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…
Several weeks ago, the Hillel House at Ohio State University banned from its facilities and its funding an organization of GLBTQ students — B’nai Keshet. Why? B’nai Keshet had taken part in a coalition of student organizations working to support LGBTQ immigrants — a coalition that included Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a group that…
(JTA) — The Center for Jewish Life at Princeton University denied the local chapter of J Street U space to hold an exhibition created by the left-wing Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence. The J Street U chapter decided to go forward with the exhibit, to be held Tuesday and Wednesday, in another campus space, despite…
Growing up in a tight-knit Modern Orthodox community, I rarely encountered people whose backgrounds, perspectives, or life experiences were very different from my own. I went to college at Yeshiva University, a Modern Orthodox University in New York.Though I learned from brilliant professors and formed lasting friendships, I regretted the fact that I had placed…
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