San Francisco (JTA) — When Rabbi Serena Eisenberg took over as the Hillel director at Brown University in the fall of 2005, she was surprised there wasn’t an Israeli flag in the group’s building.
Eisenberg thought one should go up. But the issue proved divisive among students.
“The Israeli flag is a potent symbol with many different meanings for different people,” said Benj Kamm, who was then the Hillel student president.
“I heard various proposals during my time at Brown: A flag; no flag; a flag and also a Palestinian flag; a flag, but not in the main entryway,” said Kamm, who has since graduated from Brown.
Finally in the fall of 2006, Hillel staff members put up the Israeli and U.S. flags, neither of which had flown for years. They did it without approval from students, who at Brown sit on Hillel’s board of trustees.
That didn’t sit well with some. Kamm said he was “frustrated and disappointed” that the “decision had been made by fiat.”
Eisenberg insists the issue “hasn’t been controversial” since the flags went up. Hillel continues to facilitate conversations about Israel and Jewish identity, she said, and the deeper issues are really the point.
The Brown Hillel isn’t the only U.S. Jewish group to question whether it should fly the Israeli flag. Other Jewish student groups, organizations and congregations have had similar discussions, with varied results.
In Milwaukee, for example, board and staff members of the Milwaukee Jewish Day School discussed whether to add a second flagpole outdoors for flying the Israeli flag. (Like the majority of U.S. schools, MJDS has an outdoor flagpole for flying the U.S. flag.)
But the discussion has been inconclusive, according to head of school Judith Miller. Moreover, the Milwaukee Jewish Federation owns the building housing the school, so there is some question about who should make such a decision, she said.
Israeli flags are displayed “in every classroom” at MJDS, and will be displayed inside the front entrance when that is completed, she said.
Handful of responsa
For American Jews the Israeli flag is, indeed, a potent symbol. For some it represents solidarity with the Jewish people. For others, it celebrates Israeli statehood after 2,000 years of struggle. For yet others, it signals approval of the Israeli government and its policies.
The Hillel at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor has long displayed Israeli flags in its building, but until recently did not hang one at the front entrance. Two years ago a student brought a motion to put one there.
The motion passed, but former Michigan Hillel governing board chair Perry Teicher said it generated intense conversation. The group was concerned about sending a welcoming message to unengaged Jews and non-Jews walking in the door.
“We asked, what is the most effective way to welcome in people who might not agree with Hillel’s stand on supporting Israel?” Teicher said.
“Would this live up to the university’s ideal of engaging people in conversation who may not agree with you?”
Wayne Firestone, president of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Student Life, said it is appropriate that Jewish students have these conversations and that Hillel facilitates them.
“Israel is a central part of our Jewish identity, and with that comes questions,” he said. “New populations of young students are coming into a learning environment, and having them ask why there’s a flag is a good thing.”
In Wisconsin’s two Hillel operations, the issue appears moot.
The Hillel Foundation at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee can’t have an outdoor flagpole because of zoning regulations, according to executive director Heidi Rattner. But it does have Israeli flags inside the building, she said.
In Madison, the Hillel Foundation University of Wisconsin has “no flags inside or outside” on a permanent basis, said director Greg Steinberger; but it will put Israeli flags “all over the building” during, say, a Yom HaAtzmaut (Israel Independence Day) celebration, he said.
Synagogue debate on the issue adds a new dimension: How appropriate is a nationalist symbol in a place of worship?
No stream has an official policy on the question. There are a handful of Reform, Conservative and Orthodox responsa (rabbinical opinions), all decades old.
They tend to agree that it’s acceptable but not compulsory — and perhaps not even preferable — to display any flag in the sanctuary. But the decision is left to individual congregations.
Rabbi Dan Freelander, vice president of the Union for Reform Judaism, says it’s “very customary” for a Reform congregation to display the Israeli flag with the U.S. flag, either in the sanctuary or elsewhere in the building.
But he notes that the practice waxes and wanes along with Israel’s position on the world stage. In times of peace and prosperity, more groups put up a flag.
In times of violence, or when a Jewish group disagrees with something Israel is doing, they tend not to display the flag. That, Freedlander said, is as wrong and illogical as disowning your parents when they make you angry.
Most synagogues don’t have an articulated policy on flags. The question arises only when a special event is planned.
In 2000, Jewish educator Vavi Toran worked with Congregation Sha’ar Zahav in San Francisco on a memorial for the fifth anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. She was shocked when some congregants said they did not want the Israeli flag at the event.
In the end the flag was displayed, Toran recalls, but only after what she characterizes as a long and bitter debate. The congregation was not able to find anyone to speak to JTA about it.
Leon Cohen of The Chronicle staff contributed to this report.
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