The poster on the door of the Hillel at John Jay College of Criminal Justice reads “Safe Zone.” Above it hangs an Israeli flag, an American flag and another sign: “Israel wants peace.” Take two steps down the narrow hallway on the ground floor of this Manhattan campus, and there is another, very different message….
Hillel Rio announced it would not close down just three hours after lamenting that it would, all via its Facebook page. Before posting the second “official note,” the campus organization’s branch in Rio de Janeiro drew hundreds of supportive messages hailing the work led by its volunteers. Afterward, the group was slammed for what some…
Talk about your odd couples: actor Michael Douglas, winner of last year’s Genesis Prize, kicked off a three-college speaking tour with Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky on Thursday night at Brown University. The choice of Douglas for the Genesis Prize, whose stated aim is to recognize excellence and achievement by an individual who can serve…
When I was a plucky 11-year old, I challenged the biblical account of creation at my Jewish day school in Winnipeg, Canada. Instead of getting punished, I was invited over to the high school wing to continue the debate with the senior Judaic studies teacher. As is befitting a culture of open critique, I felt…
The Amherst College chapter of Hillel joined over 50 campus groups in a coalition demanding changes to create a more “inclusive environment” on campus. Amherst Uprising is one of a spate of collectives on campuses across the country seeking to address what members see as campus environments hostile to minorities. The manifesto posted last week…
A former senior vice president at AOL has been named the new COO of Hillel International. Hillel, the global Jewish college campus organization, announced its appointment of business sector veteran Adam Lehman in a statement on Tuesday. In addition to working at AOL, Lehman was previously the COO of advertising firm GeniusRocket, the founder of…
Hoping to “wipe the slate clean,” Hillel International’s president and CEO Eric Fingerhut stepped into the lion’s den Monday for a face-to-face meeting with campus leaders of the dovish lobby J Street. Although he sounded all the right notes, Fingerhut offered little in the way of substance to mend the rift between Hillel, the national…
Israel has been in the news recently for public officials’ . Unfortunately, downplaying Reform Judaism is not only an Israeli problem — it’s also haunted me throughout my experience at my campus Hillel. And at Hillel, it’s not coming from public official thousands of miles away. It’s in my home. Hillels all over the country…
