This is the second episode in our series From Above, in which we look at Zionist institutions that wield their power to advance fascist repression of anyone who speaks against the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide of Palestinians. My guest today is herself an example of how this repression works. I am joined by writer and scholar Maura Finkelstein to talk about Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life. In 2024, Maura was fired from her tenured professorship at Muhlenberg College for a social media post critical of Zionism and Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza. We discuss what it means for Israel to be “at the heart of Hillel’s work” as their own website proudly admits, the role that Hillel plays in the repression of students, faculty, and staff, and what campaigns and organizations resist Hillel and its hegemony over Jewish campus life in the United States.

Maura Finkelstein is a writer and anthropologist. She is the author of The Archive of Loss: Lively Ruination in Mill Land Mumbai, published by Duke University Press in 2019. In addition to academic writing, her essays have been by Post45, Electric Literature, Allegra Lab, Red Pepper Magazine, The Markaz Review, the Scottish Left Review, Mondoweiss, Middle East Eye, and Al Jazeera.

Resources:

https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/45918/Astroturf-Zionism;

https://palestinelegal.org/hillels-actions;

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/11/23/how-the-israel-lobby-captured-hillel-international-college-campus/;

https://www.parapraxismagazine.com/articles/the-campus-does-not-exist;

https://drophillel.wordpress.com/history/