When members of The New School’s Student Senate were faced with a report detailing how Hillel International was providing material and logistical support to Israel’s atrocities in Gaza, they voted on May 1 to cut all ties with their campus chapter of the national Jewish college network and to strip its funding. The student leaders hoped the school’s administration would go on to investigate Hillel’s presence on its New York City campus. 

Instead, after an intense pressure campaign by pro-Israel groups, advocates, and elected representatives, the university’s administration is now investigating the student senators who voted to cut ties with Hillel. 

“We were hoping that the university would act on the the evidence provided by the Student Senate report about Hillel’s complicity in genocide. They are investigating us instead,” said Ryder Glickman, who is chair of The New School Student Senate and helped produce the report.  

The Student Senate acted upon the recommendations of the Registered Student Organizations (RSO) Compliance Committee, which presented a comprehensive report about the ways in which Hillel had assisted the Israeli military during its ongoing genocide in Gaza. 

The report found that students from The New School and a host of other New York City-based schools volunteered at the Israeli military’s Hatzerim Air Force Base in January 2024, as part of the Hillel on Base program. “Our students are packaging a days worth of rations to our soldiers,” stated an Instagram story by Hillel at Baruch College, the umbrella organization of Hillel at The New School, alongside a photo from the airbase, according to the report. 

The Hatzerim airbase reportedly has been used by the Israeli Air Force for hundreds of airstrikes in Gaza, with F-15s from the base dropping bombs in civilian areas. 

In the days following the publication of the report and the Student Senate vote to terminate funding to The New School’s Hillel, the university’s administration acted swiftly to discredit the findings.

“To avoid any misunderstanding, the University Student Senate does not have the authority to determine official status, funding eligibility, or the recognition of RSOs. Our Hillel chapter remains, as it always has been, in good standing, eligible for funding, and supporting Jewish life at The New School,” said an schoolwide email sent to from the university signed by President Joel Towers, Provost Richard Kessler, and Vice Provost Robert Mack. 

“By distorting a qualified student organization and characterizing it as something it is not,” the statement continued, “the [University Student Senate] is using its platform to target fellow students in a misguided attempt to hold those students responsible for the acts of governments.”

On May 3, two days after the vote, Ilya Bratman, the executive director of Hillel at Baruch College, wrote in an email to Towers and other members of The New School’s leadership that the Student Senate’s actions were “a direct attack on Jewish students.” Bratman bcc’d the Student Senate email address, and members shared the email with Prism.

“We hope to meet with you in the coming days so that you can hear directly from the students affected by this action, and so that we can better understand the university’s plan of action moving forward. The [University Student Senate] has shown no indication that it intends to step back from these egregious and deeply troubling actions,” Bratman wrote. 

The New School administration and Hillel at Baruch College did not respond to Prism’s inquiry about whether university leadership and Hillel officials had the meeting. 

Days later, on May 8, Glickman received an email, viewed by Prism, from The New School’s office of Student Equity, Accessibility & Title IX. The email said that the school was investigating him for an allegation that the Student Senate’s decision to cut ties with Hillel was in “potential violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” The administration later clarified to Glickman that the university is investigating all student senators involved in the vote. 

External pushback

The university launched its investigation into student senators following a string of social media activity by pro-Israel groups, advocates, media, and elected representatives attacking the report. 

Glickman was called a “virulent anti-Israel activist” in an X post by Canary Mission, the secretive group notorious for doxing and targeting pro-Palestinian activists. 

A string of articles by pro-Israel publications, including The New York Post and The Times of Israel, reported on The New School administration rejecting the Student Senate vote while omitting the details and evidence found by the RSO about Hillel’s ties with the Israeli military. 

Two New York members of Congress took to social media to denounce the report. Rep. Dan Goldman—who recently marched in New York’s Israel Day parade featuring Israeli cabinet ministers who are wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes or have made genocidal statements about Palestinians—said the students were engaged in “hateful and vile antisemitism.” Rep. Ritchie Torres also condemned the vote, calling it “shameful” and “discrimination against Jewish individuals and institutions.” Goldman and Torres are heavily backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. 

“The fact that there was such open repression and universal condemnation of the report shows that the administration’s response was coordinated with Zionist organizations accusing us of antisemitism,” Glickman told Prism. “This is extremely worrying when we made a very basic case about international law.” 

Students volunteering with the Israeli military

Hillel at Baruch, which organized trips to Israel, acts as an umbrella organization for chapters in multiple New York schools in addition to The New School, including Fordham University, John Jay College, and City College. 

“Volunteer on an IDF (Israeli Defense Force) base in Southern Israel, wear IDF uniform, give back to the community on base, and explore Israel!” reads a description about the program on Hillel at Baruch’s website.

The 38-page report by the RSO compliance committee found that Hillel at Baruch organized several trips between May 2022 and January 2025 for students to volunteer at multiple Israeli army and air force bases. Hillel International also operates the Onward Israel program which organizes internship trips for American students to Israel and facilitates volunteering opportunities within the Israeli military.

The report further found that in July 2024, another post from Hillel at Baruch and New School Hillel’s Instagram account said, “Tonight, some of our onward students had the incredible opportunity to volunteer at the Tze’elim army base, where they helped prepare a barbecue for over 700 soldiers from the Oketz, Kfir, Golani and Handasa units in the IDF.” 

Soldiers of the Golani Brigade’s 631st Reconnaissance Battalion were behind the March 24, 2025, killing of 15 Palestinian emergency responders that included Red Crescent ambulance workers in Rafah, according to an investigation by Haaretz. 

In May 2024, a BBC analysis found that 11 soldiers of the Kfir brigade were responsible for posting photos and videos of Palestinian prisoners being abused.

By registering for the Hillel on Base program, participants also automatically register for the Volunteers for Israel (VFI) program, the report found.  

“VFI is the ONLY organization that creates opportunities for American students to volunteer in Israel on IDF bases,” says a description of the program, which includes activities such as packing medical supplies and repairing machinery and equipment for military units. 

The VFI program is run by Sar-El, an Israeli volunteer nonprofit organization under the direction of the Israeli Logistics Corps, a support branch of the Israeli military, establishing direct collaboration between Hillel and the Israeli government, according to the report. 

“I am nauseated by the fact that I have classmates who have provided direct material and logistical support to genocide,” Glickman said.

According to official sources, over 75,000 Palestinians, including over 35,000 women, children, and the elderly have been killed by the Israeli military since Oct. 7, 2023—which the United Nations Human Rights Council, Amnesty International, and multiple Israeli human rights groups have concluded constitutes a genocide. Experts have estimated the actual death toll could be much higher.

A week after The New School vote, the student leadership of the Hillel chapter of Middlebury College, Vermont, voted to change its name to the Jewish Association at Middlebury, after growing demand from its members to disaffiliate from Hillel International and its activities, according to reporting by the school’s newspaper.

Editorial Team:
Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor
Lara Witt, Top Editor
Rashmee Kumar, Copy Editor

“Il caso Erri De Luca? Togliere la parola a chicchessia significa mettersi dalla parte del torto“. Sono le parole pronunciate ai microfoni di Uno, Nessuno, 100Milan (Radio24) dal filosofo Massimo Cacciari, che ribadisce quanto espresso nella sua intervista a Tommaso Rodano sul Fatto Quotidiano in merito alla vicenda dello scrittore napoletano. De Luca era stato invitato a tenere il discorso di apertura della kermesse, prevista dal 13 al 20 giugno, ma la direzione ha deciso di revocare l’incarico dopo le sue recenti dichiarazioni al quotidiano israeliano Israel Hayom, dove De Luca si è definito sionista e ha rifiutato di qualificare come genocidio gli stermini israeliani a Gaza. Cacciari ammette di non conoscere i particolari del caso, ma precisa: “Se Erri De Luca dice che non c’è genocidio a Gaza, la questione può essere anche discussa sotto il profilo giuridico e tecnico. I criminali nazisti a Norimberga non sono stati accusati di genocidio. E non perché non ci avessero pensato, ma perché ritenevano che fosse, da un punto di vista formale e giuridico, un’accusa difficilmente sostenibile. C’è stata però quella di crimini di guerra e crimini contro l’umanità – continua – Se Erri De Luca preferisce accusare Israele di questo, si accomodi pure. Io a quel festival l’avrei fatto parlare lo stesso, perché, come ho detto in tutte le occasioni, la democrazia è forte quando dà la parola a chiunque“.

Sulla guerra tra Russia e Ucraina, Cacciari ha commentato la lettera che Zelensky ha inviato a Putin, un’offerta pubblica di dialogo con cui il presidente ucraino propone un incontro diretto in un Paese terzo neutrale (Svizzera, Turchia o uno Stato arabo), un cessate il fuoco durante i negoziati, lo scambio “tutti per tutti” dei prigionieri, il ritorno dei civili e dei bambini deportati e garanzie di sicurezza internazionali. Il Cremlino ha confermato di aver ricevuto la missiva, ma la risposta resta la consueta: Zelensky sarebbe il benvenuto a Mosca, opzione che lo stesso leader ucraino ha già escluso. “Zelensky e Putin sono gli unici che possono risolvere il conflitto – ha affermato Cacciari – Per gli Stati Uniti non è assolutamente una priorità: questa guerra può continuare all’infinito perché le attenzioni di Trump sono rivolte altrove, al confronto globale con la Cina e, per certi versi, con l’Iran. L’Europa politicamente non esiste: non ha difesa comune, non ha esercito comune, non ha politica estera comune. Alla fine devono essere i due protagonisti a trovare un’intesa“. Il filosofo ricorda che neppure l’elezione di Trump ha cambiato le cose, nonostante le aspettative: “Non ce l’ha fatta, non era la sua priorità”. Quando Leonardo Manera gli ha chiesto se, a suo avviso, Zelensky dovrebbe recarsi a Mosca, Cacciari ha risposto con un moto di impazienza: “O Putin a Kiev, ma che ne so io. Si vedano a metà strada, insomma, si trovino sulla luna o dove vogliono“.

Ben diversa, per il filosofo, è la natura della guerra condotta da Netanyahu a Gaza: “Netanyahu, per dirla con Kant, sta conducendo una Ausrottungskrieg, cioè una guerra di sterminio. Quando chiede che per la sicurezza di Israele si debba arrivare al 70% di occupazione della Striscia di Gaza (e già siamo al 60%), vuole cacciare dalle spiagge le tende dell’ultimo milione di palestinesi rimasti. Vuole eliminarli, disperderli per il mondo, continua a occupare territori contro tutte le risoluzioni dell’Onu, colonizza tutto il possibile. Non c’entra nulla con la guerra russo-ucraina, che resta una guerra tra due eserciti, del tutto tradizionale, con l’aggravante di una dimensione civile. Qui non c’è nessun parallelo possibile“.

La conversazione si è conclusa con un siparietto esilarante: i conduttori hanno scoperto che proprio oggi Cacciari compie 82 anni e hanno provato a fargli gli auguri. Ma Cacciarli, davanti alle insistenze di Milan, lo ha gelato in diretta: “Per carità, non celebro anniversari di nessun genere. Ogni forma di anniversario e di ricorrenze è detestata dal sottoscritto, quindi la prego di tenersi i suoi auguri“. Neppure il tentativo di intonare “tanti auguri” in diretta ha avuto successo. “No, no, per carità, auguri a lei”. A conversazione conclusa, Manera ha comunque intonato la canzoncina di auguri per il filosofo, mentre la regia ha riproposto in mix la frase con cui mesi fa Cacciari aveva elegantemente declinato una domanda sul proprio matrimonio. Soundtrack: Che fastidio di Ditonellapiaga. Un commiato ironico e affettuoso per un intellettuale che continua a rifiutare con la stessa coerenza sia le celebrazioni, sia le censure.

L'articolo Cacciari: “Zelensky e Putin si parlino e si vedano dove vogliono, anche sulla luna”. Poi rifiuta gli auguri di compleanno proviene da Il Fatto Quotidiano.