On July 3, Open Hillel sent out a press release announcing its 6 recommendations for Hillel International’s new student-led Israel Strategy Committee: Amelia Dornbush, Gabriel Erbs, Andrew Farkash, Catie Stewart, Holly Bicerano, and Justin Szasz. According to the release:
All the recommended students are deeply involved in their local Jewish communities. They come from college campuses across the United States, and have a broad range of views about Israel/Palestine. Some are not directly involved in Open Hillel, while others serve on the Open Hillel Steering Committee.
We value the Jewish community’s diversity very highly, and want our recommendations to reflect that” said Open Hillel communications coordinator Emily Unger. “So we were thrilled when students with a wide variety of political perspectives on Israel/Palestine, including both Zionists and Non-Zionists, were elected.”
Although the nominees have a wide range of political views, they are united in their support for Open Hillel’s principles of openness and transparency. They intend to bring these values to the committee and, alongside the Open Hillel campaign, look forward to engaging the wider Jewish community in these discussions. “We want to be accountable to our fellow students,” said Amelia Dornbush, one of the nominees. “That can only happen if they know what is going on.”
Upon receiving the release, New Voices spoke with Emily Unger, who said her organization was asked by Hillel International to recommend 5-6 students but was not clear on how many other student organizations would be included, how many students would end up on the committees, or what the selection process would be when they submitted their recommendations. For clarification, I contacted David Eden, Chief Administrative Officer of Hillel International, who said that although Open Hillel is the only organization that has thus far been contacted, his office is open to suggestions from any student or student group interested in making recommendations, and will be more proactive in soliciting recommendations once the school year begins again and students are more active. He added that there is no set number of positions on either the Student Cabinet or the Israel Strategy Committee and the process by which students will be selected is still under review, stressing that Hillel strongly encourages “every Hillel student or student group who cares about the future of American Jewish college students, the state of Israel, and the global Jewish people” to submit recommendations.
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I applaud Open Hillel’s choices, but with a caveat. Though I can personally vouch for half of the nominees and say they are solid choices representing a range of progressive views on Israel, it worries me that half are not Zionist, a statistic that is completely unrepresentative of campus Jewish communities, those centered around Hillels in particular. For her part, Unger said her organization used “the most open and inclusive process” they could for choosing nominees, while acknowledging that they “do only include individuals who support Open Hillel’s message of open dialogue and inclusion.” Obviously, Open Hillel can’t be expected to nominate people who disagree with its mission, but their list is still too unrepresentative to be the complete board. To their credit, Unger’s statements indicate that Open Hillel also realizes this, and those who saw Open Hillel as a ruse to force anti-Zionist views onto Jewish college students should take note. The only way to ensure a truly acceptable, truly representative student cabinet is for as many organizations as possible to submit recommendations and put pressure on Hillel International to make sure that it ultimately chooses a board that is both truly qualified and truly representative. Once the mechanisms are in place and the decisions made, we expect Hillel to be as transparent as possible about the process.
The question is: How many representatives will it take to make a truly representative student body? 6? 10? 100? It sometimes feels as though you would need one for every Jewish student.
Derek M. Kwait graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and is editor in chief of New Voices.
