Hillel will alter history

Editorial

The opening of the new Hillel House on the Simon Fraser University campus Sunday was an occasion of historic importance. Though its immediate implications will be most noticeable to students at the Burnaby Mountain campus, the reality of a permanent Jewish presence at the school will have lasting, incalculable impacts on the Jewish community of this province and country.

Simon Fraser University has been one of Canada's most activist-driven institutions. The history of campus activism is being celebrated this year in the university's 40th anniversary celebrations, which incorporate the slogan "Radical by Design." SFU was created in the ferment of the 1960s and that activist bent has been identifiable, in varying degrees, throughout its four decades. In recent years, that radicalism has manifested itself in the challenging attitudes of some on campus to the existence and security of Israel.

The atmosphere at SFU has improved markedly since the first years of this decade, when there was a question over the ability of Jews to exercise the right to free expression on that campus. The improvement in atmosphere has come in part because of international developments. The European and North American anti-Israel movement, with its peripheral streams of anti-Semitism, has in some respects been moderated, while decent people have come to recognize the extremism of aspects of the anti-Israel movement. But local factors have played a role, too.

Jewish students at SFU have been at the front line of defending not only Israel's right to exist, but the larger right of Jews and others to express dissenting opinions at Canadian universities. It will seem hard to believe, in years to come, that we faced a genuine threat to this right at times in the first decade of the 21st century, but incidents like the shutting down of a presentation by an Israeli diplomat seemed to threaten the concept of academic inquiry and free expression. Jewish community leaders have given enormous credit to SFU's president, Dr. Michael Stevenson, for addressing the underlying conditions that led to complaints and concerns from our community.

Throughout these difficult times, the isolation that some Jews have occasionally felt on SFU's campus has been exacerbated by the absence of a permanent facility for Jewish students. On campuses all over North America, Jewish students have Hillel Houses that serve as refuges, places of social engagement, as centres for community involvement and a home away from home. It is painful to think of how many involved individuals may have been lost to the Jewish community because there has not been a Hillel House at SFU to engage and draw in young Jews who may have little or no other connection to this community.

As Geoffrey Druker, Hillel Vancouver's director of development, said at the official opening of SFU's Hillel House, this beautiful new facility will be the locus for unimaginable synergies – from political activism and spiritual connectedness to new friendships and even marriages.

The presence of Hillel on the SFU campus is notable for Jewish students there, most obviously. But its presence will have profound effects on the larger Jewish world. Many of the leaders of Vancouver's Jewish community have connections with the Hillel movement. The organization is a safety net, of sorts, that catches many young Jews at the pivotal moment in their development when they are choosing the path for the rest of their lives. An active Hillel House massively increases the chances that a young Jewish student will engage Jewishly – and become an integral part of the larger Jewish community as years pass. It was this realization that led a long list of donors and supporters in the local and international Jewish community to come together to make SFU Hillel a reality.

The community mobilization that resulted in the new Hillel House at SFU indicates that the Greater Vancouver Jewish community is committed to the future. There is a vast range of good causes in this community. The people who have generously donated to the cause of SFU's new Hillel facility, through financial contributions, in-kind donations or immeasurable hours of volunteerism, recognize the existential importance of a Jewish campus space to the continuity of our long tradition. The people who made SFU Hillel a reality will have a special place in the annals of this province's Jewish history.

For now, though, it is up to the young Jews of Simon Fraser University to take the impressive walls, floors and facilities of their new Hillel House and make it a home. The enthusiasm and warmth shared Sunday with the larger Jewish community who came to mark this momentous occasion suggests they are well on their way.

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