Open Hillel Isn’t Actually Open‎

"It is deeply saddening to see misguided students identify with organizations and speakers dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish State and the end of Zionism."

"Every organization draws a line as to what is acceptable discourse for that organization. Hillel is no different – nor should it be. Events or speakers in favor of Hamas, Hezbollah, or BDS should obviously not be sponsored, funded, encouraged, or enabled by Hillel. The center for Jewish life on campus shouldn’t invite intolerant speakers who advocate the advancement of the Iranian genocidal nuclear program. In fact, Hillel should actively condemn such hatred."   READ THE ARTICLE HERE

Taken from the Algemeiner 3/11/14

Anti-Israel Jews and the Vassar Blues

Thanks to MOSAIC MAGAZINE for picking up this vital piece, originally aired last week in the WSJ and now available to those who want to read it. 

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement has added to my ambivalence about my alma mater by Lucette Lagnado February 24, 2014 Source: Wall Street Journal Originally published on 02/23/2014

Recently I was contacted by a fellow Vassar alumna through Facebook. She wanted to know if I was aware that our genteel alma mater had become a hotbed of anti-Israel, pro-boycott sentiment. Suddenly, my stomach was in knots—a feeling that Vassar has managed to evoke in me ever since I went there in the 1970s. An Orthodox Jewish girl from Brooklyn on a full scholarship, I fixated on this Seven Sister school as my entryway to the American dream, the epitome of style and grace that also prided itself on teaching “critical thinking.” In this case the cause of my angst was a young woman named Naomi Dann, the president of the Vassar Jewish Union. She had penned a piece for the campus paper strongly supporting the recent move by the American Studies Association to boycott Israeli academic exchanges—a decision denounced by college presidents across the country, including Vassar’s. Her piece strung together all the familiar buzzwords and clichés used by Israel’s critics: “atrocities,” “oppressive,” “abuses,” “colonial,” and, of course, “apartheid.” Signed jointly with the co-president of Students for Justice in Palestine, Ms. Dann even slammed Vassar’s president and dean of the faculty for daring to oppose the boycott against the Jewish state. There was more to fuel my Vassar angoisse. The head of the Jewish Studies Program, a professor named Joshua Schreier, had also expressed support for the boycott movement. Prof. Schreier was quoted in the campus paper ruminating that while once “instinctively against” the boycott, he had heard more “substantiated, detailed” arguments on its behalf, and as a result “I am currently leaning in favor of it,” he concluded delicately, as if choosing a flavored tea.

http://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/2014/02/1695/

Read more at: http://spme.org/boycotts-divestments-sanctions-bds/anti-israel-jews-vassar-blues/16949/ | SPME

http://safehillel.org/sign-the-petition/

Please sign the safe Hillel petition and please share!

Meet the Jewish students who are taking on the Jewish establishment

Philip Weiss on February 24, 2014  Published in MondoWeiss

From the Article: 

"In the last few days I have talked to several young Jews who are part of the historic Open Hillel movement that is determined to break down the doors on the official Jewish conversation about Israel and allow young people to think for themselves. For me the movement is as glorious as other impulses toward social justice from young Jews, including their participation in the 1960s Freedom Rides. But these students are modest.

“Is it a revolution?” I asked Naomi Dann of Vassar. “I wouldn’t call it that yet,” she said. “It’s a call for change.”

Vassar is one of two schools that have now declared themselves Open Hillel’s; they reject Hillel International’s “Israel guidelines” on participation in campus chapters that exclude those who seek to “delegitimize” Israel or who have endorsed boycott of Israel."

And later we see this in response to the rhetorical question: "who are the 'brave' Jewish Students?"

They’re young Jews who are dedicated to free thinking. When I visited Vassar, Henry Rosen, a freshman, told me that the Jewish Union had given him a place to explore his Judaism and his Jewishness, and that he considers himself an anti-Zionist; he does not see a need for a Jewish state. Naomi Dann told me that some of the students who voted to open up the Hillel are Zionists, and some are Israelis. She herself is a member of the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter. She recently published an article, co-authored with Nicole Massad, opposing the Vassar president’s opposition to the boycott movement and expressing sympathy for the BDS program.

Meantime, Dann helps to lead Shabbat dinners. By email she told me that the Jewish community was hospitable to her values:

I originally joined the VJU first semester of my freshman year because there was an opening for the position of social justice chair and that was what I was interested in doing. I never expected to be involved (especially not to this extent) in Jewish life in college, but found myself in a welcoming Jewish community that became a home to me at Vassar in a number of ways. Jewishness is important to me because of the strong bonds of community that this identity has allowed me to develop. My connection to Judaism is rooted in the experience of community, I consider myself to be asecular, atheist Jew. (I’m definitely on the most secular and left side 

of the VJU though, not representative of the community as a whole at all).

NOTE: How can she live with being in a WELCOMING JEWISH COMMUNITY when her intent is the DESTRUCTION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL? DID SHE TELL THEM THAT WAS HER PURPOSE FOR BEING THERE?

"Dann and Rosen and Sam Basch, a third member of VJU I met, said they were thrilled by their declaration and that it had come about via a thorough democratic process of deliberation in which the overwhelming majority had supported it.

Some students expressed concerns about what their parents would say, but Basch, Rosen and Dann all had their parents behind them.

“My parents have just praised me for taking a stand and doing something,” Basch said. She said her support for the statement came out of a dedication to “inclusivity and against censorship, to creating a pluralistic community… and providing a space for a variety of issues to be discussed.”

You may read the whole artice:
You Can read it all by clicking here:

NOTE: There is just so much wrong here. "Open Hillel" is saying that they disagree with Hillel but rather than stepping aside from Hillel's guidelines they would rather mock Hillel and call themselves "Open Hillel". This is an insult. Furthermore, A generation of Proud Jews who found themselves on the razor's edge of history, and the sole survivors of the greatest genocidal movement in the history of mankind, have every right to decide that they do not wish to sit down with others who are equally committed to their destruction. "Never Again" is a valid response. A dialogue with those who seek your destruction, who seek your demise and do so using heinous threats and outright lies, seems unacceptable to coherent adults. 

If these so-called student leaders  "are as interested and involved in the Israel/Palestine debate as they claim to be and still thinks it's great to have an "Open Hillel" to debate if Israel should be eliminated as a Jewish state because it's like apartheid South Africa or because it's like Nazi Germany, one can only wonder how open-minded they would be e.g. about debates suggesting that Islam justifies pedophilia because of Mohammed's marriage to Aisha, or that Muslims tend to be terrorist sympathizers because so many terrorist acts are committed in the name of Islam. 

In other words, they would understand very well that some issues simply aren't worthy of debate -- and that you're a bigot if you think they are -- but curiously, when it comes to Israel, anything goes."

(h/t to PM-B)

FURTHERMORE: Dann says she considers herself to be "a secular atheist Jew". Well, where I come from those folks are called evangelical Christians or U-Us. Um, my sarcasm aside, this mockery of our ancient faith from someone claiming to be in a position of leadership at least helps some understand the utter lack of respect. In her atheistic-secular view of her world, perhaps she is unable to see the depth of offensiveness of her actions. My Bubbe and my Zayde would not like to sit down with their Concentration Camp Commandants and talk about their "feelings" at an "Open Hillel Brunch" My good friends from Harlem do not want to have a chat and a cup of tea with the Grand Dragon and the Grand Cyclops who remain fully commited to shipping them back to Africa while retaining their women for future use. 

That said, I wonder if it is true that the parents of these "remarkable" kids are so proud of them? These children who state that they see NO NEED FOR A JEWISH STATE? Really, mom and dad? 

One is certainly allowed to believe whatever one wants. And form your own group to get your views out there. But be honest, please. Don't pretend to be a part of Hillel, when you are absolutely NOT a part of Hillel. Don't pretend to be a JEW when you do not speak for Jews at all and make it clear you have no idea what it even means to be a Jew. And please, don't lie. Your proud parents should at least have taught you that. 

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/safe-hillel-wants-the-jewish-campus-group-to-be-safe-for-all/2014/02/25/

From The article:  the Jewish Press February 25, 2014by Lori Lowenthal Marcus

The Hillel guidelines state:

will not partner with, house, or host organizations, groups, or speakers that as a matter of policy or practice: Deny the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish and democratic state with secure and recognized borders; Delegitimize, demonize, or apply a double standard to Israel; Support boycott of, divestment from, or sanctions against the State of Israel; Exhibit a pattern of disruptive behavior towards campus events or guest speakers or foster an atmosphere of incivility. In other words, Hillel students are permitted to say and do whatever they want, they just can’t provide a Hillel platform to Israel haters.

Hillel International responded to the groups who declared themselves Open Hillels like the good uncle it is, lauding the students for expressing their views and for being passionate. The bottom line message, however, is that if a Hillel-affiliated campus group violates the Israel guidelines by, for example, offering a platform within Hillel to a proponent of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sactions Movement, that group will lose its affiliation to Hillel, along with the right to use the Hillel name, and to avail itself of Hillel resources. The second step has not yet happened, even on the two campuses, Swarthmore College and Vassar College, which declared themselves Open Hillels. But along now comes a student-founded and run group calling itself “Safe Hillel,” which takes a different approach to the situation.


Later on we see :

The mission of Safe Hillel is for Hillel to be a safe place where Israel supporters are able to express that view openly, and where Jews of every Jewish denomination are able to practice their Judaism freely. “Why do students feel the need to ruin Hillel?” Fils said many of his friends were asking.

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/safe-hillel-wants-the-jewish-campus-group-to-be-safe-for-all/2014/02/25/

To: Vassar's Jewish Union; From: Me, Class of '92 | Andrew Jacobs | Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel

To the members of the VSU:

As a Rabbi, former President of the Jewish Alumni Foundation and someone who discovered my Jewish identity while at Vassar, I am truly disappointed and disturbed by the VJU’s decision to become an “Open Hillel”.

I know that Vassar teaches you to embrace various viewpoints and embrace ideas that run counter to your own. But to openly welcome those who actively work to undermine the very existence of the Jewish State and promote horrific anti-Israel sentiment across the globe is irresponsible and destructive. While some will support your decision, I write to tell you that your actions are not at all supported by me.

Some will say that opening your doors to one and all is the “right” thing to do; some will say that openness will foster true community. But this could not be further from the truth. What you have done is open your doors to those who seek to hurt, undermine and/or destroy Israel while making your Hillel an unfriendly, unpleasant and unsafe place for those of us who consider ourselves committed Zionists. In doing so, you have not created an “Open Hillel”. You have slammed many doors.

Rabbi Andrew M Jacobs ’92

Read the Article Here

Read more: To: Vassar's Jewish Union; From: Me, Class of '92 | Andrew Jacobs | Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/to-vassars-jewish-union-from-me-class-of-92/#ixzz2uCsCNDXj
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Vassar Jewish Students Break With Hillel on Israel

Published February 20, 2014 on line for February 28 Edition
The FORWARD at forward.com

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 Jews,” the VJU said in a February 18 statement announcing that it would no longer abide by the Hillel guidelines. “We believe that fostering a pluralistic community and supporting all Jewish life on campus cannot be achieved with Hillel International’s Israel guidelines in place.”

The “Open Hillel” movement joined by the VJU describes itself as “a student-run campaign to encourage inclusivity and open discourse at campus Hillels.” The movement encourages Hillel chapters to reject Hillel International’s Israel guidelines, which prohibit campus Hillels from sponsoring programs, partnering with clubs and hosting speakers who “delegitimize, demonize or apply a double standard to Israel,” or deny its right to exist. The guidelines also bar cooperation with anyone supporting boycotts, divestments or sanctions against the Jewish state.

Last December Swarthmore Hillel became the first school to publicly reject the guidelines.

Continues Here
NOTE: This and the next article deal with the same topic. What is it that actually creates a "tipping point" in history? Only time will tell, but I'll bet my max bet, a nickel, that for some reason, the "Open Hillel" movement may be the pivot. Students have been hearing about BDS and "Apartheid week" for some time and most probably rolled their eyes, assuming yet another "cute" liberal bandwagon would pass by. After all, there was always Hillel to go back to in case you needed a shabbot candle, a bagel or someplace calm to go and decompress. 

But now "Open Hillel" will allow those calm spaces to be crashed by Anti semitic speakers, BDS organizers, Nazi Sympathizers  and others who seek the end of the State of Israel. And this will not go down well with those Jewish kids who need a little shelter from the storm. 

Vassar Jewish Union declares itself an ‘Open Hillel’

Published 02/19/2014 in JTA  online at:  JTA.org

Vassar College’s Jewish Union declared itself an “Open Hillel,” repudiating international Hillel guidelines rejecting partnerships with groups deemed hostile toward Israel. The Vassar Jewish Union, a Hillel-affiliated student group, made the announcement Tuesday on its website. It is the second campus Hillel organization to designate itself an Open Hillel. Swarthmore College Hillel voted to reject the Hillel guidelines for campus Israel activities in December. The guidelines forbid individual Hillel chapters from hosting groups or speakers that among other things deny Israel’s right to exist or support boycott or divestment from the Jewish state.
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