It’s one way the students stay true to their Jewish roots. Another is raising awareness about issues important to Israel. On a recent day, the students passed out cake on the UT campus to celebrate Israel Peace Week.
Kayla Sokoloff visited Israel over winter break to more deeply experience her heritage.
"In Texas for me it’s special when I meet someone who's Jewish,” Sokoloff said. “It’s like we have this instant connection."
Many of those connections are made through UT's Jewish sorority Alpha Epsolon Phi and the Texas Hillel. The community center serves almost 4,000 Jewish students.
"Our agenda is quite broad,” said Rabbi David Komerofsky, executive director of the Texas Hillel. “We want Jewish students to make an enduring commitment to Jewish life, learning and Israel."
The latest numbers show there are about 14 million Jewish people worldwide -- that's 2 million less than in 2005.
Komerofsky attributes that decline to the Holocaust. The descendants of 6 million Jewish people never came to be.
"It's not that people are leaving Judaism,” Komerofsky said. “It's just that we're not replacing ourselves as quickly as other communities are."
Judaism is different from other religions because it’s as attached to ethnicity and family heritage as it is to faith.
While the population of Jewish people hasn't grown world-wide, it is on the rise here. Komerofsky said Austin's Jewish population is at about 20,000.
Most of those families moved to the area, but in time some may grow deeper roots here.
"My job isn't to make people feel religious in any way, but I think it's my job here to make people care about things I think they should care about," student Andrea Hiller said as she promoted Israel Peace Week on campus. "We could separate what we’re doing right now with religion or we can put it together."
This combination of faith and political activism is this generation's take on their religion.
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