For more than 30 years, my relationship with Jewish federations, Israel Bonds, the America Israel Public Affairs Committee, J Street and Hillel has been the focus of my life. I have chaired federation and Israel Bonds campaigns, led and helped create Jewish day schools in both Milwaukee and Tucson, Ariz., and donated millions of dollars…
Jay Michaelson’s recent column in these pages, “Only One Way to Change Hillel: Leave,” reveals a number of damaging yet popular misconceptions about the Hillel world and the role of donors in dictating the content of our programming. Jay, since you referred to my own recent essay here, “The Hillel Kids are All Right,” I’m…
J Street, the dovish Israel lobby that has struggled for acceptance in the wider Jewish community, is facing its greatest challenge yet. In the coming weeks, the Jewish establishment’s most prominent gatekeepers will vote on whether J Street can come under the proverbial communal tent. The odds of success for J Street’s bid to join…
Caroline Glick / Wikimedia Commons From the New Jersey Jewish News comes word that the campus Hillel at Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey, recently sponsored an appearance by a militant one-stater. The program was co-sponsored by, among others, two nearby Jewish federations including the state’s largest, the Jewish Federation of MetroWest (through its…
This just keeps happening. Institution after institution cancels, boycotts, bans, and otherwise excludes speakers who don’t toe the right line on Israel. Hillel International is beginning to recognize that it cannot both engage all Jewish students and inculcate a politically defined love of the state of Israel — and is choosing the latter. The Ramaz…
Getty Images Writing in Tablet Magazine, Liel Liebovitz — or perhaps Tablet’s headline writer — recently asked the apparently rhetorical question “Why Talk About Israel With People Who Want It To Disappear?” Here are five answers. 1. Because many of them and their supporters are Jews. Hillel, the Jewish Museum, Ramaz and other organizations that…
Alumni of UC Berkeley have written an open letter urging Berkeley Hillel to become the latest campus group to join the Open Hillel movement and reject the umbrella group’s pro-Israel guidelines. The Open Hillel movement supported by the alumni describes itself as “a student-run campaign to encourage inclusivity and open discourse at campus Hillels.” Open…
The Vassar Jewish Union has declared itself an “Open Hillel,” becoming the second organization to break from Hillel International over the parent group’s pro-Israel guidelines. “We believe that Hillel International’s goal to ‘inspire every Jewish college student to develop a meaningful and enduring relationship to Israel’ does not represent the diverse opinions of young American…
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