Max Hess
Vice-President of Religious & Cultural Affairs
Max is a junior in Civil Engineering. Raised in Arlington, MA, and educated at Temple Shir Tikvah in Winchester, Max now lives in Saranap, CA, and attends Congregation B’nai Tikvah in Walnut Creek when he’s not at Purdue. Max attended URJ Camp Newman and Contra Costa Midrasha, worked as a religious school madrich, co-chaired a Jewish philanthropy club, hosted Israeli students and traveled to Israel on an exchange program, and founded a high school Jewish cultural club.
Max was inspired to be an active member of Hillel after attending Rosh HaShanah services in 2021; his first volunteer offering was a sermon for Yom Kippur eight days later, which led his Rabbi at B’nai Tikvah to request that he give a sermon there the following year. Ever since, Hillel has been his second home and place of sacred friendship and acceptance. It has renewed his passion for Jewish leadership inside and outside Purdue, and inspired him to incorporate Judaism into his personal life like never before.
Max has been experimenting with innovative religious programming since he joined Hillel, and is honored to lead a growing team of volunteers contributing their individual skills to create meaningful religious experiences at Hillel. He hopes that Hillel will continue to grow, evolve, and gain recognition as the primary synagogue of Purdue University.
Parents Weekend 2023
The Purdue Hillel Foundation is aware of the University's announcement of Parents weekend which is in direct conflict with Rosh Hashanah. We are actively working with the Provost's Office and the Office of Student life on this issue. We have engaged in dialogue to avoid something like this happening in the future and are also actively working on an alternative weekend of activities. More details on those plans are forthcoming.