On Thursday, a student published an op-ed in The Daily titled, “Northwestern Hillel forbade my event about Israeli settler violence.” The piece provides a misleading account of Hillel’s decision-making. It misrepresents Hillel’s values while leaving out critical information about its author, Evgeny Stolyarov, who uses an incomplete narrative to accuse students engaging with Hillel of complacency and exclusion.

Stolyarov paints himself as an ordinary Jewish student who thought NU Hillel “seemed like the obvious place to go” for his proposed event. He implies his proposal was rejected based on its content in an attempt to shut out differing views about Israel. This is false.

Hillel declined to host Stolyarov’s event because he had long served as a leader of Jewish Voice for Peace at NU, an anti-Zionist organization that helped organize the 2024 Deering Meadow encampment. In April 2024, months before he approached Hillel about his proposed event, Stolyarov and JVP organized a protest where flyers were distributed that claimed “NU supports genocide” by, among other things, “funneling Jewish students into Hillel, the Zionist ‘foundation for Jewish life.’”

JVP is currently engaged in a campaign against NU Hillel — from banners on campus to condemnations of the Medill School of Journalism’s speaker event with Hillel. 

Stolyarov’s op-ed omits any mention of his leadership in JVP, which has voiced an explicit commitment to dismantling Zionist institutions, including Hillel, at NU and nationwide. No organization should be expected to sponsor an event run by the leader of a movement aiming to discredit and destroy it. That is exactly what Stolyarov asked of NU Hillel. Now, more than a year later, he has decided to publicly criticize this choice. 

Unlike Stolyarov, we are fully transparent about our leadership within NU’s Jewish community. We currently serve as NU Hillel’s student executive board president, vice president and incoming president. We align with Hillel’s institutional beliefs, including Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. We also strongly believe in “machloket l’shem shamayim” (argument for the sake of heaven), our commitment to pluralism and open dialogue in pursuit of the truth. 

NU Hillel welcomes all students and community members, regardless of their agreement with Hillel’s institutional stance on Zionism. We stand by our beliefs, and we recognize that we can only pursue progress through inclusion and meaningful discussion. In fall 2024, NU Hillel’s Israel Learning Fellowship brought together students with diverse beliefs about Israel and Zionism to discuss history and the present. Stolyarov was among the group of students who signed up and were accepted into the cohort. He ultimately did not attend a single meeting, which he said was due to a scheduling conflict.

At NU Hillel, we’ve sat across the table from Stolyarov at a faculty “Lunch & Learn” event, participated in an Israel learning cohort with students who do not identify as Zionist and discussed Israel over Shabbat dinner with friends who have opposing views. That’s why Stolyarov’s claim that Hillel “exiles Jewish folks like me who oppose inequality, seek true dialogue and ask hard questions” is disingenuous.

We have some hard questions for Stolyarov. Why does he act like he was not welcome in pluralistic conversations? Why did his op-ed fail to disclose his otherwise public leadership in JVP, when this was the reason why Hillel could not host his event? Why did he only choose to write about this now, one year after discussions with Hillel? 

Argument for the sake of heaven requires transparency. It requires a commitment to constructive debate that hopes to achieve progress, even and especially when an argument cannot be permanently resolved. And it requires pursuing truth rather than power or victory. Opposing sides might never abandon what they believe is right, and they cannot be expected to sponsor each other’s beliefs. They can still engage respectfully, ask questions and seek out the truth. 

Stolyarov implores students to stop showing up for Shabbat dinners, study sessions and coffee hang-outs at NU Hillel, and he does so in the name of righteousness and politics. We urge our peers to reject this call. 

Keep showing up. Let’s celebrate our Judaism together, sharing challah and friendships even when we fiercely disagree. The world we want to build, the people we want to become and the values we cherish ask us to keep arguing for the sake of heaven.

Claire Conner is a Medill junior and can be contacted at [email protected]. Jonah Rosenberg is a Weinberg junior and can be contacted at [email protected]. Jeremy Berkun is a Bienen senior and can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.