Swarthmore College’s former Hillel has voted to rename itself Swarthmore Kehilah. The name change announced on Sunday follows the decision by the campus Jewish organization to drop its affiliation with Hillel International, due to restrictions on Israel issues. The decision of the name Kehilah, which means Community, was made through an open submission process for…
In 1964, Queens College student Mark Levy – one of the four authors of this piece – traveled to Meridian, Mississippi with the Mississippi Freedom Summer project, registering African Americans to vote. When he tried to go to synagogue in Meridian, before he ascended the stairs outside, a representative of the synagogue came out and…
The rebellion against Hillel International led by a growing batch of student dissenters operating under the banner of Open Hillel may be morphing into an official schism. The Hillel chapter at Swarthmore College, a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania sometimes grouped among the “Little Ivies,” announced yesterday that it would no longer use the name…
(JTA) — Hillel President Eric Fingerhut’s decision to withdraw from the upcoming J Street conference has again drawn Hillel into conflict over the boundaries of acceptable criticism of Israel. Some two years after the Open Hillel movement emerged to challenge Hillel International’s guidelines for Israel activities, which prohibit campus chapters from hosting speakers that support…
Swarthmore Hillel students It was 5:25pm when I walked into the room full of murmuring college students. Swarthmore Hillel’s first event addressing the conflict in Israel and Palestine was about to begin. I took my seat among the 60 other students, who were all chatting amiably and nervously, waiting for the event to start. I…
The Wesleyan Jewish Community, in an act of open defiance against its parent-organization Hillel International, hosted a “Jewish Voice for Peace Shabbat” on February 27, according to a statement issued by Wesleyan’s “Open Hillel” chapter. The group Jewish Voice for Peace advocates for the global boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, and therefore…
On Monday, I learned that the chance to speak to over 1,000 student pro-Israel activists is not enough to get Eric Fingerhut, President and CEO of Hillel International, in a room. I have two questions: why not, and if that’s not enough, what is? Let’s start with the first: why did Fingerhut withdraw from the…
Hillel International President Eric Fingerhut was aware of who would speak at a J Street conference before he confirmed his attendance, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group said. “After agreeing to speak for the first time in a public forum with J Street U students he chose to pull out, citing objections to the…
