On the December issue:

Hillel Responds

To the Editor:
Josh Tolle’s unsubstantiated and inaccurate characterizations of Hillel are flat-out wrong at virtually every turn (“If Hillel Is Not for Jews, Who Will Be?” December). Tolle fundamentally misunderstands and misconstrues Hillel’s mission and work—our unapologetic pluralism is core to who we are and how we inspire deeper Jewish involvement in ways as diverse as the students we serve. His mis-assessment of Hillel’s current trajectory is completely divorced from reality: The Hillel movement is stronger than ever, as validated by our record-high levels of student engagement and participation in each of the past three years. Tolle also ignores the fact, stated clearly and unequivocally, that Hillel is a proudly Zionist organization, delivering Jewish students unmatched opportunities for Israel engagement, education, and leadership for decades.

While Tolle gets one thing right in saying “I’m fortunate to have worked with brilliant and committed people during the Israel–Hamas war in particular,” he fails to acknowledge the more than 1,200 other brilliant and committed Hillel professionals, whose work he has insulted through his careless musings. They have been tireless in protecting and supporting Jewish students in the face of historic levels of campus anti-Semitism, another reality Tolle ignores and obfuscates. It is truly an affront to the incredible work of Hillel professionals, student leaders, and lay leaders to suggest otherwise. 

If you’re looking for additional validation of Hillel’s impact, simply speak to a cross section of the 189,000 students who were involved in Hillel last year. Or some of the 70,000 who participated in Hillel Shabbat and holiday experiences. Or the 50,000 Jewish students who traveled with Hillel to Israel over the past 10 years. Or the 10,000 students who engage in text-based Jewish learning through Hillel. Or the 1,200 current Hillel professionals who, unlike Tolle, have a clear understanding of our mission and strategic approach and a strong passion for our community.  

Since, contrary to the click-bait title, Hillel is strongly for the Jews, the question is: Who is the author for?
Adam Lehman
President and CEO,
Hillel International
Washington, D.C.

Josh Tolle writes:
Adam Lehman musters only one real argument in his letter to the editor, and it’s not a counterargument to anything I wrote. Hillel’s pluralism is comically apologetic and its Zionism distinctly wavery, as I documented in my article and as Lehman has done nothing to disprove. If I had argued that students, en masse, don’t like Hillel, I would have opened myself up to Lehman’s rebuttal that Hillel’s numbers prove its success. But I didn’t argue that.

My article presupposes that Hillel is the big man on campus. That’s why its fate concerns me. American Jewry is suffering a spiritual crisis, and Hillel’s turn to progressivist faux-Judaism is symptomatic.

Luckily, Hillel’s predominance means you can do what Lehman suggests but doesn’t really want: learn from college students what Hillel means to them. To be sure, Lehman has a “cross section” of handpicked students he’d like you to speak to; Hillel’s comms team encourages them to write chipper op-eds and flatters them with invites to cool events. (I know this because these students talk to me.) But you can steer clear of the charm offensive by asking any unrepresentative Jewish college student in your life, “What’s your Hillel like?”

You may not even have to ask. Since Commentary published my article, I have had a steady stream of current and former students, staff, siblings, and parents reach out to share their stories. There was the story of the Hillel student-board president who quit when his Hillel refused to partner with the local community in bringing an IDF soldier to speak after October 7. There was the Israeli student who couldn’t stomach Hillel after the staff let an avowed anti-Zionist chair the student board. Some shared how Hillel turned them off before they even walked through the doors. “It’s not like I’m anti-something or other,” one student told me. “But if those are your signs,” he said, referring to the progressive political signage in the windows of his local Hillel, “you’re conflating politics and religion.”

At a recent conference, a mother shared her son’s story with me. As she described it, he was eager to get involved in Hillel when he started at a prestigious school in California. His rabbi back home had instilled in him the importance of Jewish life on campus. At the first Shabbat of the year, the first words out of the Hillel rabbi’s mouth were “I am so sorry for what is happening to the Palestinians.” He waited for her to mention the hostages in the ensuing rant. She never did. Eventually, he got up and left. “He hasn’t been back since,” his mother told me, tears welling in her eyes.

Few students will have stories as painful as that. Maybe your grandchild ended up at a school where the Hillel gets it more or less right. Maybe your niece or nephew connected with one Hillel staffer who made all the difference. Maybe your sibling didn’t have a Hillel experience at all. Or maybe your child has a story like the ones I have shared. The key thing is to ask.

The California student’s story has a sequel. Her eyes drying as she continued, his mother told me that he walked out the doors of Hillel, down the street, and into Chabad. No one was going to co-opt his Shabbat for a political agenda. At a certain point, amid the food, conversation, and songs, he told his mom, he looked around and noticed that many of the faces looked familiar. They belonged to people he had seen at Hillel. They had made the same journey down the street.

Horseshoe Anti-Semites

To the Editor:
John Podhoretz’s piece on left- and right-wing anti-Semitism goes right to the heart of the matter (“Kevin Mamdani and Zohran Roberts,” December). Good on him for telling the truth, unvarnished by insincere political niceties. The world needs to see that the Jewish people really aren’t going to take it anymore.

I’m both astonished and disheartened to see that we really are here again: Much of the world sees Jews as fair game once more. And in targeting the Jews, they feel all too certain that there will be no repercussions. 

Keep writing, speaking, and podcasting your message, and maybe one day soon there will be repercussions. God bless you and the Jewish people.
Gary Stokes
Bel Air, Maryland

To the Editor:
Thank you to John Podhoretz for writing the truth. Those preaching and normalizing anti-Semitism are, as he indicates, not ultimately of the right or left; they are a subterranean force trying to infest the world. We must continue to speak out against them.

Thanks again and keep up the outstanding work you and others do at Commentary.
Richard Olitsky
Fort Myers, Florida

From Lindbergh to Carlson?

To the Editor:
Mike Burke’s ringing defense of Western values and his rejection of anti-Semites and their fellow travelers bring a combination of passion and insight that is all too often lacking in American discourse. This said, I differ with Burke on one important point. He writes that the poison “once confined to the left’s fever swamps has now begun seeping into the right’s sanctuaries.” This statement is ahistorical and fails to address the full scope of the problem. The right has its own long-standing tradition of nativists and anti-Semites, quite independent of the left. There is a straight line from Charles Lindbergh to Pat Buchanan to Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes. This may be uncomfortable, but unless we understand and admit all aspects of the origin of the problem, we cannot hope to effectively fight it.
Stan Kaplan
Montgomery Village, Maryland

Mike Burke writes:
Stan Kaplan is right to insist that anti-Semitism on the American right has a long history. It has never been absent, and any defense of Western civilization must acknowledge that anti-Semitic currents have periodically surged within conservative politics. On that historical point, I do not disagree.

Where we may differ is on what is new about the present moment. For decades, right-wing anti-Semitism existed on the margins: real, ugly, and alarming, but politically disqualifying. It did not enjoy elite protection, institutional cover, or mainstream cultural amplification. We did not see right-wing mobs chanting against Jews or Israel on the campuses of America’s most prestigious universities, nor did anti-Semitic ideas circulate with impunity through major conservative platforms.

What has changed is not persistence, but promotion. In recent months, some of the most visible and influential figures in American conservatism—Megyn Kelly, Steven Crowder, Tucker Carlson—have not merely “flirted” with anti-Semitic actors such as Nick Fuentes. They have entertained them, legitimized them, and in some cases actively amplified anti-Semitic narratives to their audiences.

That represents a shift. Naming that rupture is not ahistorical. It is a prerequisite for stopping it before it metastasizes further still.

The Professor’s New Clothes

To the Editor:
Shai Goldman is correct on all points in his assessment of the American professoriat (“There Is No Blessing in This Poisonous Breeze,” December). There is, however, something else that should be noted. If the principles of natural law are correct, even these sadly misguided professors know deep in their conscience that rape, murder, and kidnapping are objectively evil. To paraphrase what Rabbi Saul of Tarsus wrote, these people have suppressed the truth, to their own undoing. Thinking themselves to be wise, they have become fools.
Paul Jensen
Dubuque, Iowa

To the Editor:
Shai Goldman’s clear analysis of the advancing irrationality in universities is insightful and disturbing. Recall that in “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” it took but a child to declare against the masses that indeed the emperor had no clothes. Bravo, Mr. Goldman, for standing up and calling out Columbia for its growing moral turpitude.
Suri Stern
Woodmere, New York