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Most people know that Hillel is basically synonymous with Jewish life at American colleges, but what you might not know is that the organization has caused a political uproar.

Hillel has a clear stance on Israel. As they state in their controversial Israel Guidelines, “Hillel is steadfastly committed to the support of Israel” and “views Israel as a core element of Jewish life.” To put it in the reductive modern-day parlance, Hillel is a Zionist organization.

Though many people perceive Hillel as a politically neutral space that supports Jewish life, certain groups that oppose Israel’s military actions view Hillel as a political organization. This partially explains why some pro-Palestinian groups have protested outside of Hillel buildings, but there may be some antisemitism mixed in.

Jewish groups have also started protesting against Hillel. The first time we saw this on a large scale was in 2013, when a group of Jewish students launched Open Hillel to challenge Hillel’s Israel Guidelines. They chose their name because they intended to promote “open discourse on Israel-Palestine in Jewish communities on campus and beyond.” Open Hillel was basically anti-Hillel.

Open Hillel no longer exists under the same name. It is now Judaism On Our Own Terms, which is a collective of anti-Zionist Jewish groups on college campuses. Alt-J at Tufts University is one such organization, and they are one of the handful of groups I keep up with on Instagram.

On April 25, Tufts Hillel announced their festive barbecue for Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s independence day. Alt-J had something to say about it.

Check out the post for yourself:

This is a lot, no? The Hillel post set atop a background of dripping blood? Calling it a “sick celebration”?

What I found most striking is that Alt-J is not protesting against Netanyahu or his government, nor are they helping Palestinians in any tangible way. Instead, they are antagonizing members of their own community and ascribing malicious intent to their actions.

Based on recent reporting out of the University of Michigan, their community has a similar dynamic. On Monday, April 13, the third day of Passover, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), an anti-Zionist organization, hosted a “Liberation Seder” across the street from Hillel. For those unfamiliar, a Liberation Seder is a version of the Passover seder reinterpreted from the Palestinian perspective. It is a Jewish twist on a pro-Palestinian protest.

JVP’s choice to protest facing the Hillel building was pointed and deliberate, and it did not go unnoticed. In their incredible reporting on this event, student journalist Emma Spring interviewed people on both the JVP side and the Hillel side, revealing not only stark polarization but also fear.

Here’s what Hillel member Justin Baltuch said:

“For me as a Jewish student here, it’s pretty disrespectful given that it’s Passover, which should be a time for Jewish people to come together to celebrate the holiday. It’s just hurtful that people in our own community are actively calling for the demise of our own religion.”

I was with this student until he said that the JVP protesters were “actively calling for the demise of our own religion.” I don’t believe that is what the protesters were doing, and if he asked them, that is not what they would say they were doing.

There were similarly adversarial sentiments from the protester side. Here’s what an anonymous JVP student had to say:

“The Michigan Hillel is complicit in supporting the Israeli apartheid regime, and the Jewish community is not a monolith here. It’s a diversity of opinions, and there’s a very strong contingent of anti-Zionism on this campus, and anti-Zionist Jewish community. My grandchildren shouldn’t have to have marshals and police liaisons to be able to practice their faith in public, but we do because we’re afraid of people in our own community. We’re afraid of what Zionists will do to us.”

They’re afraid of what Zionists will do to them.

Wow. Ok. So on one side we have someone who thinks anti-Zionists are advocating for the demise of the Jewish people, and on the other side we have someone who thinks they need armed protection from Hillel staff and students.

This is nuts!!! Isn’t this nuts? The reporter likely wanted to highlight the most extreme ideas for a reason, and I doubt everybody present felt the same way as these two students, but it is still shocking to witness the fear on both sides.

As we can see, things are getting heated in the Jewish community on certain college campuses. If your student cares about being a member of the Jewish community at their college, this is something to look out for.

Are there ideological silos? Is there an us and them mentality among Zionists and anti-Zionists? Are Jews across ideological divides trying to understand each other, or at least not actively antagonizing each other?

As an adult who has myriad options for Jewish life, not just Hillel and anti-Hillel, this all feels like a missed opportunity. We’re all Jews. At the end of the day, I bet some of our goals and desires align, but we can only figure this out if we talk to each other. It’s particularly silly because one of the reasons we are this polarized is that we define the terms Zionist and anti-Zionist in different ways.

It is possible for Jews who have different relationships with Israel to join together in community, but not if we make uncharitable assumptions about one another and view each other as adversaries.

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