A landmark alliance between Georgetown and Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, the largest Jewish campus network in the world, will expand the services currently available to Jewish students, according to university officials.

Georgetown celebrated its new affiliation with the Jewish campus organization last Tuesday with a luncheon in Copley Formal Lounge followed by a picnic on Copley Lawn.

New opportunities for Jewish students may include scholarships, reserved spots on Hillel’s Taglit-birthright trips, which take Jewish students on their first trips to Israel, and large-scale grants to the university.

“From today going forward, we are left with a marvelous opportunity to build bridges between our communities, to foster greater understanding between us and to create goodwill, cooperation and peace,” Rabbi Herbert C. Tobin, senior vice president of Hillel, said in a press release.

Fr. Timothy S. Godfrey, S.J., director of campus ministry, said in a press release that he hopes the affiliation with Hillel will “encourage the Jewish students to grow in their faith and culture” as well as “provide an opportunity for all of us to deepen our appreciation of this rich [Jewish] heritage that exists within our Georgetown community.”

Among those present for the event were University President John J. DeGioia and Hillel President Avraham Infeld, who were among the several speakers at the luncheon, as well as members of Georgetown’s Jewish Student Association, the Georgetown-Israel Alliance and the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.

The picnic also featured a performance by Israeli rock band Shorashim Ensemble. Jill Herskovitz, the secretary for JSA, estimated the event’s attendance to be at least 200 people.

Herskovitz said that “the Jewish population at Georgetown has been growing rapidly for the last few years and now is the time” for the school’s Jewish community to gain access to Hillel’s important and varied benefits.

According to Herskovitz, Georgetown did not affiliate itself with Hillel until now because the organization had dedicated its resources to campuses where Jewish programs did not receive university funding.

According to the foundation’s Web site, an important aim for the Hillel organization is to encourage Jewish students who do not already take part in Jewish programs to become involved and active in exploring their Jewish identity. Non-Jewish students are also welcome to participate in Hillel-sponsored events.