Mississippi State University’s Hillel, Jewish Life on Campus, will host Battle of the Bulge at 6:30 p.m. on March 21 in the Colvard Student Union Dawg House and Sami Steigmann’s “A Second Chance at Survival” at 6:30 p.m. on March 23 in Lee Hall’s Bettersworth Auditorium.
   Hillel, a religious campus organization for Jewish students founded in 1923, urges young people to pursue social justice, celebrate living and learning as Jews and unite peers and the worldwide Jewish people.
 The Charles and Lynn Schusterman International Center is central to the Hillel network and supports local Hillels with their mission “to enrich the lives of Jewish students so they may enrich the Jewish people and the world.” 
    Brad Krock, one of the founders of MSU’s Hillel organization, said the local organization was developed in 2010. It gives Jewish students the opportunities to celebrate holidays together, host fundraising and philanthropy events and have an “at college” Jewish community to celebrate with. 
 When Krock started at MSU in 2008, to his knowledge, he was the only Jewish student. Later, other Jewish students that Krock knew from the Jackson area started attending MSU and collaboratively  decided to start a local Hillel with help from an MSU faculty member.
     “From there we contacted Dr. Oppenheimer, whose a math professor at Mississippi State,” Krock said. “Just like with any other club or organization you have to have a sponsor and not only that but he’s also the local rabbi in Columbus so it just worked out really well for us.”
 Krock described the process the local Hillel has undergone since it began and credited Joseph Metz, the current president of the organization, with building the local association and taking it to the next level of progress. 
    “He’s really been on top of Jewish education,” Krock said. “A lot of people, especially from north Mississippi, aren’t exposed to Judaism. He’s really been on the forefront of religious and cultural education and understanding.”
  Metz described the two events that will take place later in the month along with why the events should be held soon.
    “Dr. James Hunt, who goes by Jim Hunt, and Joseph Johnson both fought in the Battle of the Bulge,” Metz said. “Dr. Jim was in the Big Red One first infantry and then Mr. Johnson was in Patton’s Third Army and stormed the beaches of Utah Beach on D-Day. Johnson was with General Patton from the beaches of Normandy on D-Day until the time they got to Berlin in 1945.”
   Metz said Hunt and Johnson will be visiting to talk about their experiences during the war and what made them want to fight considering neither was drafted. 
   “It’s important because unfortunately, as time goes on, they won’t be around,” Metz said. “It’s extremely important for our generation to be able to hear the stories of that generation and appreciate what they went through. Most of them were born in the Depression and grew up as depression kids and then went and fought in the worst atrocity human kind’s ever seen.”
 Metz also described the Holocaust survivor, Sami Steigmann, who will be visiting.
 “Sami technically belongs in two Holocaust generations,” Metz said. “He belongs in the generation of Holocaust survivors and he is a child of a Holocaust survivor. He was experimented on as a child so he has a unique story because you never get to hear the stories of what happens to children who were experimented on by the Nazis.” 
       Jacob Craig, a freshman mechanical engineering major, has expectations for everyone to gain a greater understanding of what happened during those times because the events were major parts of the past. 
   “We read in history books all of the things that happened during World War II and during the Holocaust, but not many people these days really get a ‘first hand’ experience from a person who was in the Battle of the Bulge and who was in the Holocaust camp,” Craig said. “We really want people to kind of get that experience.”
    Both events will be free to the public. However, a ticket from the Center for Student Activities is needed to attend the event featuring Sami Steigmann. For more information, Joseph Metz can be contacted at 601-813-7720.