Government backs down on database of US Jewish students

Published: 19 October 2017

Last updated: 4 March 2024

Hillel International, the largest Jewish student organisation in the world, threatened to end its partnership with the Israeli government if it didn’t drop its plan to create the database

Hillel International threatened to cut ties with Israeli government over database of US Jewish students (Haaretz)
This ultimatum forced the Diaspora Affairs Ministry to suspend the project on Sunday night, just hours after the database was first revealed by Haaretz.

For the past year, Hillel International has been a key partner in a US$66-million, Israeli government-sponsored initiative to strengthen the religious identity of Jewish students on US college and university campuses.

For every dollar Hillel raises for the project, the Israeli government contributes matching funding. Hillel, which prides itself on being a pluralistic Jewish organisation, has branches on 550 colleges and universities around the world, primarily in the United States.

The Diaspora Affairs Ministry has described this campus initiative as its “flagship project.” The other two partners are Chabad and Olami, organisations that are active in Orthodox outreach work.

Photo: Israel Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Olivier Fitoussi)