J-Street @ PENN


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Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 9:46 PM
Subject: FW: Hillel and JStreet

Dear Rabbis Alpert and Brochin,

While I have a great deal of respect and affinity for yourselves and PENN Hillel generally, I have to stand on my own principles and will not be donating to PENN Hillel this calendar year.

The principles at stake, for me, are two-fold. The first is, as, Gabe describes, J- Street does not, to my mind, conform to the criteria Hillel itself has laid out. I am not aware of any position that J-Street has staked out to differentiate itself as being more supportive than Fatah of Israel.

The second is more fundamental. Your stated “concern is keeping college students around the Jewish table, engaged in the Jewish conversation.” I have to stand for the principle that Jewish-ness is not completely devoid of content. If there is to be any minimal boundary to “Jewish conversation” then Hillel is not the place for J-Street.

Finally, it would be very disheartening to me were it true that the only way to not Jewishly alienate these many students is to give platform to these “morally deficient” views. These students are surely no more one dimensional than is our heritage. Would it really not be possible, or effective, to communicate respectful, sympathetic, but firm disagreement with these sort of views, while finding other, authentically and richly Jewish avenues to engage and embrace these students?

Respectfully,

Marc

If there is a comment to make here, it is regarding the tragedy of today's leaders, having experienced, in the 60s, the communal costs of being too insecure to allow meaningful diversity of opinion, leading, instead, towards a community too insecure to minimally stand up for its values. What is it that makes the common-sense middle ground so difficult to uphold?