Meet Raffi Mark: the Israel Chair at Rutgers Hillel student board

Raffi Mark 13’ is the Israel Chair at Rutgers Hillel student board. Raffi is from Wayne New Jersey. His Major is American studies. Raffi has been to Israel four times, including with the Zionist Organization of American and Hasbara Fellowships and United Synagogue Youth. He is a chapter advisor for United Synagogue Youth at Bridgewater.

Raffi’s role as the Israel Chair is to oversee and coordinate student led Israel programs at Rutgers together with the Rutgers Hillel Center for Israel Engagement (RHCIE) staff. Besides his role as Israel Chair on the student board, Raffi is StandWithUs Emerson Fellow at Rutgers University. The Emerson Fellows utilize their energy to drive and inspire their peers, friends and colleagues to run effective pro-Israel events on campus.

Raffi devotes his free time to Israel advocacy, and he enjoys the opportunities to travel and meet people that share the same passion towards Israel. Raffi is proud to say that in the past semester there was a weekly Israel advocacy and education program, and all his efforts paid (off) in the El Al program at the end of November when well over a hundred students came to hear El Al pilots and staff speak about life in Israel. Raffi coordinates between all the students that do Israel programs at Rutgers, and he is pleased to say that in the last count there were 26 students that take leadership roles in the pro-Israel community. In the spring semester, Raffi looks forward to the Israel advocacy seminar, the Israel advocacy retreat, to implement the education plan that he crafted together with the RHCIE staff, and of course the campus wide celebration of Israel’s independence.

Raffi owes much of his success to the RHCIE staff Tzvi Raviv, Director of Israel Engagement, and Lihi Rothchild, the Jewish Agency Israel Emissary (Shaliah). Raffi works with them regularly and enjoys spending time in the office brainstorming programs, discussing how to improve existing programs, or just catching up on a weekend and past events.

Raffi still debates with himself what he wants to do after he graduates. In whatever he chooses, the pro-Israel community will benefit from Raffi’s Ahavat Yisrael, love to the Jewish nation.