Brown students break Hillel Standards of Partnership to discuss Nakba

Yesterday, despite its official cancellation, a group of Brown University students gathered at the Brown RISD Hillel building to watch three short films about the Nakba.

According to a statement from Sophie Kasakove, one of the event’s three organizers and a member-at-large of Open Hillel’s steering committee, the event had been in the works for five months before a co-sponsor, Brown Students for Israel, withdrew its support, triggering the cancellation.

“Without unanimous student group support for the event, our Hillel could no longer endorse the event in an official capacity. Then, after a student leaked information about the event to right-wing pro-Israel publications, security concerns made the gathering at the planned time and place unfeasible,” Kasakove said.

Because of these security concerns, the building was closed at 7 p.m., but this didn’t stop the more than 70 students from meeting three hours early to watch the films, produced by Israeli NGO Zochrot.

The event will likely have repercussions beyond just discussion of the Nakba, the 1948 expulsion and displacement of over 700,000 Palestinians from their homes. Kasakove said the event has prompted Brown RISD Hillel to “recognize its own lack of openness” and rework its guidelines on programming dealing with Israel and Palestine.

“These guidelines will not be in keeping with the guidelines published and enforced by Hillel International’s in their ‘Standards of Partnership,’ which have been used time and again to silence critical Jewish voices on Israel/Palestine,” Kasakove said.

“In order for Hillel to maintain its integrity as a pluralistic Jewish space, the community must embrace Jews who currently feel excluded from mainstream Jewish discourse and who seek to question dominant narratives about Israel.”

Open Hillel released a statement applauding the students for supporting “pluralism and open dialogue.”

“We hope that this event will set a precedent for pluralism and open discourse in Hillel chapters across the country,” the statement read.

“We call upon Hillel International to rescind its Standards of Partnership so as to enable Jewish students on campus to engage in difficult and important conversations, rather than trying to stop them from doing so.”

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