After a weekend when white nationalists brought terror and racism to their city, Jewish students at the University of Virginia said they would not be cowed by the hateful display. “The violence, loss of life, and hatred displayed here today is heartbreaking,” read a statement on Facebook from the Brody Jewish Center – University of…
Hillel’s College Guide lists 981 colleges and universities, from IDC Herziliya to Southern Methodist. And yet, Swarthmore and Wesleyan, where students participated in the controversial Open Hillel movement, are missing from the list entirely. Guilford and Vassar, the other two schools commonly affiliated with the movement, are listed in the guide. They remain affiliated with…
I encountered fierce opposition to a piece I wrote recently on the value of welcoming multi-faith families into our communities and adopting a posture of radical hospitality. I believe that providing a space that caters to every Jew’s spiritual needs — even if that Jew is married to someone of another faith — is the…
As someone who is actively working to connect my Jewish and gay identities, I know Hillel to be the most welcoming, inclusive place I have ever worked. One of the perks of my job is visiting campuses across the country and seeing how students are embraced at Hillel because of their myriad identities, not despite…
To: Eric Fingerhut, President and CEO of Hillel International Dear Mr. Fingerhut, We write to you as LGBTQ rabbis, rabbinical students and allies from a range of Jewish denominations living across the United States. We are teachers, scholars, activists, and leaders of communities and congregations; we have dedicated our professional lives to serving the Jewish…
In college, it was considered by the broad range of students who attended our campus Hillel entirely normal and comfortable to share a Jewish communal space amongst Jews of every level of observance and religious orientation – secular and religious, Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, searching and settled Jews, affiliated and unaffiliated, Jews whatever their background….
The Northwestern University chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine is hosting the Palestinian activist Rasmea Odeh — sparking a protest by Hillel that has been joined by the school’s J Street U chapter. The Monday SJP event in titled “When They Come for Rasmea Odeh, They Come for All of Us” and organizers say…
This past March at the second annual “Ambassadors Against BDS” conference at the UN, South Carolina State Representative Alan Clemmons called me anti-Semitic. I was there with ten other J Street U students to discuss progressive, pro-Israel and anti-occupation alternatives to BDS. Hundreds of people in attendance stood up and applauded Clemmons’ accusation, and then…
