I’ve received many comments from readers about the confrontation between the UCLA Hillel director, Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, and a pro-Israel female demonstrator. I got a letter from the demonstrator herself — Rachel Neuwirth — who said she was bruised and resting at home, completely shaken. I heard from people who said we weren’t there and shouldn’t judge the rabbi, who has been doing wonderful work in the community for 28 years, as well as from those who want to start a campaign to get him fired.

I like to be fair. I really do. Especially when the reputation of a fellow Jew – a rabbi who has worked in the community for so many years – is involved.

So let’s look at what happened, and then at the reputation of the rabbi involved. I mean, if this was an isolated incident, however shocking, is it right for us to destroy the man? On the other hand, if this is the latest in a pattern of unacceptable behavior on Seidler-Feller’s part, what responsibility do his bosses — the people at Hillel who sign his checks — have to bear?

First, here’s what happened according to Chronwatch.com, based on an account by Adam Foxman of the UCLA Daily Bruin:

“After he left [a presentation by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, author of The Case For Israel], Seidler-Feller spoke with a small group of demonstrators protesting at the event, said David Hakimfar, a fourth-year history student. Rachel Neuwirth, a freelance journalist who has been published by Israel National News and Front Page Magazine, said she heard Seidler-Feller discuss an upcoming event [involving] Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al Quds University and Palestinian Authority Commissioner for Jerusalem. She said she then approached Seidler-Feller, alleging that Nusseibeh helped direct missile attacks into Israel during the first Persian Gulf War.

“[Neuwirth’s lawyer Robert] Esensten said Seidler-Feller then physically confronted Neuwirth, after which she called him a ‘capo.’ Neuwirth reported to police that her wrist was grabbed, and that she was kicked. Esensten said one of the actions preceded the insult, but he did not specify which one.

“Seidler-Feller’s attorney would not discuss specific facts of the incident, citing the ongoing legal process. Seidler-Feller and Neuwirth were eventually pulled apart by nearby students, Hakimfar said. Hakimfar said he helped separate Seidler-Feller and Neuwirth, and added that Seidler-Feller ‘landed at least one kick’ before he and Neuwirth were separated. In addition to any potential criminal charges the city could file, Esensten said Neuwirth intends  to bring a civil lawsuit against Seidler-Feller.”

So who is this rabbi? And why would he attack a woman complaining about Sari Nusseibeh, a man who praised “Jihad fighters” on Qatari Television on June 29, 2002, alongside Hamas official Khaled Mashal and Mrs. Umm Nidal, the mother of a suicide bomber, who encouraged her son to carry out the attack? A man who said: “All respect is due to this mother, it is due to every Palestinian mother and every female Palestinian who is a Jihad fighter on this land”? A man who in August 1993 told the Jerusalem Arab newspaper Al Fajr that he supports “the use of force against Israelis as a means of support of our negotiating position”  (quoted in the Cleveland Jewish Times, Sept.8, 1993)”

Nusseibeh is a man who was indicted by the government of Israel in Lod Military Court in 1989 (bill 108/89 and 109/89), because he “served as a conduit” for financing the first intifada and was responsible for “drawing up reports and leaflets for intifada purposes such as instructing intifada activists.” A man who has said “Israelis are not human,” that Israel is a “racist Zionist entity” which was “born in sin.” 

Why would a Hillel rabbi be promoting such a person, encouraging Jewish students to feel sympathetically toward him? And why would the suggestion that Nusseibeh had done some bad things to Israel push him over the edge to physically attack a fellow Jew, an Israel supporter, a woman?

Well, take a look at what Seidler-Feller’s been doing at UCLA Hillel all this time. He’s been sitting on the board of ultra-left-wing Tikkun magazine, for one. He’s been hosting the likes of El Fadl, whom Daniel Pipes pointed out had for years contributed to the Holy Land Foundation, which the U.S. closed down last year because it raises money for Hamas.

Last year, Ben Shapiro, a student at UCLA and syndicated columnist [whose thoughts on Yitzhak Rabin appear on page 4 of this week’s Jewish Press] summed up the UCLA Hillel problem this way in the Yeshiva University Commentator: “I go to UCLA, so I am most familiar with the situation there. The rabbi at UCLA Hillel is Chaim Seidler-Feller, a rabidly leftist Jew who openly sympathizes with the Palestinians. In the past he has compared Jewish treatment of Palestinians to Nazi treatment of Jews. Chaim Seidler-Feller offers virtually no support to the pro-Israel wing on campus.”

Shapiro availed himself of the opportunity to raise those concerns directly to the then head of Hillel, Richard Joel, at a public meeting. This, according to Shapiro, was Joel’s reply: “Rabbi Seidler-Feller is a knowledgeable man, and a good friend of mine. I am proud to sign his paychecks…By the way, everyone in this room should learn from him.”

Richard Joel is now the president of Yeshiva University.

Why has Seidler-Feller been allowed to run amok at UCLA? And why has his long-time boss been given the helm at YU?

Considering what Natan Sharansky and others have reported about the shocking state of Jewish life on campuses nationwide – with Jewish students intimidated, brainwashed, and physically threatened – can the state of Hillel on campus be considered a success story warranting Joel’s appointment to lead one of the last bastions of traditional Jewish campus life in America?

It all comes down to fundraising. Seidler-Feller and Joel are wonderful fundraisers. By searching for moderate Arabs with a magnifying glass – and fostering the illusion that there is such a thing and it is only the “bad” Jews who can’t seem to find them and make peace with them – Seidler-Feller has opened the floodgates for ever greater donations by Jews who desperately seek to disassociate themselves from those terrible Israelis.

As for Joel, the trustees of YU who chose him were no doubt looking at the bottom line. During his 14 years as president and international director of Hillel, he took a floundering organization and left behind a juggernaut with a thousand employees and a 50-million-dollar annual budget. And that’s what counts, apparently. Even to the trustees of an Orthodox institution of higher learning that includes a rabbinical school. 

I’m sure that President Joel, who I understand is a great guy, will raise a lot of money for YU. But at what cost to the school is another question altogether.

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