ADVERTISEMENT

J Street Litters During Hillel Protest

Student activist: ‘This wouldn’t fly at Brown’

March 23, 2015

A group of college students attending J Street's annual conference held a protest outside of the Hillel International headquarters and were joined by an activist group involved in the movement to boycott Israel.

The J Street attendees gathered outside of Hillel, located just blocks away from the venue for the J Street conference, where they listened to a speech from Benjy Cannon,  president of J Street U, the group's college campus wing.

Cannon criticized Eric Fingerhut, Hillel International’s CEO and president, for his decision to decline an invitation to speak at the conference, which he called a "massive failure of Jewish communal leadership."

Following the speech, the students were ordered by protest organizers to place signed letters to Fingerhut in a box and to put Post-it notes on the windows of Hillel that complained that Fingerhut "cancelled on us."

Due to the windy conditions, many of the Post-its immediately flew off the windows, leading one student activist to complain that the littering "wouldn’t fly at Brown."

IMG_20150323_123615061
Post-its that would later blow off the window and on to the street / Brent Scher

The letter from J Street U to Fingerhut said that despite J Street "being an integral part of the Jewish and pro-Israel communities on campus, and despite our tireless work to ensure Israel’s future, you were still unwilling to publicly engage with us at our conference," according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

It also called for an "on-the-record meeting between the J Street U National Student Board and Hillel International’s Board of Directors before the start of the 2015-2016."

The letter also stated that J Street U would return to the Hillel headquarters at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday to receive a response to its letter.

J Street U was joined at the protest by Open Hillel, a group working to get Hillel to open its doors on campuses to activists for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks the destruction of Israel.

Open Hillel activists at J Street protest / Brent Scher
Open Hillel activists at J Street protest / Brent Scher

Open Hillel protesters posed in front of the Post-it covered building with a banner at the conclusion of the event.

College campuses have become the main battle ground for BDS activists in the United States, and Hillel has made it a policy that it will "not partner with, house, or host organizations, groups, or speakers" that support the BDS movement.

J Street has stated that it also "strongly opposes" the BDS movement.

After students were finished posting their messages on Hillel, they were shepherded back to the conference to hear a speech from White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough.

Published under: Israel , J Street