Benji Lovitt

Written by Natalie Slavatt, Student President

This is the second time Hillel York has been lucky to host Benji Lovitt in Toronto for a night full of fun, good food and laughs!

We started off the evening with schmoozing, some snacks and information from a few Israel-related organizations, such as Stand With Us, Masa Israel Journey, Birthright Israel and One Family Fund. Students had a chance to learn all about the work these incredible organizations do to help the Jewish people in Canada and in Israel!

As the Tzedek Chair for the Hillel York Student Board, I spear headed this event. My goal and vision for this Comedy Night, “was to bring diverse groups of students together to bond over Israel, a country we all love”. This event brought all of my favourite things together: Tzedek, friends, comedy and Israel!

Donations collected during the event went to One Family Fund, an amazing organization in Israel that helps the families of terror victims. We chose One Family Fund because of the continuous terror attacks that have been taking place in Israel since the beginning of this year. While this comedy night was about unity of the Jewish community at York University, we all believe that an integral part of Judaism is Tzedek and giving back.

We had a diverse crowd of students who attended this event, and together had the chance to learn and laugh about everyday life in Israel. Rena Silver was the opening act, a York student who performed some original poetry. The main headliner was Benji Lovitt, who made Aliyah 10 years ago. He taught us about just a few of the differences (and similarities!) between Canadian and Israeli societies, and Canadian and Israeli Jews!