For ILN Executive Chair Shani Menna, Israel is “Why I’m Here Today”
Shani Menna, incoming executive chair of Hillel’s Israel Leadership Network, never doubted whether she would be involved in speaking up for Israel on her campus — the only question was what form her activism would take.
“Israel has always been a big part of my identity,” she said. “It’s in my DNA. ”
Hillel’s Israel Leadership Network (ILN) is the country’s largest pro-Israel student leadership body, with more than 130 top student leaders representing over 100 university campuses across the United States. With a goal of maintaining a thriving community for students who are committed to a vibrant, Jewish, and democratic Israel, these student advocates share best practices and ideas, and navigate challenges together. The majority are also leaders of their campus Israel group, or serve as the Israel chair at their campus Hillel. For Shani, her journey with ILN started with Tritons for Israel, a program through Hillel at University of California San Diego (UCSD).
“I got involved with Tritons for Israel right away,” she recalled. “I was attending board meetings my freshman year, connecting with other interested students — I really jumped into it.”
Seeing how invested Shani was with Israel education on campus, the Jewish Agency Israel Fellow at Hillel of San Diego connected Shani with Josh Losner, the Israel Leadership Network’s director. Shani immediately knew ILN was the right path for her evolving leadership journey.
Shani grew up with a deep connection to Israel. Her paternal grandparents survived the Farhoud, the ethnic cleansing of the Iraqi Jewish community, and emigrated to Israel shortly after. They raised Shani’s father in Israel, where he met her mother, an American interested in moving to Israel after graduating college — USCD, just like Shani. They were together for only two weeks when he proposed at the airport before her flight back to the United States.
They were married in Israel, and Shani’s two older siblings were born there. During the Second Intifada, they returned to the United States, where Shani was born.
“I grew up hearing about their life in Israel,” she said. “ It’s a big part of who I am. And I believe that speaking up for Israel is important for the Jewish people.”
Shani, now a rising senior, served as ILN’s vice chair this past academic year — the most challenging year for pro-Israel students in recent history.
“After October 7, there was a greater need for support. ILN’s group chat was filled with students sharing their experiences on campus, and some conversations and meetings left me sobbing. But at the same time, there’s so much love and community through Hillel and ILN, and that empowers students to bring what we learn back to our campus organizations.”
As vice chair, Shani led workshops, organized speakers, and met one-on-one with other ILN members to support them and offer advice for dealing with situations on campus, from encampments to BDS initiatives to daily protests. She credits her connection to Hillel staff with helping her stay focused and uplifted.
“They’re beyond supportive,” she said. “No matter what, Hillel staff will remind you why you’re doing what you’re doing and how important it is.” .
In her academic life, Shani studies human biology and leads JHealth, the Jewish pre-health organization at UCSD. This summer, she’s training to become an EMT — and she’s already looking ahead to what this coming year will bring.
“I’ve met some of the most amazing students through Hillel and ILN,” she said. “It honestly gives me so much hope for our future — how intelligent these students are, how creative they are, how much resilience they have. I can’t wait to see what they’re going to accomplish, not just for us, but for the next generation of Jewish college students, too.”
“My goal is to uplift Jewish students and to really tell the stories about the amazing communities that they’re able to foster on campus,” Shani continued. ”And we need to continue to uplift these students, because they will make real change in our world.”