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Heilicher alum Eitan Weinstein (class of 2016) exemplifies Heilicher’s mission to cultivate lifelong learners and community leaders as he completes his undergraduate education at the University of Pennsylvania.
Heilicher alum Eitan Weinstein (class of 2016) exemplifies Heilicher’s mission to cultivate lifelong learners and community leaders as he completes his undergraduate education at the University of Pennsylvania. He is beginning his fourth year pursuing a bachelor’s degree in physics with a minor in energy and sustainability engineering, and he hopes next to go to graduate school for a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering with the goal to go into nuclear energy research.
“The science program that we had in the upper school at Heilicher was just so amazing and definitely led me on the path that I am on to be studying physics in college and to want to pursue a career in science,” Eitan said.
He remembers Mr. Mintz’s science club, Extra Fancy Mixed Nuts, where students researched a topic of their choosing and presented to the group.
“It was one of my favorite parts of middle school,” he said. “It was so much fun. I learned a lot, and it was a really supportive and engaging environment.”
After graduating from Heilicher, Eitan attended St. Louis Park High School and became involved in United Synagogue Youth, where he served as Emtza regional president. He also recently completed his tenure as Hillel co- president at UPenn.
Eitan described his first semester as Hillel president as similar to his time as Emtza president. He served as a liaison between staff and students and planned fun and enriching programs to get people engaged. While he continued that last fall, his role expanded after October 7.
“There was a lot more tension and anxiety on campus, and my role changed a lot, much more to being this point person between Hillel and the student newspaper, and the administration of the school, and the student body. And a lot of it was trying to figure out what programs can we do for the Jewish community, what programs can we do to make people feel safe, to make people feel that they have support, to make people feel comfortable on campus.”
During Eitan’s last semester as Hillel co- president in the fall of 2023, he had the opportunity to meet with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and light candles with him on the first night of Chanukah. At that time UPenn was in the public spotlight — the university president and board chair resigned over antisemitism issues just days after.
“Through all of the hard work and everything that we had to do at Hillel, it was really special that he ended up coming for the first night of Chanukah and sat down with myself and a bunch of other student leaders at Hillel just to listen and to hear about what was going on on campus,” Eitan said. “He joined us to do a public candlelighting for the first night of Chanukah, so despite all of the hard stuff, that was a really special moment and very cool to be able to be up there with him and be able to talk with him and stand in front of the community together.”
Reflecting on his leadership roles, Eitan said he seeks them out in part because he feels strongly about the institutions he’s involved in: “I feel responsible to give back as much as I can, to be involved, and to be able to lead these institutions in a direction that I think is best for the community and to really be able to give as much as I get out of them.”
“Being able to be responsive to the needs of the Jewish community writ large was really challenging, especially post-October 7, but it was also rewarding,” he continued. “In my leadership role I felt that I was able to be someone who was a good representative for the Jewish community and was someone who was responsive to the needs of the community and was able to do that, as much as I could, with a level head and was a good faith actor for everyone involved.”
Bringing it back to his formative time at the day school, he said, “Heilicher provided anyone who wanted to be a leader to be one, and that’s no small thing. To have the environment where students are empowered and feel like they have a voice and can make changes and can really do things if they set their mind to it I think is a really important value that I got from Heilicher, and I can certainly see how it’s played out through the eight years since I’ve been there. It definitely has made an impact on me.”