Harvard Hillel Leadership Acknowledges Hasty Response to Flyering Debacle

Harvard Hillel Executive Director Jason B. Rubenstein ’04 acknowledged in an open letter to Hillel affiliates on Thursday that he hastily suspended J Street U, a student group that used the center’s funding to print and distribute flyers critical of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Meredith W. B. Zielonka ’25, who serves as co-chair of J Street U, printed flyers that included photos from the war with text from Jewish liturgy and distributed them on and around Harvard’s campus with a group of fellow students. The flyers were sourced from Halachic Left — an external progressive Jewish organization.

Flyers were discovered by Hillel staff Tuesday morning on poles near Rosovsky Hall on Mt. Auburn Street. The staff members, unaware that the flyers had been printed with Hillel funds and distributed by affiliated students, reported the flyers to campus and city police as “intimidating.”

Zielonka, a Crimson Associate Business Manager, wrote in a statement that she participated in the action to “protest Israel’s conduct in Gaza and underscore my genuine moral and religious concerns for Palestinian lives.”

“While I stand by my beliefs, I regret the misunderstandings that overshadowed our message,” she added.

In a Tuesday night statement to The Crimson, Rubenstein said he would review J Street U’s status as an officially recognized group at Hillel and temporarily suspended Zielonka’s privileges as a student leader at Hillel.

“We are reviewing the status of the organization led by this student as a recognized group within Harvard Hillel, and have in the interim suspended this student’s and their group’s use of Hillel’s resources pending the outcome of the review,” Rubenstein wrote.

But in a 2,600-word message to Hillel affiliates on Thursday, Rubenstein wrote that he wished he could have made the decision “with more time and opportunity for dialogue.”

Rubenstein wrote in his letter to affiliates that the flyers were reported to police because staff members thought Hillel had been specifically targeted by the flyering campaign.

“When our staff discovered fliers outside the Hillel building Tuesday morning, we had no idea that they were produced by a Jewish group, much less students, and even less with Hillel’s resources,” Rubenstein wrote.

“That evening, I learned from a Crimson reporter that Hillel’s funds had been used to print these posters, and realized that JStreetU’s leadership had not operated in keeping with the affiliation agreement,” he added. “This process was accelerated, and made more difficult, by the press deadlines and publicity, and I wish that we could have navigated it with more time and opportunity for dialogue.”

Rubenstein wrote in his letter that since suspending J Street U, he had the opportunity to sit down with Zielonka for a 90-minute conversation.

Zielonka acknowledged in her statement that she should have disclosed the content of the flyers to Hillel.

“I received permission to spend funds to print the posters as a Hillel affiliated group, but I should have preemptively shown Hillel the content given their rules precluding the use of their funds for controversial matters,” Zielonka wrote. “Out of respect for Hillel and their mission, I have already donated the $41 back to the organization.”

As part of the fallout from the postering incident, J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami apologized to Rubenstein and the Harvard Hillel Board of Directors in a letter on Thursday.

“We understand that the action taken was a violation of Harvard Hillel’s trust and affiliation agreement,” Ben-Ami wrote. “On behalf of J Street and J Street U, we sincerely apologize for the damage that this has caused within the Harvard Hillel community, as well as to the trust between J Street U and Harvard Hillel.”

J Street U is the student organizing arm of J Street — a liberal Zionist advocacy group.

Ben-Ami wrote in his letter, which was co-signed by J Street U Director Erin Beiner and J Street New England Regional Director Janette Hillis-Jaffe, that Zielonka “was not a chapter chair recognized by J Street U and did not inform the J Street U team of their plans to conduct this action on campus.”

“If these students had been J Street U leaders, their actions certainly would not have been approved as they run counter to our organizational values,” Ben-Ami added.

Zielonka acknowledged in a statement that the postering campaign “was not sanctioned by J Street National.”

“They have since informed me that postering is not a practice they encourage,” she added.

Rubenstein wrote in a Thursday evening statement to The Crimson that Hillel was not aware that its J Street U chapter was no longer recognized by the national organization.

“Neither Harvard Hillel nor the student leaders were aware of JStreetU's lapse in affiliation,” he wrote.

Though Rubenstein said in his Thursday email that he found the flyers to be “dangerous,” he also said that the controversy generated by the incident could “make a compelling case for a Hillel-hosted discussion juxtaposing the introspection of Yom Kippur with students’ ethical positions on Israel’s war with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran.”

“I could even imagine a scenario in which these very posters could be the source-text for such an event, provided that the session was designed with a goal of introspection and deliberation,” he added.

—Staff writer Sally E. Edwards can be reached at sally.edwards@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @sallyedwards04 or on Threads @sally_edwards06.