Wellesley ousts Hillel leaders, wallops Jewish students

Jewish students at Wellesley College feel increasingly vulnerable, following the school’s elimination of the staff positions of Hillel director and Jewish chaplain in the wake of growing anti-Semitism at the Boston-area women’s school reflected in anti-Israel activities by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

Wellesley walls display posters with images of Palestinian children who were killed or wounded during last summer’s Gaza war. On a poster in the student center that asks, “What does Zionism mean to you?,” students wrote responses that include “genocide,” “apartheid” and “murder.” Haaretz reported that efforts by Jewish students to engage in dialogue have been rejected by SJP, which has a policy of “anti-normalization” of Jewish and pro-Israel groups.

Amid that backdrop, Wellesley fired Patti Scheinman, director of the school’s Hillel International chapter, and David Bernat, the college’s Hillel-affiliated Jewish chaplain. The school cited “restructuring” as the reason behind the move, and said an interim rabbi will be brought on before a permanent full-time rabbi is hired to perform the duties of both former part-time employees.

“Wellesley informed Hillels of New England on Nov. 14 that it wanted to go in a new direction and replace the two part-time Hillel employees with a full-time rabbi in order to better serve its Jewish student population. Wellesley made the decision unilaterally to end the current relationship. The two Wellesley part-time employees, however, are still employed by Hillels of New England, but no longer serve Wellesley College,” David Eden, Hillel International’s chief administrative officer, told JNS.org.

About 10 percent of Wellesley’s student body of about 2,500 is Jewish. Some Jewish students said they had turned to the school’s Hillel branch for support in their fight against campus anti-Zionism — and its convergence with anti-Semitism — but that those efforts were undermined by the school’s decision to fire the two staff members.