Hillel: Cut ties with the Israel on Campus Coalition

Join Jewish students, alumni, and community members in calling on Hillel International to immediately cut ties with Israel on Campus Coalition.

We are disturbed to hear that the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), a close partner of Hillel International, monitored and spied on Open Hillel student activists working to promote pluralism, open discourse, and democratic accountability in the Jewish community (1).  

This is just the latest example of the ICC using its $9 million budget to fund bullying and intimidation of Jewish and non-Jewish students alike on college campuses. Last year, the ICC paid to promote an anonymous digital smear campaign targeting Palestinian-American poet Remi Kanazi, who was participating in a cross-campus tour (2). The ICC also hailed Canary Mission for smearing, blacklisting, and threatening student activists (3). These are not isolated incidents; the ICC’s central strategy is to shut down dissent at all costs. In fact, the executive director of the ICC compared his organization’s approach to students deemed too critical of Israel to “fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban,” (4).

Hillel International and the Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation created the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) in 2002 to promote Israel advocacy in campus Jewish life (5). Today, Hillel and the ICC maintain close organizational ties. The ICC continues to provide Hillel professionals with Israel advocacy training and support, and Tina Price, a Member of the ICC's Board of Directors, chairs the Hillel International board.

Yet the ICC’s actions are antithetical to the open, pluralistic, and welcoming environment that Hillel should foster on college campuses.

Join us by writing directly to Hillel International CEO Eric Fingerhut and Tina Price to tell them to immediately cut ties with the Israel on Campus Coalition and condemn its practice of surveilling students.


1. Nathan-Kazis, Josh, "Campus Pro-Israel Group 'Monitored' Progressive Jewish Students." Forward, 25 Sept. 2018.

2. Elliott, Justin and Nathan-Kazis, Josh, "Pro-Israel Group Secretly Ran Misleading Facebook Ads to Target Palestinian-American Poet." Forward & ProPublica, 12, Sept. 2018.

3. Nathan-Kazis, Josh, "Shadowy Backlist Of Student Activists Wins Endorsement of Mainstream Pro-Israel Group." Forward, 3, Oct. 2017.

4. Elliott, Justin and Nathan-Kazis, Josh, "Pro-Israel Group Secretly Ran Misleading Facebook Ads to Target Palestinian-American Poet." Forward & ProPublica, 12, Sept. 2018.

5. Hillel News,"Israel on Campus Coalition Undertakes Initiatives." Hillel International, 12, Aug. 2002.