HARTFORD, CT — Lisa Kassow, director of the Zachs Hillel House at Trinity College, is one of three Hartford-area residents who will be honored by the Charter Oak Cultural Center for their commitment to the task of "repairing the world" through teaching, promoting diversity and working for social justice.

The Cultural Center's 7th Annual Gala — billed as an evening of dinner, dancing, unforgettable entertainment and a unique array of live and silent auction items — will be held Thursday, May 8 at the Hartford Hilton Hotel, 315 Trumbull Street.

Kassow, who has been the full-time director of the Hillel House at Trinity since 2001, will receive the Charter Oak Cultural Center's Vision Award in Jewish Heritage for her lifetime devotion to Jewish Arts, Culture and Education. The other honorees are John Rose Jr., corporation counsel to Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez, who will receive the Vision Award in Social Justice; and Edward Cumming, conductor of the Hartford Symphony, who will receive the Vision Award in Arts and Education.

"We are giving Lisa our Vision Award in Jewish Heritage for a million reasons," said Rabbi Donna Berman, executive director of the Cultural Center. "Her approach to Judaism is inclusive and creative, and her commitment has always been to building bridges of understanding between people and communities. We are honored to honor her."

Kassow, who is married to Trinity History Professor Samuel Kassow and has two daughters, 13 and 16, said she "loves working with students. My job is to encourage them, to present the full array of possibilities and to help direct their energy. Creatively, we come together and make a community that enriches us all," she explained in a recent interview.

Kassow, a native of Buffalo, N.Y., has led a rich and varied life, as evidenced by the different places she has lived and the activities she has been involved with. She graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh with a B.A. in Fine Arts and headed to Jerusalem, where she worked as a photojournalist and where she met Samuel Kassow.

Together, they moved back to the United States, and now live in West Hartford. Kassow's introduction to the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford occurred when she produced an exhibit of artwork and images of life in Israel.

For roughly seven years, she was Director of Arts, Culture and Education at the Greater Hartford Jewish Community Center in West Hartford. During her tenure there, she began the Jewish Film Festival, whose co-sponsor was Trinity and its CineStudio. "We created synergy in the community for people who otherwise might never have come," Kassow said. "We had some really exciting experiences. We brought filmmakers from all over the world."

One of the events she oversaw was entitled "Blacks and Jews," which looked at the history of their relationship in the United States and brought together children from Hartford and its suburbs, enabling them to forge new and constructive relationships.

Not content to merely deal in film, Kassow also supervised the annual Greater Hartford Jewish Book Festival for seven years, helping to bring major figures in Jewish literature to the Greater Hartford region.

At about that time, the Jewish Studies Program at Trinity College was born and the Hillel House on Vernon Street was opened in 2001. Kassow was hired as its full-time director.

Her vision for Hillel is for it to be "an open tent for Jewish students and for those interested in learning more about Jewish life." All activities are open to every student on campus. "Even if students aren't Jewish, they learn something," she explained. "Connections are made and when they leave college, they walk away with positive experiences."

The Hillel House is a beehive of activity, always changing and re-inventing itself. Sometimes the emphasis is on the arts, sometimes it's on social action, sometimes on religious activities. A traditional Passover Seder was held Saturday night, and an Eco-Freedom Seder will be Thursday, April 24. The guests will be the musicians of the Afro-Semitic Experience for a special evening of entertainment and a Freedom Seder in which participants can reflect on contemporary issues. This year's theme of the multicultural Freedom Seder is "Going Green."

The Freedom Seder is yet another example of Kassow's desire to bring together different groups. Examples abound, such as Sushi in The Sukkah with the Asian American Student Association, the annual Chanukah/Kwanzaa Party, and interfaith tzedek (social action) programming that motivates young people to participate in the shared experience of helping others.

Kassow's imagination and creative juices are always working in overdrive. On Thursday, April 17, students participated in a contest to find the leftover Hametz (any food that contains leavening agents) that cannot be eaten on Passover. The student who collected the most Hametz won a prize. And on Sunday, March 30, students were "eating bagels and schmearing paint on the basement walls [of the Hillel House] to add details to the Israel at 60 Mural." Last semester, there was an Israel Techno Party to help celebrate Israel's 60th birthday.

Of her selection as recipient of the Charter Oak Vision Award, Kassow remarked, "It was so totally unexpected and such a surprise. I'm deeply, deeply honored."

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