Hillel was established as a voice for Jewish students, but at a time when antisemitism is running rampant on our campuses, it has become weak and timorous. So argues Christopher Schilling in today’s Martin Center article.
He writes:
Earlier this month, Northwestern Hillel invited Pamela Nadell to speak as an expert on campus antisemitism. Nadell, a professor at American University, is probably best known for sitting beside Claudine Gay during the now-infamous congressional hearing at which university presidents refused to affirm that calling for genocide against Jews violated campus conduct codes. Instead of confronting the hostility directed at Jewish students, Nadell’s testimony that day spoke of “nuance,” “complexity,” and the need to avoid “overbroad definitions” of antisemitism — phrases that sounded less like a call to conscience than a defense of bureaucratic restraint.
Hillel chapters, the article observes, have become more interested in warm and fuzzy notions like “wellness” than in presenting and defending the learning and traditions of Judaism. The organization appears to be taking an “anything-goes approach to Jewish education.”