Room

Colen Library

 Going Upstairs  

 

Maps & Directions:

Hillel at the University of Florida
2020 West University Avenue
Gainesville, FL 32603
Phone - (352) 372-2900
Fax - (352) 376-8374
info@ufhillel.org

 

Directions

From I-75

  1. Exit onto Newberry Rd and head east
  2. (You will pass NW 34th Street)
  3. Newberry Rd. changes into W. University Ave. at NW 34th Street
  4. Continue heading east on W. University Ave.
  5. Hillel is on the intersection of NW 20th Street and W. University Avenue.

From NW 13th Street (US 441)

  1. Exit onto W. University Ave. and head west
  2. Hillel is on the intersection of NW 20th Street and W. University Avenue

 

Parking

  1. Behind the Hillel building on NW 20th Avenue or NW 20th Terrace OR
  2. In the O'Connel Parking lot directly in front of the Hillel Building

Map

Click here (hyperlink to Map of Gainesville with UF Hillel starred in) to view a Google Map.

Map of Gainesville

Zoomed in Map

Caption Map of Gainesville