more love for y-love
you know — if you’re in montreal….
because everyone’s favorite Bostoner Hasidic hip-hop phenomenon is much too modest to post this himself.
(but check out the modesty in those eyes….)
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Hillel takes action w/Guster, JDub, and all of Los Angeles
In college? Like the beach and warm weather in November? November 12 (conveniently timed to coincide with the GA), join Hillel, JDub, and more than 1,000 other students for JUST For a Day, to take to the streets and beaches of Los Angeles for a one-day social-justice blitz that will make a difference in lives of Angelinos.
The day culminates with a FREE show by Guster and The LeeVees at the Henry Fonda Theater.
Meet students from all over the west coast, volunteer your time and learn about the issues affecting LA. Organizations with volunteer opportunities include:
P.A.T.H. (People Assisting the Homeless)
Heal the Bay
Los Angeles Regional Food Bank
Venice Family Clinic
Beit T’shuvah
Downtown Women’s Center
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Buses will be traveling to/from the following Hillel’s:
USC, UC IRVINE, UC RIVERSIDE, UCLA, CSUN, SD State, UCSD, UC Berkeley, UCSB, Long Beach, Occidental, Claremont, and UofA. For more information and to register check out JUST For a Day
JDub doesn’t often get the opportunity to produce FREE events, and we’re particularly excited for this one. See you there.
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Hillel Leaders: It’s Not About Anti-Semitism
The Chronicle reports that some Hillel leaders aren’t so interested in bitching about anti-Semitism:
“The troubling question for me,” said Chaim Seidler-Feller, executive director of the Hillel chapter at the University of California at Los Angeles, is, “‘Why can’t we hear the good news? Why are many Jews hysterical?’ We seem to be junkies for anti-Semitism.”“Our Jewish knowledge is quite meager,” he continued. “Our positive experiences are so rare that we rely on anti-Semitism to sustain our Jewishness.”
He acknowledged that anti-Semitism does exist on campuses but reminded the 40 or so people who attended this session in a hotel conference room here that campuses are experiencing a “golden age” of Jewishness, with a significant number of Hillel chapters, university presidents and professors who are not only Jewish but identify themselves as such, and a plethora of Jewish periodicals and books published by university presses. Jewish intellectual activity, he said, is “celebrated and embraced.”
More.
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Universities oh my
An interesting mix of media coverage populates the internet today, from the coverage of the rise of secular Jewish cultural programs in universities throughout the country, to the release of a report stating the need that NYU Hillel’s be more “welcoming” to undergraduates who have one Jewish parent, to the extensive coverage of “Inspiring Values, Creating Leaders: The Summit on the University and the Jewish Community,†hosted this week in DC by Hillel. The conference drew more than 600 university leaders, professors, students and Jewish professionals to talk about yes–one of jewschool’s favorite talking points–how to reinvigorate Jewish life into Jewish youth culture.
What stood out the most in reading this coverage was, not only that Hillel pledged to double its numbers over the next five years including “double its annual campaign; double its funding to local Hillels; and launch an aggressive recruitment and retention program for campus professionals,” but also that the Charles and Lynn Schusterman International Center will increase its endowment from $10 million to $100 million.
Unbelievable! $100 million!!!
Now I don’t know about you, but Hillel on my campus was far from innovative, embracing or capable of truly bringing in or meeting the needs of the breadth and depth of student life, and I don’t think that this has to do with money–inherently one institution will never be able to meet the needs of a population of people, however small or large, that varies extensively on a number of demographics, including region, class, language, race, political affiliation, background and upbringing, and the list goes on and on.
So what gives? The Schusterman’s seem to be busy with Hillel, recently supporting endeavors in Texas and DC.
So who is the Schusterman Fund?–well according to their website:
“The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation is dedicated to helping the Jewish people flourish by supporting programs throughout the world that spread the joy of Jewish living, giving and learning.”
The list of places that this foundation supports is unbelievable–from federations to colleges to the Jerusalem Open House, they’re across the map–Granted I’m not “in the know” about the foundation world, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of these folks before–and I’m wondering if maybe other folks haven’t either and if not, that maybe it’s time we start knocking on their door in Tulsa, and bring coverage like the New Voices recent article on JCPA and the bureaucracy of students trying to engage with a body that claims to “serves as the representative voice of the organized American Jewish community in addressing the mandate of the Jewish community relations field,†or a host of other examples about the barriers to reinvigorating Jewish life, and the need to, not just study the issues impacting Gen X and Gen Y, but to also allow us to build, define and cultivate communities by and for ourselves. And definitely not only through the halls of Hillel.
I’ve always wanted to visit Tulsa, OK.
Update: A Jewschool reader rightfully suggested that we should clarify, that Charles Schusterman passed away in 2000, and since then Lynn has continued to pursue the philanthropic course she first charted with her husband of 38 years. She is joined in this task by her daughter, Stacy Schusterman, the other director of the Foundation.
2nd UPDATE:Just got off the phone with the Schusterman Family Foundation, and indeed as Jeff Rubin, Associate Vice President for Communications of Hillel wrote in the comment roll, it is NOT the Family Foundation that is increasing its endowment to Hillel by ten. Rather, the Hillel’s headquarters was named after the Schusterman’s after they gave an endowment to help build the center. A bit confusing with the names for sure, but, nonetheless, apologies for continuing to feed this confusion between the foundation, and Hillel’s international center, on Jewschool.
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GW Hillel director brands Palestinian activist a “terrorist”
Upheaval on the GW campus: Fadi Kiblawi, a Palestinian rights activist, is threatening to sue GW’s Hillel chapter after its director Robert Fishman branded Kiblawi a terrorist/terror supporter in an e-mail distributed to the Hillel listserv. An advocate of divestiture and “the one state solution,” Kiblawi has previously been arrested by Israeli security forces for participating in ISM demonstrations within the occupied territories.
In a rebuttal to Fishman’s allegations, Kiblawi (who is also contributes to the Arab group blog KABOBfest), wrote:
The damage that the Hillel e-mail has caused to my reputation and my personal life has been debilitating. However, I am not a vindictive person. I believe that Hillel is an important social and spiritual center for Jewish students on campus. My principal concern at this point is to have my name cleared of the entirety of Hillel’s public allegations, which have now gained much currency on blogs and sites throughout cyberspace. I therefore ask Fishman to send a mass organizational e-mail repudiating his erroneous claims and apologizing immediately. However, if he declines to do so, he has left me with no choice but to pursue other options to exonerate myself – i.e., via legal means.
Some Hillel members have echoed Kiblawi’s concerns, including Will Dempster, senior editor of The Hatchet (GW’s campus paper), who labeled Fishman’s remarks “repugnant.”
I’ve contacted both Fishman and Kiblawi for further comment…
[Update] See, sh*t like this looks pretty ugly (even if the “journalist” is a nutjob). If anything, Kiblawi comes across as a monumental dick whose passion for his cause gets the best of him time and again. However, I don’t know if Fishman’s got any evidence to support his claim that Israel considers Kiblawi a terrorist. Getting arrested for civil disobedience does not make you a terrorist.
Further, Rick Dorfman (whose campus Zionist group is funded by Aish HaTorah and the ZOA) did indeed file a lawsuit against U Mich with the assistance of everso-psychotic Frontpage contributor Debbie Schlussel (who is currently crusading against cleavage). In it he cited an affidavit submitted by one David Herz claiming to have heard conference participants chanting “charad al-yahud.” However apart from his, and one other biased pro-Israel activist’s testimony, there is no evidence to support the charge — or specifically the claim that Kiblawi himself was involved in, let alone led the chanting (a claim which neither Herz or Dorfman make, but Fishman does). Which is not to say the chanting didn’t happen — it may very well have happened. There’s just no solid evidence to prove it and is thus an irresponsible charge to make.
While Kiblawi is mentioned in Dorfman’s lawsuit, it is only for his essay “A Perspective on Palestine while High on Vicodin,†the title of which conveys, if anything, the impression that the contents were expressions of a drug-addled imagination. You wouldn’t read the fantasies of Burroughs in Naked Lunch or Thompson in Fear & Loathing literally. Even if troublingly consistent with Kiblawi’s other statements and behavior, it can not be taken as a serious expression of his desire.
Finally, Kiblawi did cover for USF professor Sami Al-Arian claiming, in a debate with Dorfman on CNN, that Al-Arian had been cleared of any wrongdoing by the FBI. Shortly thereafter Al-Arian was indicted for helping Islamic Jihad orchestrate terror attacks which took the lives of over 100 civilians, including two American students. He was ultimately cleared of those charges (as were his codefendants) and now remains in custody awaiting trial on additional charges that he organized US fundraising operations for Islamic Jihad. This, however, was not actually a crime until 1996, when Islamic Jihad was officially listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, and therefore he cannot be prosecuted for any activities prior to then. Yes, I know better, you know better, we all know better — we’ve seen what Islamic Jihad hath wrought on the Israel. But in a free society, a man is innocent until proven guilty, and Kiblawi cannot be considered a supporter of terrorism for stating the inconvenient fact that Al-Arian is not a convicted terrorist.
Therefore, in essence, all of Fishman’s claims are erroneous. And while that shouldn’t exactly let Kiblawi off the hook, because I get the feeling he’s not the Jew-friendly pascifist he claims to be, Fishman should apologize, and campus Israel activists across North America should take notice. Slander may be effective in marginalizing Israel’s opponents among some audiences, but it can have the opposite effect in others, as it legitimizes claims of Zionist bullying. Fishman’s rallying cry should have focused, not on Kiblawi as a personality, but on divestiture and why it is both discriminatory and diplomatically ineffective. Fight the position, not the person. Do it with humility and grace, calmly and coherently, and you just might win the argument. Otherwise you’re going to be embarassed. And Fishman should feel embarassed right now.
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