On the Wesleyan Open Hillel Statement
Peter Eisenstadt

Congratulations to the Wesleyan Student Jewish Community in becoming an “Open Hillel,” willing to listen to all shades of Jewish opinion, and refusing to abide by Hillel International’s restrictive standards on what and what isn’t acceptable Jewish speech. And thanks to them for choosing The Jewish Pluralist as a forum for publicizing their decision.

The news today from Israel is grim. The Kerry negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians seem on the verge (or over the verge) of breaking down. While this development is not exactly unexpected—no gambler would have given odds on its success when it began–its failure may well be catastrophic. In any event, we will soon hear the familiar debates and the usual arguments, offered, perhaps with some additional urgency. Is this the final proof that the two-state solution is dead? (I say no, because there is no alternative to it, but this is a subject for another day.) Will this give new impetus to the BDS movement? Unquestionably. What about a new intifada, or new Israeli military action along its increasingly unsettled borders, to say nothing of the unresolved nuclear question with Iran? Or what about one unified, post-Zionist state from the Mediterranean to the Jordan? Jews and non-Jews have to be able to discuss these questions calmly and rationally, without certain positions being labeled as a priori unsayable and unspeakable.

We learned this week what happens when the American Jewish community denies itself the right to speak freely on Israel, when Republican presidential hopefuls came before oligarch Sheldon Adelson (America, and not only Russia, has oligarchs) seeking his blessing, and New Jersey governor Chris Christie, recanting more forthrightly than he ever did with his Fort Lee mess, apologized for using the forbidden words, “occupied territories” for territories (that is, lands with a different, inferior legal status from its controlling sovereign power) that have been under continuous military occupation since 1967. This is to say nothing of the insidious campaign that Alan Dershowitz and others continue to wage against J Street as being outside the pale of respectable Jewish opinion.
In this situation, we need to hear all the voices we can. The Wesleyan Hillel organization is to be applauded for their effort to broaden Jewish dialogue.