What a novel idea. Take the community and religious stuff and add the Israel education and advocacy stuff because every competent person knows, Jewish students need that on college campus. This is especially important given the climate of the last few years, where antisemitism on college campuses is astronomical that there are actual lists of which universities are the most antisemitic and organization like the Canary Mission and AMCHA, actually work to document, expose, and educate others on this issue.

But of course, when you have two Jews in a room there are bound to be at least four opinions, so thus we have “The David Project Will Leave Many Students Out In The Cold,” written by Emily Strauss, a student at Penn State. Her claim is that this new merger and combination of these two groups will alienate certain Jewish students who are not supportive of Israel. Boo Hoo.  So bad. So sad–do we even really want them there anyway?

“I quickly learned that when it came to Israel, deep engagement with Jewish history and culture was not the focus at my Hillel. Instead, Penn State Hillel’s Israel programming seemed to focus on Israel “advocacy.” There were events celebrating the State of Israel, or Israeli cultural festivals featuring hummus and falafel. I had hoped for deeper engagement, yet we hardly ever scratched below the surface of an oversimplified image of Israel.

Hillel’s job wasn’t to promote political issues, it was simply about culture, and Birthright, thus they focused on community and cultural events at her university, based of her own note. Although each Hillel Branch does programming differently, but they all do Shabbat services,  holiday services, and other community events. But does little to provide Jewish education itself, something they could perhaps work on. Perhaps some Hillel branches do it better than others.

The David Project, which she describes as combative, is laughable, but to each their own opinion. Still, she calls this group a Right-Wing Bully, and the David Project statement she herself quotes exposes the reason for this merger, and the goal of the David Project, to work to rid campuses of antisemitism. She says “But regardless of whether or not The David Project is advocating in a combative approach, it is an Israel advocacy group, and the merger further reinforces the idea that Jewish life on campus and Israel advocacy are synonymous.” What’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with supporting your fellow Jews in their efforts to live peacefully in our own nation? For liberal Jews who constantly advocate for the rights of others to be able to live safely and securely, surely this has to also apply to us. To that extent why is educating Jewish students on Israel and empowering them with tools to counter misinformation so threatening?

The funny thing is, Ms. Strauss also adds the following to her article “The abandonment of the wider Jewish community in favor of the “pro-Israel community,” narrowly defined, is not surprising for those of us who have been paying attention.” By wider Jewish community, I assume she means exclusively the liberal/progressive Jewish community…who apparently only like working and talking to Jews who agree with their views.

In 2015, Eric Fingerhut, Hillel president and CEO, notoriously withdrew from the J Street U conference under pressure from Hillel donors, snubbing over 1,000 J Street U students; yet only a few months prior, Mr. Fingerhut had no problem attending the conference for Christians United for Israel (CUFI). Even more recently, Hillel expelled a Jewish LGBTQ student group at Ohio State University for co-sponsoring a fundraiser for queer refugees alongside 14 other campus and community organizations, because the campus chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, had organized the event.

The problem here is evident, firstly, that Christian United for Israel works to counter antisemitism on college campuses and helps to educate students on Israel, while J-Street cares very little about antisemitism, their fellow Jews, or Israel. Jewish Voices for Peace is neither Jewish nor in support of peace and I applaud Hillel for refusing to support an event this sickeningly-terrorist-loving-organization is hosting. It would be nice if liberal Jewis could educate themselves a little more on Israel and on the harm organizations like JVP present. Expelling it’s LGBT student group may not have been the best course of action, but disassociating from JVP is always a good move.

As a fellow secular-raised Jewish woman, by incredibly hard-working and smart parents who taught me to fight for my beliefs, to learn the facts, and to be proud of who I am, I was also raised with the awareness of the dangers of antisemitism experienced by my family and other Jews throughout history, as well as to recognize the need to support and defend Israel. Supporting Israel is not purely a religious idea, and has a secular basis, as Zionism was a secular movement, largely despised by religious Jews of Europe for many years after its founding. But even religious radicals like Naturei Karta are themselves anti-Israel. Israel is impossible to avoid in Jewish circles. JVP should know, they spend all their time demonizing it.

Emily Strauss calls for “Those who truly care about a bright and rich Jewish future must speak out now, and call on Hillel to recommit to fostering pluralistic Jewish life on campus that represents and includes all Jewish students.” The problem with this is that no organization or political or religious group can cater to everyone. No matter what Hillel does or doesn’t do, some Jewish student, or parent, will not be happy about it. This is a part of life. Hillel is also under no obligation to suddenly and magically abandon it’s more religious views, and it’s more conservative donors by standing in favor of useless and Israel hating movements like J Street and JVP.

It is sad to see left-wing Jewish students mad that Hillel has teamed up with another organization to fight antisemitism on college campuses and to support Israel education. I understand and agree that Jewish community engagement is not necessarily the same as Pro-Israel activity, but to believe that the two are in no way complementary to each other is sad and naive. I hope Ms. Strauss is open to an honest discussion and understanding of Israel and what it means to so many people, and why so many of us, Jewish, Christian, Conservative, Republican, even some Democrats, and others support it, or why antisemitism is as high on college campuses as it is.

The simple answer is that Ms. Strauss is more bothered by two organizations joining to solve a problem than she is by organizations that have helped the issue fester, wanting instead to have these harmful elements be included as part of the main Jewish community on college campuses across America.