The passing of Evan Taksar Levental

Dear friends:

I am devastated to share the news that Hillel 818’s Associate Director, Evan Taksar Levental, passed away last night after a six year battle with cancer.

For the past six and a half years Evan was a superstar employee of Hillel 818, but more importantly to me, she was my friend.

Somehow, our paths had never crossed, but as it turns out, Evan and my wife Alayna grew up together at their beloved Camp JCA Shalom. I remember first meeting with Evan during my interview process at 818 where we quickly bonded over our shared love of Jewish summer camp, Hillel, film and TV, and politics. By the end of our meeting Evan looked me and said, “Yeah, I think this could work! Good luck!”

Over Evan’s six and a half years at Hillel 818 she changed thousands of our students lives for the better, helped to raise millions of dollars to run our organization, and made the Jewish future stronger, better, and filled with more goodness and light.

And she did it all for the right reasons and with a pure heart. Evan was driven to help Jewish students with food insecurity and was particularly proud of the grocery store gift card program we started during the pandemic. But more than that, I believe Evan’s work at Hillel, and before that at Camp Alonim, was inspired by a moment in grad school where she was made to feel “not Jewish enough” by another student for not understanding a Jewish reference. Evan believed with all her heart that being a good Jew is not defined by your knowledge or your religiosity, but by your actions. By being a good person. And her work here helped instill an authentic Jewish pride in thousands of students, the effect of which will be felt for generations still to come.

Evan - I will miss walking into your office, sitting on the couch, and spending an impromptu hour or two discussing the big questions of modern Jewish life. I will miss telling you a frustrating story and having you respond with the perfect roll of your eyes, validating my feelings in one small gesture and making me laugh at the same time. I will miss your hard earned compliments when I did something particularly right and your confidence challenging me when I did something wrong. I will miss your excitement over a juicy piece of gossip. And most importantly, we at Hillel 818 will all miss the way in which you helped make our Hillel 818 team truly feel like a family.

May her memory be a blessing.

We send all of our love and comfort to Evan’s husband Misha, her parents Alan and Jodi, her sister Kyle, and the rest of her family and loved ones.

Matt Baram

Ellie & Mark Lainer Executive Director

Click below to see Evan speak about her battle with cancer at the 2019 Hillel International General Assembly.