Statement about Brandeis Hillel and JVP

The Progressive Jewish Alliance has released the following statement about the Brandeis Hillel's rejection of JVP as a member group:

On March 8th, 2011, the Brandeis University Hillel officially voted not to allow the campus chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) to become a member group. They based their decision on a National Hillel policy that bars groups advocating boycott, divestment, or sanctions of Israel from campus Hillels. Jewish Voice for Peace calls for divestment from companies that profit from Israeli settlements and does not endorse the Global BDS movement. As a Harvard Hillel organization that does not take a position on boycott, divestment, and sanctions, we nonetheless believe in informed and free discourse as the most effective means of conflict resolution. We recognize that Hillel serves as the center for Jewish life and community at many universities, as it does at Harvard, and demand that no such organization use political affiliation as a metric for evaluating a person's or group's "Judaism." Thus, we ask for National Hillel to change its policy and allow student groups advocating boycott, divestment, or sanctioning of the Israeli settlements to become members of campus Hillels to foster open discussion and free speech within the Jewish community.

Signed, The Harvard Progressive Jewish Alliance