Parent Spotlight: The Hornsteins

Written by: Chloe Hirsch

For our first Parent Spotlight, we had the opportunity to speak with Ken and Larraine Hornstein, proud parents of Jonathan Hornstein, who graduated from the Ross School of Business in 2012 and was a former Hillel Governing Board Chair.  Ken and Larraine felt that U-M Hillel’s impact on Jon was immediate – starting with his very first Shabbat dinner after arriving campus. At this dinner, Jon was introduced to many new people, some of whom are his best friends to this day.  Fast forward to present day and Jon has just left to go on a trip to Nicaragua with David Rosenwein and Chaim Frenkel, two more former Hillel leaders who served with Jon. Ken and Larraine are forever grateful for the lifelong friendships Hillel helped cultivate for their son.

In addition to making new friends, Ken and Larraine believe that Jon’s participation in Hillel allowed him to grow tremendously as a person. They feel that Jon learned many valuable leadership and management skills through his work with both Hillel staff and his peers. Jon currently works as a consultant in the higher education division of Huron Consulting Group, and was recently promoted to a position that will include management responsibility. There is no doubt in their minds that Jon’s Michigan Hillel experience has been a major factor in his post-college professional success.

Both Ken and Larraine have had the opportunity to attend several of the Friday night dinners, services and onegs that UofM Hillel offers and have experienced firsthand the wonderful atmosphere and Jewish connectivity that our Hillel generates. When asked to comment on those experiences, they shared: “College is an easy place to lose one’s connection to Judaism, and what impressed us in particular was that Michigan Hillel was able to attract Jewish students of all practice levels with different religious services and activities. Keeping Jewish students connected in ways that they want to be religiously connected is not easy these days, and is why Hillels like Michigan’s are so important and deserve our support.”