The Hillel board would like to briefly respond to some comments in the March 3, 2023 article about the request to form a Students for Justice in Palestine chapter.  To provide some context, the Lafayette College Hillel Society is interested in dialog and involved in building community on campus. The organization is an active participant in Interfaith Council, and regularly reaches out to other groups to work on joint programming opportunities. Hillel brings in speakers for a wide range of programs and is an enthusiastic cosponsor of events. We do not know which are the programs involving “Zionist speakers” mentioned in the article — to our knowledge this hasn’t happened during the time of any student currently on campus. We also are unsure about the fundraisers that were alluded to. We have recently raised money for groups including Third Street Alliance, Women for Afghan Women, relief in Ukraine and most recently the earthquake relief effort in Turkey and Syria.

Submitted by Ethan Berkove on behalf of the 2023 Board of the Hillel Society of Lafayette College.