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The profound internal contradiction that could spell doom for Hillel

JL;DR SUMMARY Hillel International, the primary Jewish student organization at many colleges across the U.S., faces a core contradiction that could threaten its sustainability. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Hillel InternationalZionismJewish StudentsNon ZionismMiddlebury CollegePolitical PluralismJewish Campus LifeOpen HillelSwarthmore College

Places mentioned

Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, United States
"Students on the campus of Swarthmore College."
Middlebury, Vermont, United States
"Jewish students at Middlebury just faced the same question."
Sarah Lawrence College, New York, United States
"Joel Swanson is an assistant professor of religion and Jewish studies at Sarah Lawrence College."
University of Chicago, Illinois, United States
"He holds a doctorate in the history of Judaism from the University of Chicago."
Jerusalem, Israel
"His work has been published in...Haaretz,...The Jerusalem Post..."

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Cairo Item ID 82386
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2026-05-16 05:31:07 UTC
Curated 2026-05-16 08:30:40 UTC