Fire Princeton Hillel Director, Michael Oren Demands

Image by getty images

By Aiden Pink November 9, 2017

Israel’s former ambassador to the United States has demanded that Princeton University’s Hillel fire its executive director after they cancelled a speech by the Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister under pressure from left-wing students.

In an interview with the Times of Israel, Michael Oren, who was born in New Jersey and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton, also called on all members of Knesset to boycott the Hillel at his alma mater.

“We argue that we have to boycott the boycotters, that there’s a price to be paid for people boycotting Israel,” said Oren, now Israel’s deputy minister for diplomacy a member of Knesset for the centrist Kulanu party. “And the same things holds true for Hillels at universities or universities themselves.”

Princeton Center for Jewish Life executive director Rabbi Julie Roth postponed Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely’s speech earlier this week after a left-wing student group claimed that Hotovely was racist and therefore violated the center’s standards on Israel-related events. Hotovely eventually spoke at Princeton’s Chabad center.

Roth and Hillel International executive director Eric Fingerhut later apologized publicly for cancelling on Hotovely in a Jerusalem Post op-ed.

“This is an isolated incident — and Hillel International stands squarely behind the value of hearing from the Jewish state’s elected leaders,” they wrote.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink

Aiden Pink is the Deputy News Editor for the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO