Rabbi Gerry Serotta, director of GW’s Hillel Jewish student center, sits behind a desk that overflows with papers and books. Behind him on the wall hangs his degree from Harvard University. In the middle is his proof of smicha, the confirmation of his rabbi ordination.

“Rabbi Gerry,” as students call him, began his service at GW 17 years ago.

Since then, his duties have changed almost as much as the students he serves.

“I can’t preach the same sermon every year,” Serotta said. “This year at GW, students are faced with the challenge of maintaining their Judaism.”

The issues of Jewish survival today differ from the survival issues students faced 25 years ago when defining oneself as a Jew came from day-to-day anti-Semitic encounters and the threat of losing the Jewish state.

“Our enemies no longer define us,” Serotta said. “The real issue is spiritual survival.

“Israel is strong and the Jewish communities in the United States are successful and powerful,” Serotta said. “But by establishing our existence we are left with the challenge to provide tochen, or content.”

Being part of a deeply rooted Jewish community in the United States means ethics and the Torah should define Jews, he said.

“The good things in our society create a challenge to preserve the meaningful distinctiveness in the American melting pot,” Serotta said.

Today, the United States has a smaller percentage of highly committed Jews and a larger percentage of assimilated Jews. Although about 25 percent of the students at GW are Jewish, 80 percent of the Jewish students do not participate in Hillel or other aspects of the Jewish community.

Regardless, Serotta and the rest of the Hillel staff hope that this year their programs will reach every Jew on campus.

Among the many programs is the opportunity who have never had a bar/bat mitzvah to have one. A bar/bat mitzvah literally means son/daughter of the commandment. Usually this includes a period of intensive study of the Torah and preparation to read from or bless the Torah.

“We hope this will help students take their Jewish identities seriously,” Serotta said.

A successful recent program, and a favorite of Serotta’s, was dancing and singing on the Quad during the holiday Simchat Torah.

“Students need to know that Judaism is not just (visiting) museums or remembering the Holocaust,” he said. “There is a spiritual side that combines fun and happiness.”

As students engage in the spiritual side of Judaism, Serotta hopes they will understand what it means to be responsible for the Jewish future and the Jewish past.

Often, he said, Jews forget that the future and the past are connected. “It is the responsibility of the Jewish to remember they were once oppressed slaves in the land of Egypt, and help those who are oppressed today. It is the responsibility of the Jewish people to repair the world.”

The Hillel community service group, Tikun Olam (“repair the world”), sponsors events to help the homeless, as well as others in need.

Every Friday night after the Hillel-sponsored Sabbath meal, students take food to the homeless. Serotta said Jews must be aware of the needs of the vulnerable and do what is necessary to meet those needs.

“To be Jewish, we must understand the past but act in the future,” Serotta said.

An example of that is the sukkah Jewish students have built.

The sukkah is a festival booth that Jews are commanded to dwell in for eight days to experience nature and homelessness, two aspects that characterize wandering in the desert during biblical times.

“Jews and non-Jews learned the meaning of the holiday and used the sukkah as a place to meet and do good in the world,” he said.

As Serotta and the rest of the Hillel staff strive to do good for the community, they hope to serve every Jewish student on campus and tackle the new issues they face.

“Our primary purpose is to help them reach their potential,” said Serotta.

“It’s a very exciting place to be a rabbi,” he said. “It’s a challenge tocontinue to make Judaism relevant.”