Hillel International

Hillel International has supported the state of Israel and maintains a policy prohibiting its chapters from partnering with organizations that oppose Israel.

Funding

In 2020, Hillel International generated almost $45 million in revenue. Hillel chapters receive funding from Hillel International, university administrations, and from local private fundraising. ^{2 3}

In 2016, Hillel International received $38 million from the Marcus Foundation. ⁴

In 2015, Hillel International received $16 million from the Jim Joseph Foundation, a group that supports Jewish education. ⁵

Hillel International has been supported by numerous prominent donors, including the late casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, real-estate investor Adam Milstein, the late oil businessman and philanthropist Charles Schusterman and his wife Lynn, and hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt. ⁶

Israel

Hillel International officially supports the state of Israel. In 2010, ⁶ Hillel International announced a policy that Hillel chapters are not permitted to partner with organizations that “deny” or “delegitimize” the “right of Israel to exist,” support boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, or have a history of disrupting campus activity that supports Israel. ⁷

Adam Lehman, the chief executive officer of Hillel International since 2015, has spoken at Israeli American Council events ⁸ and is a former board member of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, a pro-Israel group. ⁹

In 2015, Hillel International threatened legal action against Swarthmore College if it continued to host a local Hillel chapter that had repeatedly violated the Israel policy by hosting anti-Israel groups at events. The Swarthmore Hillel group changed its name, and because it was financed through the college, did not lose funding. Around the same time, Hillel groups at Harvard University and Oberlin College were forced to cancel events which featured anti-Israel speakers. ⁶

In 2016, Hillel International partnered with the Israeli government on Mosaic International, a $66 million initiative to promote pro-Israel sentiment in the United States. Hillel received $22 million from Mosaic. ³ Later in the year, Hillel International threatened to end its partnership over a proposed plan for the Israeli government to create a database of Jewish students in the United States. ^{10 11}

Open Hillel

Open Hillel is a student group dedicated to opposing aspects of Hillel International’s stance on Israel, including the prohibition on partnering with groups that oppose Israel. ¹² At least four Hillel chapters have declared themselves “open” in contradiction to Hillel International’s Israel policy. ³

In 2016, Open Hillel called upon Hillel International to reject Mosaic International because its funding came from then-Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett, who is a member of the right-wing Jewish Home party, which opposed same-sex marriage. ¹³

Other Criticisms

In 2014, John Judis at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace criticized Hillel International’s Israel policy as a “crackdown on open debate” and “bad news for American Jews.” ¹⁴

In 2015, left-of-center journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon Foreign Policy alleged that Israeli lobbyists had “captured” Hillel International over the previous 15 years. Ungar-Sargon wrote that Hillel International had originated as an apolitical organization and had no commitment to Zionism until Richard Joel became president in 1988. Joel transformed the funding structure of Hillel International to rely more on private funding from large donors, many of whom were strong supporters of Israel. The influence of these large donors grew until support for Israel became an official policy of Hillel International in 2010. ⁶

Other Activities

Campus Climate Initiative

Hillel International runs the Campus Climate Initiative which partners with university administrations to combat antisemitism on campus. A 2021 survey conducted by Hillel International and the Anti-Defamation League found that 43 percent of Jewish college students had witnessed or experienced antisemitism on campus. ¹⁵

Guide to Racial Justice Learning and Action

After the killing of George Floyd, Hillel International released a “statement in support of racial justice.” Hillel announced its support for the Black Lives Matter movement and intention to partner with black student groups on developing “professional training, educational resources for students.” ¹⁶

Hillel International later released the Guide to Racial Justice Learning and Action to teach Hillel members “how best to be allies” to ethnic and racial minorities who “remain in a state of substantial pain, turmoil, and fear” due to racism. The Guide is explicitly committed to “developing a multi-year plan for diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism, integrating these into the fabric of our organizational values, practices, and operations,” including “developing short and long-term measurable goals and strategies to combat racism and to diversify” the organization’s leadership. ¹⁷

Student Vote Choice

In October 2022, the Andrew Goodman Foundation announced it was partnering with the Anti-Defamation League, Deliver My Vote, the National Vote at Home Institute, the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education, and Hillel International on Student Vote Choice, a get-out-the-vote campaign targeted at students. The campaign said it would support establishing polling stations on college campuses, as well as the promotion of mail-in ballots. ¹⁸