The Hillel Jewish Student Center hired a new rabbi. Rabbi Elazar Meisels will work in East Lansing on Mondays, teaching classes and meeting students.

Meisels is head of the Dirshu Institute of Jewish Education in Oak Park, where he lives with his wife and four children.

"I very much look forward to meeting and working with the students and adding my own personal touch to the warm environment already found at Hillel," Meisels said in an e-mail sent to students involved.

He welcomed students to visit him at the student center at 260 Charles St. to chat about "Judaism, life, a term paper or nothing at all."