Hillel is stronger than it has ever been. Here’s why.
On November 13, the journal Commentary Magazine published a deeply flawed and misleading essay by Josh Tolle, who worked for brief stints at two Ohio Hillels. The essay and its click-bait claims bear little resemblance to the reality of who Hillel is, what we stand for, and what we have done to protect Jewish students on campus and to fulfill our vision of inspiring every Jewish student to make an enduring commitment to Jewish life, learning, and Israel.
To rebut each mischaracterization or misleading anecdote about Hillel and the work we do would take a blog post as long as Tolle’s article. But here are the facts about some of the key things Tolle gets wrong about Hillel.
- Hillel is stronger than ever. We measure our strength by our growth and impact in supporting Jewish college students — not by the off-base assessment of one of thousands of former Hillel staffers. The figures here are clear: This past academic year, we set a new record for the number of students we engage in Jewish life—189,000—for the third year in a row. Jewish students are coming to Hillels in droves because Hillel has unique expertise in delivering joyful, meaningful, and inclusive Jewish experiences; in fostering welcoming and warm Jewish communities; and in protecting Jewish students when they encounter anti-Jewish hate, bias, and discrimination.
- Our unapologetic pluralism is core to our success. At Hillel we welcome all Jews — from all backgrounds and levels of observance. And we are unapologetic about the diverse ways in which we empower students to engage in Jewish life and deepen their Jewish identities. The fact that the author sees our commitment to pluralism as a weakness, and not a strength, says more about him and his personal agenda than it does about Hillel.
- Hillel is a proudly Zionist organization. This is made abundantly clear to everyone who works with and for us. As official policy, Hillels will not host any speaker or partner with any organization that demonizes, delegitimizes, or advocates for the destruction of the Jewish State of Israel. It’s precisely because of our core commitments when it comes to Israel that anti-Zionist campus groups are waging vicious “Drop Hillel” campaigns against us. The author also fails to mention the countless ways that Hillel engages, educates, and empowers Jewish students when it comes to Israel, such as the more than 50,000 students who have traveled to Israel on Hillel-led trips in the past 10 years; our Israel Leadership Network and Hillel Israel Summit (the largest annual gathering of pro-Israel Jewish students in the world each year); the more than 100 Jewish Agency Shlichim (emissaries) Hillels proudly host to help students learn directly from Israelis about Israel; and the tens of thousands of students who participated last year in on-campus Israel educational and cultural programming with Hillel.
- Hillel has been at the forefront of fighting antisemitism on campus, especially after October 7th. It is flat-out wrong — and insulting — that Tolle accuses Hillel of not supporting Jewish students in combatting campus antisemitism. To the contrary, Hillel is the clear leader in doing so. As just a few examples of our leadership in this area: We co-founded the Campus Antisemitism Legal Line (CALL), which has already provided free legal assistance to nearly 1,000 Jewish students; invested millions of dollars in security upgrades to Hillel buildings across the country as part of Operation SecureOurCampuses; helped students challenge more than 130 anti-Israel BDS campaigns over the past two years; created Campus for All, the award-winning new online resource that hundreds of thousands of students now use to understand, report and respond to antisemitism; and trained more than 3,000 university administrators on how to recognize and address antisemitism through our Campus Climate Initiative.
- We have a clear and compelling vision for moving forward: Contrary to Tolle’s assertions that the Hillel movement is lacking direction, our 2025-2028 strategic plan clearly expresses our roadmap for ushering in a bold new era of Jewish belonging on campus — growing Jewish joy and connection, addressing antisemitism and promoting Jewish pride and resilience, and catalyzing the largest-ever cohort of new community leaders in Jewish history.
The bottom line is that our mission, our values, and our work with Jewish students on campus every day are the best response to the many distortions in the article. Such misrepresentations will not distract us from the critical work we are doing across our movement every day to foster vibrant Jewish life on campus, and strengthen the Jewish people today and for the future.