An Interview with the Jewish Educator Banned from UCSB Hillel

By New Voices January 14, 2014

David Harris-Gershon is a Jewish educator, author, speaker, and regular blogger for Tikkun Magazine.  He was recently asked by the Israel Committee of Santa Barbara to be a keynote speaker at its annual event, which was to be housed in the Santa Barbara Hillel building. He was going to speak about his book, What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist…

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Four Things You Don’t Know About the Swarthmore Hillel Controversy

By Derek M. Kwait January 9, 2014

  I have some reasonable propositions for how Hillel International should respond to the Swarthmore Hillel debacle based on four important facts missed by most other pundits on this subject. The first fact is that Swarthmore Hillel is uniquely financially independent. Swarthmore University has an endowment for all its religious groups on campus, and as…

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Hillel: To Strengthen Our Community, Transcend Narrow Discourse

By Asher Mayerson December 3, 2013

In their Israel Guidelines, Hillel International states that it “welcomes a diversity of student perspectives on Israel and strives to create an inclusive, pluralistic community.” But a recent New York Jewish Week op-ed co-written by new Hillel President and CEO Eric Fingerhut and AIPAC Leadership Development Director Jonathan Kessler calls into question Hillel’s commitment to…

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The Other Israel: The Garden of Eden

By Derek M. Kwait November 21, 2013

The 7th Annual Other Israel Film Festival, ending today at the JCC of Manhattan, presents films focused on the stories of the other 20% of Israel’s population such as Palestinians and other Arabs and Druze. The message of these films is powerful: There’s a whole other Israel out there than the one you see on…

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Open Hillel for an Open Hillel

By Gabriel T. Erbs October 23, 2013

The Midwest does not get enough credit for its foundational role in the American Jewish community. However, the first campus Hillel was established in 1923 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In an atmosphere where Jewish campus life was largely non-existent, the first Hillel marked a new age for American Jewish students who endured…

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Fifty Shades of J Street

By Derek M. Kwait October 21, 2013

It used to be, said a speaker at J Street U’s plenary session during the national J Street Conference, that students were expected to listen to learn from others. Now, he said, with the success of the fights for civil rights, marriage equality, unionizing, and women’s rights—all of which were led by student movements—the world…

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Teach Modern Hebrew

By Noah Westreich October 17, 2013

Jewish education in American synagogues is often compartmentalized into a curriculum: an hour of Judaic Studies and an hour of Hebrew, twice weekly. Judaic studies includes watered-down lessons on holidays and Torah stories. Mastery of the alef-bet, the Hebrew alphabet, is often all students gain from the Hebrew class. By the Bat/Bar Mitzvah  age of…

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On Israel Education

By pkessler March 15, 2012

Upon reading Mitchell Bard’s adamant opinion in the Jerusalem Post, I can’t help but wonder: other than the above advertising campaign, is there really a sure-fire way to ensure that Jewish kids grow up loving Israel? While Bard’s ideas are strong and convincing, he ignores several crucial truths. In modern America, it is so difficult…

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