When it was time for Yaffa Muhlbaum to start looking at colleges she was interested in attending, her parents had a request: pick one that had a strong Hillel.

“My parents were very adamant that I was only allowed to apply to schools that had significant, well-regarded Hillels that had the capability of supporting Jewish life,” Muhlbaum told the Cleveland Jewish News. “I’m really close to my sister, Rabbi Elle Muhlbaum, who is nine years older than me. When she went to Ohio State, we would go see her a capella group perform at Hillel once a month, so I grew up going there as a kid.”

So, it was only natural for Muhlbaum to be heavily involved at Columbia Barnard Hillel while she studied at Columbia University to obtain her bachelor’s in archaeology.

“I probably spent 40 hours a week there,” she said. “I basically lived there.”

And now, Muhlbaum has settled into a career at the largest Jewish campus organization in the world, serving as the Director of Oberlin Hillel.

“Hillel has played such a huge role in my life, both in college and in my Jewish identity, that I really wanted to give back,” she said. “Part of my desire to work at Oberlin Hillel was because it was a new place for me and a new challenge. Oberlin is a school with a really small population – it’s about 25% Jewish which means there are around 650 Jewish students, which is a lot of Jews in a very small place. It’s a really unique environment that I really wanted to be part of. I wanted to serve the students the way I was lucky enough to benefit from when I was in college.”

Muhlbaum grew up in Cincinnati and dreamed of becoming a biblical archaeologist, training as one at Columbia. After graduating, she worked at a synagogue in New York City for a few years, but was frequently visiting her sister here in Cleveland who was serving as a rabbi at Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple, which in 2024 merged with The Temple-Tifereth Israel to become Congregation Mishkan Or in Beachwood.

“I really loved visiting Cleveland, so I started looking for Jewish jobs in the area,” she said. “I saw the posting for Oberlin Hillel and after my first interview knew that this was the one.”

As director of Oberlin Hillel, Muhlbaum does engagement work with students, but her role has expanded to include big picture visioning for the campus.

“My role has shifted to strategic work,” she said. “I look at how we grow Oberlin Hillel, how we should fundraise and efforts like that.”

Muhlbaum said her favorite part of her role was also the best part of being a part of Hillel as a student: empowering the students to bring their ideas to fruition.

“There were multiple program ideas that I had while in college that I brought to the staff, and they were immediately like, ‘Yes, we’re going to do it,’” she said. “Now, I get to do that with our students, so it’s very fun to see them take an idea and grow it into something bigger than them.”

As for the future of Oberlin Hillel, Muhlbaum said there are exciting developments on the horizon.

“We’re at a really exciting moment for Oberlin Hillel,” she said. “We haven’t had a dedicated Hillel space at Oberlin College, and we’re currently in the middle of working towards establishing a permanent home in town for our Jewish college students. I’m really looking forward to what we will be able to provide for them.”