An Historical Reconciliation
As a certain segment of our readership never fails to remind us, New Voices doesn’t usually provide a cheerily positive perspective on the Jewish establishment. Inspired by our historical role of presenting critical student voices, our pages focus on the shortcomings and flaws of the major Jewish institutions. As our readers know, Hillel has been a special object of our criticism.
How curious an experience, then, to set up a New Voices booth at Hillel’s annual staff conference on the day that they invite “partner institutions” to promote their programs directly to the hundreds of Hillel staff members. It’s a bitter moment for a publisher of the Jewish Student Press Service, the last of the many independent student-run Jewish organizations that, just over a decade ago, provided a significant alternative to the Jewish institutional structure on campus.
The day offered an opportunity to reflect on the role of independent Jewish initiatives in the context of a consolidated Jewish campus life. Despite my preconceptions, my conclusions were more positive than I expected.
The setting, a beautiful waterfront hotel in Baltimore, betrayed an air of arrogant professionalism that felt distant from the student life I’ve known. And yet, the breadth of receptions I received from the Hillel staff caught me off guard. Some stopped by my booth to tell me that their students devour our articles as soon as the magazines arrive. Others told me that content we’ve published is disrespectful and unbalanced. A few said that they miss when New Voices was “more fun” (frankly, I think we’re more fun than ever), and that the topics we write about now are “over the heads” of their students.
The responses, I realized, were emblematic of the diversity within Hillel. Each individual Hillel has leadership, students, and priorities of its own. Some campuses have large professional staffs and big budgets. This can make it harder for students to start up projects or to dissent from the leadership politically, spiritually or otherwise, but can also create spaces big enough to house multiple conflicting viewpoints under one roof. Some campuses are notoriously conservative, some notoriously liberal; some are so small that the only staff member is an unpaid faculty advisor and students run everything. So while a big umbrella Hillel exists, it really comes down to individual communities of staff and students working together.
There will always be a strong mainstream, and there will always be Jews on the fringes, but the American concept of “big tent” Judaism means that being a Jew (on or off campus) doesn’t have to mean anything in particular. Like the American Jewish community at large, most Hillels with a good number of Jews on campus contain smaller groups that reach out to Jews of every kind: Jews of color, converts, LGBT Jews, irreverent Jews, environmental Jews, activist Jews, ex-religious Jews, increasingly religious Jews, and so on. More and more, Hillels make space for everyone.
The independent Jewish student initiatives may change form because of Hillel’s dominance, but they will always exist; within Hillel, or without. Like the American non-profit industry in general, today’s initiatives look more organized and more corporate than they did in the 1970s. Students who want to launch an organization don’t necessarily start with meetings in a basement and bake sales to raise funds. They organize on the Internet and apply for grants. They ask their Hillel directors to host their events and if the answer is no, they are savvy enough to go elsewhere. It’s true that the Jewish student movement doesn’t look like it did in the 1970s, but maybe that’s not a bad thing. Today, Jewish students have more opportunities than ever before.
