Oberlin College President Carmen Twillie Ambar highlighted the college’s Barefoot Dialogue program during her keynote address at Cleveland Hillel’s annual meeting on Sept. 15 at Suburban Temple-Kol Ami in Beachwood.

Oberlin College has an undergraduate enrollment of about 3,000 students with about 25% identifying as Jewish, according to hillel.org . Ambar is starting her ninth year as president of the school, and has led students through a rise in antisemitism following the Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack by Hamas in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 taken hostage, helping to make sure Jewish students feel safe, welcome and part of a community, she said.

Ambar said one of her first initiatives as president involved strengthening the school’s Barefoot Dialogue program, which encour

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