DETROIT
Are Hillel Cuts Killing
Jewish Campus Life?
NOAM M.M. NEUSNER
Staff Writer
ewish college students,
counted as one group,
would constitute the
third largest Jewish corn-
munity in the country.
But the nation's 400,000
Jewish students are essen-
tially ignored, say some Jew-
ish communal leaders. Even
as tens of millions of dollars
are raised annually for
Operation Exodus, the Jew-
ish Agency and other inter-
national causes, Hillels on
campuses across the country
are being asked to find new
sources of income.
To some of these programs,
a cut of $50,000 represents
at least one staff member, a
large amount of programm-
ing or a kosher meal pro-
gram. For many of these
Hillel programs, the cuts
come at the worst possible
time.
Recent population surveys
indicate that assimilation
and intermarriage are ris-
ing. Several Jewish leaders
have said that resuscitating
Jewish campus life will help
stay these worsening trends.
"There are always other
priorities," said David Bit-
tker of Detroit, who heads
the B'nai B'rith National
Commission, which oversees
national funding for college
Hillels. "But there's got to
be some redefinition of
priorities if there's going to
j
.
be something for Jewish
youth."
The cuts came to Detroit
two weeks ago, when the
commission informed the
Hillel Foundation of
Metropolitan Detroit that it
would lose its national fun-
ding of $40,000. The Hillel
serves the campuses of
Wayne State, Oakland Uni-
versity, Oakland Commun-
ity College and Lawrence
Technological University.
The Detroit Hillel will at-
tempt to make up the differ-
ence through local and
alumni fund raising, said
Marilyn Merdler, who chairs
the Hillel's board of direc-
tors.
In addition, the commis-
sion has informed many of
the nation's Hillel programs
— including the largest, at
Ann Arbor — that they
should expect up to a 20 per-
cent cut in funding. Last
year, the commission in-
stituted a 10 percent cut in
funding to all Hillels.
"Of all the age groupings
in Jewish life, nobody ever
— for the past 50 years —
gave anywhere near the
needed money for the col-
lege-age group," said
Herbert Friedman, presi-
dent of the Leslie Wexner
Heritage Foundation in New
York.
Mr. Friedman, a former
executive director of United
Jewish Appeal, said in a re-
cent article that Jewish fund
raising must focus on edu-
Federation Sought
Tenants For Building
NOAM M.M. NEUSNER
Staff Writer
T
he Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan
Detroit, fresh in their
new quarters on Telegraph
Road, searched throughout
the Jewish community for
non-profit agencies to fill va-
cant space in the new
building.
Federation officials main-
tain that although a search
was conducted for new
tenants, the building's cur-
rent tenants are welcome.
The Federation sought to
make the building a beehive
of communal networking
and activity. Two agencies
— the Jewish Theological
Seminary and the American
Jewish Committee — took
14
FRIDAY, JANUARY 3, 1992
up the Federation's offer. At
least two — the Anti-
Defamation League and
Friends of Bar-Ilan Univer-
sity —declined the invita-
tion.
One vacant office space
remains.
Michael Berke, the Fed-
eration's executive director,
said the search for Jewish
agencies was not aimed at
current tenants, which in-
clude a law firm, an archi-
tectural firm and a food ser-
vice agency.
"It is not our intent in the
immediate future to make
this building a completely
Jewish building," he said.
"We have no plans at this
point other than to maintain
good relations with our
tenants."
The tenants' leases run for
at least three years. ❑
The Mandell Berman-Hillel building at U-M.
cation in order to widen its
appeal. Funding college pro-
gramming, he said, is part of
that process.
But, he added, all
resources at this moment are
focused on Operation Exodus
— "a historical imperative"
— and, therefore, com-
munities and campus pro-
grams should plan now to
spend later.
"Don't waste your time
bickering over nickels and
dimes," he said. "Analyze
carefully the condition of the
campus right now. Then, we
have to make a decision to
throw more money at
Hillel."
Across the country, Hillel
directors are calling for
major redevelopment of
campus programming. Many
seek to make Hillel more
than a place to pray and eat.
"We have a lot of remedial
work to do," said Alan Let-
tofsky, director of the Hillel
Foundation at Case Western
Reserve University in
Cleveland. Mr. Lettofsky
said most Jewish students
arrive at college with vir-
tually no substantive edu-
cation, no sense of commit-
ment to Jewish causes and
no sense of Jewish identity.
For the community to ex-
pect Hillel to solve these
problems, he said, money
has to be raised to hire
trained staff and to develop
adequate programming.
"We're expecting the im-
possible and we're getting
what we're paying for, which
is not very good," Mr. Let-
tofsky said.
Many of the monetary
problems for Hillel spring
from its parent organization,
B'nai B'rith International,
which is declining in finan-
cial strength and member-
ship.
In 1923, B'nai B'rith
agreed to sponsor the Hillel
organization — which
started on the campus of
University of Illinois at
Champaign-Urbana — with
almost full funding. Starting
in 1965, Jewish federations
began assisting local Hillels.
With an aging member-
ship and $3.8 million deficit,
B'nai B'rith International is
"We're getting
what we're paying
for, which is not
very good."
Alan Lettofsky
struggling to meet the grow-
ing demands of its many
services.
Not unlike General Mo-
tors, B'nai B'rith, once the
granddaddy of Jewish organ-
izations, is reorganizing and
fashioning itself as a
stripped-down, financially
strong institution.
Right now, B'nai B'rith
International is spread "a
mile wide and an inch deep,"
according to some critics. Its
past and current programs
include not only Hillel, but
B'nai B'rith Youth, senior
apartments, orphanages and
hospitals.
But even as it cuts back
funding to Hillels, it is offer-
ing a new range of programs
aimed at improving Jewish
campus life.
It has conducted a long-
range plan, started a quality
assurance and accreditation
program and hired a nation 7
al development director to
teach Hillel directors how to
fund-raise.
Now, Mr. Bittker said,
B'nai B'rith is trying to
become a professional chari-
table organization, not the
fraternal and service organ-
ization of yore.
"B'nai B'rith has under-
sold itself," he said. "We've
been on the campus for
years. Now we have a na-
tional direction."
The time may be ripe for
redirection: Hillel has an in-
frastructure unmatched by
any other Jewish organiza-
tion. It has full-time staff
and buildings at more than
100 campuses; it serves a
large, untapped, segment of
the Jewish community and
also is a recognized name.
The success of Hillels,
however, is dependent not
only on money, but on staff.
Michael Brooks, executive
director of the Hillel at the
University of Michigan, said
campus Hillels are often
viewed as synagogues and
not necessarily as commun-
ity centers.
"We wouldn't open up a
JCC with only two staffers,"
he said. "We tend to build on
our assumptions."
What is needed, he said,
are staff who relate to col-
lege youth.
"With or without Hillel,
we have to fundamentally
change our assumptions of
what it means to involve
somebody in the commun-
ity," he said.
Mark Finkelstein, director
of Michigan State Univer-
sity's Hillel Foundation,
agrees.
"The whole thing is out-
reach," he said. ❑