Whither American Jewry and Berkeley’s Hillel?
When the Jerusalem Post’s Caroline Glick engaged the topic of “divergence” — the parting of ways between Israelis and the American Jewish left — she culled appropriate examples from Berkeley’s Hillel, a liberal Jewish campus organization. Even in Berkeley, Hillel’s antics are more than a source of embarrassment to the activist, pro-Zionist component of the Jewish community.
However, Hillel’s repeated bad behaviors of anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist activities are absent opposition from Jewish community leaders. Their tactic is to deny every episode that reaches the public agenda, while giving a wink and a nod to what happens on campus. Caroline Glick is sure to be bombarded with denials, either from here or from the national organization. She should be comforted as to the accuracy of her renditions in direct portion to the intensity of these denials.
The current mantra concerning Hillel from those doing damage control is that Hillel has now changed. But the reality is that Glick’s description of a Hillel that is both anti-Jewish and anti-Israel is as true today as it ever was.
Yes, Hillel did finally celebrate Passover, after two years absence. And much is made of this as a harbinger of change. We are showcasing to the world that an organization committed to the preservation of Jewish values is actually celebrating Passover.
But what we would prefer not to publicize is that Hillel’s students were involved in this years’ Zionist-bashing, Israel Apartheid Week, sponsored by the virulent, anti-Israel Students for Justice in Palestine. Hillel’s Valentine’s Day invitation took an insensitive and provocative swipe at orthodox Jews, calling them “scary,” perhaps suggesting that they were somehow the equivalent of Islamist suicide bombers.
All of this came in the absence of a learning curve from past bad behavior that included celebrating Cinco de Mayo with a barbeque party on Yom Hazikoron, the day of remembrance for fallen Israeli soldiers, and holding a dance party on Yom Hashoah, the solemn day of mourning for the Holocaust.
While Hillel students have been cautioned by Hillel leadership not to demonstrate on behalf of Israel and have been told that the Israeli flag is an offensive, militaristic symbol, there has been no such cautions when it comes to Hillel-sponsored Kesher Enoshi working with Students for Justice in Palestine and bringing in Israeli John Kerrys to discuss war crimes in Gaza in an event known as “Breaking the Silence.”
Even the name itself is a misnomer. Israeli soldiers are free to speak their minds and to put up what they want on the Internet. There is no silence to break. There is no incarceration that awaits them for taking their ideas to the public. And among all soldiers, there is always the fringe of the fringe, the John Kerrys of the world, whose ego can only be sated by turning the deviant to the commonplace.
What of programs that will extol the behavior of the Israeli military as a professional and moral army, as former British Army Colonel Richard Kemp described them? Such programs are as likely to be held at Hillel as a program on the value of covert operations is likely to be held on the Berkeley campus.
I’ve never been able to understand how some American Jews can stand against Israel; the ONLY democracy in the middle east. How well do you suppose these Hillel students would fare in an Islamic society such as Egypt or Syria or Saudi Arabia?
You want a free Gaza? Fine. Wall it off from all of Eretz Israel and weld the door shut. Let them exist on the benefits flowing from Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world. Free water? Free electricity? Hell, let the EU do it! Israel has no responsibility, moral or otherwise, to support Hamas led fanatics which wish to kill her.
As an American Israeli Jew, I am saddened by the formation and apparent popularity of anti Israel American Jewish groups like Berkely Hillel and JStreet. Especially in the case of young American Jewish university students I would expect that they would be better informed about Middle Eastern affairs and would realize that for all of her mistakes, Israel was and remains the only light of freedom and democracy in this benighted region.
That said, however, Israel has not been particularly consistent nor reliable as a representative of the Jewish People during several important periods of our recent history.
The drunken sot Rabin and his lethal Oslo Accords bringing Arafat and his PLO terrorist army into the heart of
Israel to ravage and murder us, the weak and vacillating Ehud Barak who surrendered all of Israel to Arafat and got hundreds of us killed by PLO and Hamas terrorists, and of course, last but not least, the very nearly indicted Ariel Sharon who ethnically cleansed the Gaza Strip and the Northern Shomron of Israeli Jews, abandoned them to their fate, and left the Gaza area in the hands of Palestinian terrorist gunmen, rockets, and missiles in his effort to avoid arrest, trial, and imprisonment.
What is even worse, all three of these misguided or
criminally motivated Israeli Jewish “leaders” demanded that the
American Jewish Community support their depraved programs, even
though most Americans and especially American Jews realized how
dangerous and unrealistic these plans were. I’ll only make passing mention the damage to Israel’s Jewish religous reputation that has been done by our very own Supreme Court, a court which most Israelis refer to as the High Court of Palestine. I will only refer briefly how the Israeli Army, the so called People’s Army, forbids our soldiers to fraternize with Jewish settlers in the territories. Because of these sorts of behaviors a lot of American Jews have lost faith in Israel, our leaders, our lawmakers, our judges, and our IDF and who can really blame them? Some American Jews became indifferent, others more
radicalized in favor of Israel, and some joined J Street or Berkely Hillel out of a sense of shame and disgust with what we have done to our Jewish Homeland.
Israel has a lot to atone for in the way that we have abused the
Jewish People, Zionism, and Judaism, but I doubt that even Netanyahu much less any of our other political, military, legal, or religious leaders have gotten to that point yet. Yes Berkely Hillel and anti Israel American Jewish groups like it represent a serious problem, but they also represent a serious symptom of Israel’s failures.
There is nothing as dumb as a leftwing Jew. A lifeform utterly devoid of any historical awareness or wisdom. Even the lowly amoeba understands that biology’s first imperative is survival. For a Jew to reject Israel is an act of self-destruction. Sheep to slaughter. Same old story. Bleating sheep. Incapable of defending themselves. And the results are always the same.
This sounds to me, an American, as if the Jewish people are helping to destroy that which they have fought so valiantly for. It is a very sad thing, a real tragedy. Poor Israel, poor people. I will never understand this attitude that “Israel is bad, the Palestinians are good”.
At the end of the 1930s some of my Jewish relatives took great pleasure in the sport of baiting German American Bund get togethers at Columbus Park on Chicago’s Westside. These sessions usually ended up with a brawl between the Bunders and the Jewish/Italian tough guys from the neighborhood. After the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in August 1939 the Jewish toughs would wait outside the Friday night CP meetings and beat the tar out of what was now in their minds Jewish traitors. There are apparently no more Jews with this kind of spunk and muscle to “explain” right and wrong to this new group of communist traitors.
As the mother of an 11th grader I am appalled. My son wants to attend a UC but with the exception of UCLA, the UCs with any sort of Jewish facilities are getting too scary.
I resent the fact that my tax money is being used to subsidize this bull**** and I am paying for schools that my kids won’t be able to attend.
Until people start understanding that for these people, whether they be Mensheviks, Bolsheviks, Maoists, Castroites or plain old garden variety liberal socialists, socialism is their religion. We forget that many Jewish immigrants that came in during the later 1800′s and early 1900′s were committed socialists and atheists and for whom Judaism was an empty shell. They were also very anti-Zionist. These nuts in Berkeley are their grandchildren and political heirs. Thank G-d for the faithful Reform, Conservative and Orthodox Jews who maintain Judaism in their lives. Rabbi Hillel must be turning over in his grave.
Tdinva is correct. In Chicago, Jews literally fought the anti-Semites. In Douglas Park, somewhat to the east of Columbus Park, the Poles from south of 16th Street conducted pogroms against Jews in the park. Davy Miller, a pool hall operator, organized young Jews and gave the Poles a taste of their own medicine. After that, Jews freely used the park, an important source of recreation for poor, immigrant families. When three Jewish members of Berkeley’s Hillel had an altercation with Students for Justice in Palestine, the entire organized Jewish community here disowned them. They were perceived as being guilty because they responded to force with force. Had such Jews controlled my community in Chicago, I never would have been able to use Douglas Park, a scene of many wonderful childhood memories. I guess to use the mentality of Berkeley’s Hillel, we would have had to first figure out what we had done to offend the Poles and caused them to conduct pogroms against us.
Berkeley Hillel warned students to not attend the anti-terrorism rally which The Israel Action Committee of the EastBay sponsored where we showed the bombed Jerusalem Bus #19 in which 50 people were murdered. In addition, Hillel advertised a Challah Baking session during Passover and refused to Kasher its kitchen for Pesach for observant students. Berkeley Hillel has frequently invited and sponsored anti-Israel speakers and has abandoned and criticized Zionist students on campus.
Sanne DeWitt
This is not the Hillel of my youth…a jewish bastion in a gentile UCLA Campus…But it exemplifies the left wing jewish mentality. Look haow many left wing Jews supported and continue to support Obama despite his obvious anti israel and anti jewish stands….or should I say his pro palestinian stands and anti Zionist stands. But what can we expect from the kids at school when the president and the hollywood jewish role models support these views. Obama’s speech in Cairo was right out of the PLO playbook, his opposition to settlements etc… and Spielberg and his ilk continue to support him.,Streisand, Geffen Katzenback,Portman( an Israeli no less),Johansen( yes there are still Danish Jews) etc. So let us pray for a change in the heart of our President and our visible jewish spokesmen and women because until they change Hillel Berkley will continue to emulate their anti israel policies
“For Americans to be persuaded [to support the Palestinian cause],” claimed Hany Khalil, organizing coordinator for United for Peace and Justice, “we have to build support across all sectors of the United States, and that will never happen without a significant and visible split within the Jewish community.”
The whole purpose of organizations such as Kesher Enoshi and J Street are to erode Jewish support for the existence of Israel. They seek to create a “visible split”. Its time we fought back on a community based grass roots level, since its become abundantly apparent that the professional community is not adequately stepping up to the plate.
I wonder if the name Hillel can be withdrawn? Does Federation own the brand Hillel? If so, we should pressure Federation to take their name back from Berkeley. That way Berkeley is free to burn Israeli flags, proclaim ‘we are all Hezbollah’ and number of other insane things. While at the same time, we’re in no way required to use the Hillel name name when speaking of them. It’s like J-street taking “pro-Israel” off their student organization. Fine, call yourselves whatever you like just don’t lie about it.
Miller’s continuing comments help explain to me the sordid reasoning of liberal jews. His columns are comparable in quality to the writings of Norm Podheretz.
If the Jewish commuity cut off all funding for Hillel, presumably by cutting off all support for any Jewish programs at UC Berkeley, the Hezbollah Hillel would fall apart. Some problems require strong medicine.
Sanne DeWitt forgot to mention that one of the main opponents of bringing Bus 19 to Berkeley was Rabbi Stuart Kelman, whose son-in-law and namesake Adam Kelman is the current director of Berkeley’s Hillel. The fruit does not fall far from the tree.
Look here Mr. Miller and the rest of you black and Muslim hating drag queens: it is ok to critisize the Israeli govenment if you are a Jew.. it is also OK for Catholics to critisize the Vatican for promoting child molestation in order to keep the celibacy going…. it is also OK for a muslim to critisize and disaow governments like Saudi Arabia, and Iran…. I am a mulim and I hate the Taliban and the Burqa.. I will speak up against it… I would say we all agree to speak up against the Nazis.. agreed? why not critisize the Israeli government whose crime and atrocities with the help of federal tax $$ puts Nazis to shame….BTW Bruce Bawer who writes for this site is gay.
My question here is would you people hate a muslim black gay guy? or are they OK? thank you
Dilemma. Or more correctly, trilemma. What is the most appropriate categorization of anti-Zionism Jews? Schmuck? Putz? Prick? Take your pick. Tough call, eh? Not.
Does the Berkeley Hillel also try to disuade the Jewish students from wearing a kippah,besdies not showing the Israeli flag?
I am reminded of my childhood in Washington D.C. where one couldn’t say they were Jewish out loud. I experienced many acts of anti-semitism and children called me a Kike.
My father was fired from his job in the telephone company in New York when he asked for a day off for Yom Kippur
My sister,who got a teaching job at Columbia Univ. was told to not say she was Jewish on her application.
The Jewish Germans tried to assimilate but it didn’t work. Is Hillel of that German-Jewish mentality?
As a young Jewish woman, I am proud of my heritage and continue to practice my religion. As a college student, I have, like college students should, questioned conventional wisdom. It’s a fallacy of logic to suggest every Jew that disagrees with Israel is a “self hating Jew.” Is every African American that disagrees with representatives of the Black community racist or self hating? Would you say the same for Latinos Americans that are against illegal immigration (And yes, they do exist.)? Are Catholics “self hating” if they protest against the Vatican?
I’m not saying that what this organization is doing isn’t, well, crazy. What I am saying is that calling every Jew that takes a stance against Israel “self hating” is.
@ #17
“My question here is would you people hate a muslim black gay guy?”
Why even ask? You already characterized us as “drag queens”, meaning you probably think we love gay people.
Mr, it is difficult to take most of your rant seriously. However, the issue of is it OK to criticize Israel is a red herring that is frequently raised. Of course, it is OK to criticize Israel. That is not now nor has it ever been an issue. What is not OK is partnering with those whose avowed goal is to seek Israel’s destruction. It is a free society and Jews who want to partner with vermin are free to do so. They just should not be doing it with Jewish charitable contributions and through the infrastructure of the Jewish community.
The fact that Bawer is gay is fairly well known, “mr.” I for one could care less.
My question here is would you people hate a muslim black gay guy? or are they OK?
Many Muslims would hate a Muslim gay guy, whether he’s black or not. The Taliban executes homosexuals. Hamas has tortured gay men on the West Bank. Many of them flee – to Tel Aviv. As Bawer has written, gay men who turn down the wrong street in Amsterdam and find themselves in Muslims neighborhoods are beaten. The mayor of Paris was stabbed a few years back by a gay-hating Muslim.
If you’re really concerned about intolerance you’re looking at the wrong group, “mr.”
Susan. I guess no matter how many times it is said, some will not get it. Israel is not immune from criticism. That is not now nor has it ever been the issue. Should Jewish money and resources be used to create partnerships with those who would destroy Israel? Given the vast resources the Arabs spend on demonizing Israel, do we have to add fuel to their propaganda bonfire? I think not. A Hillel that cannot defend Israel’s right to exist, is a Hillel that shouldn’t exist.
It’s a shame that we can’t get your message out to more people – Jews and non Jews to let them know that these people do not speak for the mainstream Jewish community! Good job Abe.. keep it going!
What’s at the heart of the matter is liberalism/leftism, which is self-loathing and suicidal (towards Western democracy) at its core. The malady is just worse among Jews, for a variety of reasons. Personally, I’ve given up on the suicidal among us. The problem is, they want to take the rest of us down with them.
Hillel is poster child for elitist, arrogant blindness. This elitist arrogance (i.e., it’s smarter and more tolerant than ‘those other Jews’) allows Hillel to sink the knife into Zionism without realizing the blade is also sinking into its own back. Messianism is a drug mortals shouldn’t partake of – it never ends well. (Ask an Austrian house painter.)
Abe Miller’s article on the situation at UC Berkeley’s Hillel, and the fact that the greater Jewish community is in denial about all that is occurring there, is a “must read!”
How long will it take before our community wakes up? Our students need to know that they are being duped and they need to understand the ramifications of such a state, whether they are Jews or non-Jews. Once the Hillel board and their funders understand that they must act to reverse this dangerous trend, maybe we will see something good from this state of student affairs.
Susan Somerville: I wish I shared your optimism.
A fantastic piece! I fear the University lacks an intelligent, sensible, and realistic dialogue concerning the state of Israel.
Real jews, at Berkeley, go to Chabad. “Unjews” go to Hillel.
To Mr. Miller and Whoever It May Concern:
My name is Stephanie Cohen and I am a second year Political Science major at UC Berkeley. I am an active board member on the Jewish Student Union, the Berkeley Hillel representative to the East Bay Jewish Community Relations Council, and a member of Hillel’s First Year Network, a group that meets weekly to make dinners, plan events, and get Jewish Freshman involved in the greater Jewish community at Cal.
I find it highly offensive to label the entire student community at Hillel anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish, considering what each and every one of us has to fight on a daily basis. While there have been some mistakes made by the Hillel staff in the past, we have a brand new executive director, a Rabbi, who has made it his mission to make all Jewish students feel at home in Hillel. I would like to address some of the fallacies and misrepresentations you have made of our community:
1. Any student, Jewish or otherwise, is welcome at Hillel and the staff encourages us to bring our non-Jewish friends to weekly BBQ and Shabbat dinner—there is no official “roster” of Hillel students, so to say that “Hillel students” participated in Israel Apartheid Week doesn’t actually speak about a tangible group of students, especially considering that many other “Hillel students” actively boycotted the event
2. I, and no other student I have ever talked to, have been told not to demonstrate on behalf of Israel or been cautioned that the Israeli flag is offensive or militaristic. Point of fact–the JSU includes a group called the Israel Action Committee, which promotes everything from Israeli culture to American/Israeli Policy
3. Kesher Enoshi is a JSU sponsored group that participates in the discussion, but in no way controls the budget nor the minds of JSU board members. In fact, they approached the JSU for money to fund and co-sponsor a musical event co-sponsored by the Students for Justice in Palestine, but we voted as a board NOT to sponsor such an event .
4. The JSU bylaws state that any Berkeley student registered on our list serve may vote in the JSU election. This is done so as not to dissuade Jewish students from participating in the election. Many of us were not pleased that members of SJP showed up to vote in our election (only 3 of them could actually vote), but the bylaws do not currently prevent them from doing so. JSU members are currently looking into ways to amend the bylaws so that such an event does not take place again, while not discriminating against any student.
5. The alleged Hillel activists that you mention in your article are people who I have personally never even heard of. If you want to look at student leadership why don’t you mention Tara Raffi, our current JSU president–a former ASUC senator, current ASUC senator and AIPAC cadre member Noah Stern, or Jon Lavian, our next JSU president.
I think what irks me so much about this article is that you fail to mention the hundreds of Jewish students involved in Hillel who are fighting anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiments on a daily basis on this campus. Only a few weeks ago I attended an event hosted by SJP who invited Alice Walker to speak on the Palestinian issue. While there, I listed to members of this organization target “rich Zionists with their lawyers” and a woman who makes up bogus allegations about abuses committed by the IDF, denies the right of Israel to exist, and was quite frankly, a condescending and ignorant person. I attended this event, and even asked Alice Walker a question, so that the a Jewish voice could be heard amongst all the hatred.
Berkeley Hillel does represent “the definition of Jewish values”. It is a safe space where I feel at home, a place that welcomes all and celebrates the Jewish American identity. And like each and every person and organization, Jewish or otherwise, is not perfect and can continually strive to be better. I am proud to spend three days a week a Berkeley Hillel, eating dinner, hanging out with friends, doing service projects, and continuing the dialog of what it means to me to be a Jew.
As a Berkeley Jewish AND Zionist student who is active in Hillel, Chabad, and various other Jewish institutions on campus (and not the loony ones), I have to take fault with some of this article. It oversimplifies the situation and draws conclusions that aren’t there. Hillel is NOT the problem. Extremist students and organisations are. While I disagree strongly with allowing such groups into Hillel, the decision to do this rests on an individual, not Hillel staff, and to assume that everyone is complicit avoids the problem.
Additionally, let me address the issue of the Valentine’s Day debacle. I began the outcry at the depiction of an Orthodox couple as potentially scary, without giving the creator (a good friend of mine) the benefit of the doubt. It’s not what she intended, and certainly I see absolutely NO comparison to Islamist suicide bombers. While I realise that Hillel’s PR front has constantly used such statements from me to whitewash the issue and deny that there is no anti-religious culture existent (which is true), the fact stands that in this instance, the reaction is far blown out of proportion.
My response is this: the allowance of SJP into Hillel is deplorable, and must be stopped. On other fronts, however, we’re really trying to reform things: for pro-Israel students, religious students, et al.
I am an Anglo/American Jew that made Aliyah to Israel six years ago and am very happy with my new life there.
I think that the most important thing regarding this article, Glick’s and similar ones, is to separate Anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiments and actions.
They are completely different!
One only has to look at the Israeli left-wing rag (#5 in terms of circulation) HaAretz, which promotes N.Tel Aviv self-hating Jews that are supposedly intellectuals, to understand anti-Israeli Jews.
Not only is it anti-Israel but it blocks talkbacks from people with opposing views!
This is very bad for Israel because many overseas readers are unaware of the censorship.
Much as I personally loathe the newspaper and it’s editors, I cannot say however that it is anti-Semitic.
I see nothing fundamentally wrong with Jews anywhere objecting to various Israeli government policies, and at least half of Israeli’s object to them too.
If I remember the anecdote correctly, Nixon told Golda, “You have no idea what it’s like being the President of 250 million citizens, to which Golda replied, “You have no idea what it’s like being the Prime Minister of 4 million Prime Ministers.
What I got mostly from the article is that Jews in general, and Jews in particular that donate to Hillel, should become far more active, and they should put pressure on Hillel and other groups and organizations that are being taken over by anti-Semitic groups.
Mike
Can we just drop a couple BLU-82B Daisy Cutters or MOABs on Berkley, CA and just be done with the place? The amount of perpetual stupidity that comes from that place is just unreal.
Stephanie Cohen: Thank you for writing and for providing an opportunity to further expand on the outrage that Hillel has become. At no point did I allege that “all” Hillel students were anti-Israel and anti-Zionist. It is because there are Hillel students that are pro-Israel and pro-Zionist and do not think that being an observant Jew should be a source for denigration that I and others in our community are aware of what Hillel has become, something incidentally that has taken on such proportions that Berkeley Hillel’s bad behavior has been the source of material for the Jewish Telegraph Agency and the Jerusalem Post. Having inaccurately characterized what I said, you then launch a series of smug and self-righteous denials which might represent your view of the world but hardly represent what has and continues to happen at Hillel. Yes, there are many great people in Hillel, and I am fortunate to know some of them. There are many great people in this community who have been involved with both Hillel and the Berkeley campus for decades , and they are not only knowledgeable of what Hillel is but also what it has become. They admire students like you who are on the front lines, but would part company with your over your characterization of what is going on at Hillel. Just because you and your friends did not have certain experiences does not mean they didn t exist. The characterization of Israel and the Israeli flag as militaristic, for example,is well known and well documented on the Internet. I also have that information from students. You conspicuously ignore how Hillel and the organized Jewish community prejudged and then abandoned the Hillel students who got into a physical altercation with the Palestinians. At Berkeley, Jews who fight back are guilty for not being victims.
You claim to not know of Aboody and Haritan, students prominent in Hillel who went over to the Palestinian cause. I can only presume there is simply much about the history of Hillel and its current relationship to the larger community that you don’t know. Incidentally, Aboody and Haritan, according to someone who has been involved with Hillel for decades, are just the tip of the iceberg.
Pro-Zionist Hillel students would never be invited into vote on the budgetary process for Students for Justice in Palestine. Attempts to infiltrate Hillel have been ongoing for years; why has nothing yet been done about it? What would have happened to Hillel if Kesher Enoshi had successfully taken over the JSU with the voting assistance of their pro- Palestinian friends? Why is Kesher Enoshi, with its support for the SJP and its anti-Zionism (despite what it says) still in Hillel?
Will Kesher Enoshi encourage the SJP to put on a program on suicide bombing or on Hamas’ war crimes in Gaza during operation Cast Lead? I attended Daniel Pipes’ lecture some years back, a lecture that required a phalanx of police, in and outside the building and was continually and obscenely disrupted by a gaggle of Muslims, Palestinians and leftists, from organized campus groups representing these identities. After we exited the building, this opposition formed a gauntlet through which we had to walk because of the way the campus police forced us to exit. They screamed obscenities in our faces, spat on people, and were physically threatening. These reincarnations of the Hitler Youth have no place in Hillel. And those who would partner with them have no place in Hillel.
If things have changed so much, why did your new rabbi try and have destroyed the photos of the SJP people who participated in the SJU election? What leadership is he providing to keep the thugs out of Hillel?
Your writing echoes sentiments that have been organized and sent to the Jerusalem Post to undermine Caroline Glick’s writings. I would guess that you have been influenced by our quislings downtown. Deny everything, trivialize,whitewash, pressure, and throw Hillel students who defend themselves, with force from force, to the wolves.
At the same time, I applaud you being in the front lines of an antisemitic campus. I only wish our Jewish leaders would get their heads out of the sand and provide some real leadership. Perhaps, your generation will do better. In my judgment, the people who currently give you direction are a disgrace. At the first hit of controversy, you will find yourself with a knife in your back as did the three Hillel students who decided not to be physically abused by Palestinian thugs.
When Hillel helped to have Nonie Darwish’ speech cancelled I vowed never to support Hillel again.I suggest Jewish students join Christians for Israel and get some real support.
I was just getting ready to write a check for my annual contribution to Hillel. Having belonged to Hillel in college and have been happy to support it for many years. After reading this and other linked material I will not be sending any contribution this year. Maybe never.
It is wonderful that young minds, like the sponges they are reputed to be, absorb everything around them. Unfortunately, this is done without judgment. We could have a discourse on all that is wrong with the world, whether Israel is too aggressive or not aggressive enough, whether Muslims are really wonderful people and just a few are nut jobs, whether young Palestinians have any idea of how they have been and continue to be screwed over by their so called leaders, or not, etc. However, it seems to me, after my many decades on the planet, that all that conversation is a waste of time. The ‘inconvenient reality’ is that as Jews you need to learn that the world is genetically infused with anti-Semitic sentiment and more importantly, all these pals of yours in the Palestinian movement want Israel wiped off the face of the map and you along with it. The sooner these Liberal Jewish students and their misguided leaders learn that lesson the less energy one will waste on dreams that will never, ever come true. As Golda said, “We will have peace when the Arabs love their children more than they hate ours.” Guess what? That is not to be in your lifetime. Sad, but true. So get real.
Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism – period.
the typical leftist American Jew is a Jew in name only. Rarely, if ever do they publicly espouse cultural or religious recognition of their faith and heritage.
They simply use their genetics as a political powerplay
This is precisely why I don’t go to Hillel.
Could being a Jew in the bay area be any weirder?
Ken Kramarz is very much part of the problem. He has no business heading Berkeley Hillel. There should be an organized movement to clean house in Berkeley Hillel. Most of the Hillel members are, I believe, against what Kramarz & Co. are doing.
I wrote about Hillel being infiltrated by Palestinian groups in my articles Solidarity with Terror at Frontpagemag.com , Inside Duke’s Hatefest and The Divestment Conference at Georgetown. At these meetings the ISM openly discussed ways to infiltrate and take over Hillel and how to use Jewish money to further the PLO cause, now Hamas’s cause. I organized DAFKA.org and we were very successful on campus, until a few radical leftists and a letist Hillel director got the students to vote us and the ZOA off campus at a meeting we were not advised about so we could not vote for ourselves. At Duke, the ISM had a session where they discussed infiltrating every Jewish organization in America led by two ignoramuses from Jews Against the Occupation in New York.
Neither knew anything about Judaism but had sinecures working for the Arabs. Ken Kramarz should be fired. But whoever hired such a putz should also be fired. The solution is simple: require that Hillels support Israel regardless of outside influences. If they are unwilling to do this, then Hillel should have a “no politics”
policy and stick to folkdancing and shabbat dinners so Jewish boys and girls can marry. The management and students are too immature to understand when they are infiltrated to be misinformed and proselytized.