Hillel, the primary Jewish campus organization in the U.S., has a policy of not “partnering” with groups that oppose Israel’s right to exist or that support the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement, or to host speakers with such agendas. Now the Open Hillel movement is campaigning to change this policy. While its supporters claim that they are working for freedom of speech and toleration of diverse opinions, Andrew Pessin argues they are likely to achieve the opposite:
[Hillel] offers no restrictions whatsoever on individuals. The most ardently anti-Israel Jewish students and professors are welcome to participate in Hillel events, attend their programs, and debate and defend their views to their hearts’ content. Hillel remains entirely “inclusive” of all Jewish students, regardless of their political beliefs, as it should be. . . .
[Furthermore, Hillel’s] restrictions are minimal and reasonable. Hillel does not limit the many criticisms of Israeli policies people may want to make, and is entirely open to individuals and speakers who genuinely seek to improve [Israel’s] policies through constructive criticism. It is merely off-limits to [groups and speakers] who seek, ultimately, to damage the state and destroy it. . . .
[W]hat campuses desperately need these days, far more than they need more anti-Israel voices, are places where pro-Israel voices can be cultivated. If you want the academy to be a place of genuine freedom of speech, a place where thoughtful and well-articulated and carefully conceived opinions get to battle in the marketplace of ideas, then you should want a place where pro-Israel voices can be nurtured. What Open Hillel seeks to do, to the contrary, is to take one of the few natural places to cultivate the pro-Israel voice on campus and dilute it, weaken it, diminish it, destroy it. They want Hillel to start looking more like J Street and Jewish Voice for Peace—without of course demanding that J Street and Jewish Voice for Peace start looking more like Hillel.
Read more on Times of Israel: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/an-open-letter-to-open-hillel/