Building a workable relationship with Hillel is an important step in establishing your campus chapter. As Hillel faculty have been known to work against the efforts of Zionist movements on several campuses, making an effort to reach out to your Hillel leadership early in the game should go a long way in preventing future conflict. It should also be noted that a campus Hillel and its positions on Israel will largely reflect the views of the local Hillel faculty and active students. Therefore the attitude of your campus Hillel towards ZFA cannot be taken for granted. Also, Hillel leaders are generally aware that ZFA attracts many Jewish students who would otherwise not be involved with Jewish activities on campus. This means that you and your chapter have some value. So meet your Hillel faculty with an open mind and with the knowledge that you have something important to offer.
Relationship Building:
• Reaching out to key individuals and groups demonstrates your interest in and respect for other groups and perspectives.
• The purpose of relationship building is to clarify your goals, share ideas, build trust & find common ground. Ideally, when you leave a relationship building meeting you will have some basic ideas about how to effectively work together in the future.
Suggestions:
• Explain why you care about the situation in the Middle East. Talk about your personal relationship with Israel and the region. Share why you feel it necessary to educate your campus to the justice of the Zionist struggle.
• Be respectful in expressing your opposition to blindly defending Israeli government actions.
• Approach the conversation in a positive manner and explain that you look forward to engaging with the Jewish community. Talk about your desire to create space for a broad debate that welcomes open and civil discourse. Talk about how through these spaces you, and all students on your campus, will have the opportunity to arrive at a clearer understanding of justice in the Middle East and fresh perspectives on achieving peace.
• Discuss why and how you believe you will engage a diverse group of students who have not traditionally been involved in Hillel or Israel related activities on campus. Through this the students you engage will be able to create valuable connections which can last well into the future.
• The goal of the meeting is to find common ground with the Hillel leadership, build a working relationship or ideally win them as allies. This is not the time to talk about past grievances with Hillel or the organized Jewish community.
• This meeting is not the place for politics. Once you successfully build space for a broad debate, you will have plenty of time for these discussions.
• Come to the meeting with some ideas about how you want to work with Hillel. The goal is to leave the meeting with an agreement to work together in the future and some ideas as to when and how.