By Manny Frishberg, JTNews Correspondent
By all accounts, Evergreen State College is not a place where support for Israel runs high. It was the school that the late Rachel Corrie attended before she went to the Middle East to volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement, and her memory remains strong in the minds of many there. That does not mean, however, that the campus is a hostile environment for Jewish students.
So it should not be a surprise to find out that Evergreen is also home to a growing chapter of Hillel, the foundation for Jewish campus life. In fact, the group, which was begun last year, has picked up steam since the school year began in September.
“At our weekly meetings, we usually have about seven people attending to organize things and think about activities or who wants to host the potlucks. I’d say it’s varied a lot from last year, when just three people would come to the weekly meetings,” says Sarah Yamasaki, one of four coordinators for the campus organization. “This year I think it’s really expanded and had a lot more people feel more involved.”
Yamasaki says they regularly see as many as 25 to 30 students showing up for their Shabbat potlucks, held a couple of times per month, as well as for the film showings and other events that they put on. The group has a mailing list of around 50 students.
Yamasaki credits another student, Ellen Hockley, with putting in the energy and effort to establish the Evergreen Hillel chapter in 2007. Before then, she says, there was a Jewish Cultural Center on campus, which served the purpose of providing a welcoming place for Jewish students, but the Hillel chapter is a distinct step up from that.
So far, she says, screening movies, often by Israeli filmmakers, has been the principal type of event they have been able to hold in addition to the Shabbat potlucks. The main reason she gives is a lack of funds for larger, more ambitious activities.
“We get our funds from the Student Activities Board, as all the student groups on campus do,” Yamasaki says.
The Hillel budget is “noticeably less” than many other campus groups, she says, but with the growing interest, they hope to receive more money for the next quarter. Some of the funding, she hopes, will allow for such events as a Passover meal.
Yamasaki says the group applied to the Hillel Foundation for a $500 grant last year, “but we’re still waiting for the check to arrive.”
Meanwhile, she says, “We try and do some funding, as well, with bake sales, etc. But, you know, $50 here and there is not really going to pay for a Passover seder.”
Planning for Passover has not progressed very far yet because, she notes, the winter term is just getting underway, “and it’s slow going at the beginning of the quarter because everyone’s getting back in the swing of things.”
One way the new Hillel tries to maintain a visible presence on campus and “get community connections” is to co-sponsor events with another group that has a Middle East focus. As for Evergreen’s reputation for being a center of anti-Israel sentiment, Yamasaki and the other organizers agree that they need to walk a fine line.
“I don’t think there are anti-Semitic feelings at Evergreen at all, but I think it’s a really open place to talk. I think that sometimes it is difficult to talk freely without being worried that because you’re Jewish, someone will assume your opinion for you,” she says.
“I definitely think that it’s true that as an organizer of the Hillel — as a Jewish student group — we are much more careful than I think other campuses might be…. When we sponsor something or put a flier out or put an e-mail out, we’re very, very aware that Evergreen is a campus that does have more leftist political leanings, which means that socially, it is more pro-Palestinian, which then, in an organized group setting, does mean that it’s anti-Israel.”
And the level of sophistication of views on Israel varies greatly, as well.
“Whenever there are big groups of people,” Yamasaki says, “when there’s an idea planted, then it can grow and spill over into something more. I think that those who really feel strongly at the core of something are looking at the Israeli government and politics and that’s separate from people, but that often times, it does spread into the government of Israel, meaning the people of Israel, meaning Jews.”
Even among the Hillel supporters and those who may be interested in becoming more involved, there is a range of political views. To remain inclusive, the group tries to avoid overtly political stances and events. One way they have found to introduce the society and culture to campus is through film.
“We tend to choose movies that don’t have an overtly political element,” she says. “Also, you know it’s always hard not to be political about Israel.”
Some of that concern was also in evidence when Rabbi Cheski Edelman and his wife, Chava, opened a new Chabad House in Thurston County recently. Rabbi Edelman began teaching a six-week class on the Jewish relationship with Israel on campus, which the Hillel organizers admit caused them some concern at first.
“There was a lot of concern brought up at our meetings leading up to this about having a person who’s not at the Evergreen community and doesn’t know it, and doesn’t know the issues at the Evergreen community, to be teaching a class, especially about Israel,” she says. “Yonatan Aldort [another of the four organizers] spoke with this rabbi coming to town, and he showed him his lesson plan and they went over it. Yonatan brought up any concerns that we might have.”
In the end, Hillel signed on as a co-sponsor of the class, though Yamasaki still admits to some personal concern about how it will be received