מקדש שני, שהיו עוסקין בתורה ובמצות וגמילות חסדים, מפני מה חרב? מפני שהיתה בו שנאת חינם!
Why was the Second Temple, filled as it was with Torah, commandments,
and deeds of kindness, destroyed? Because of sin’at chinam – baseless hatred.
Dear family of friends,
In a world full of distressing news, I’d like to share one item that hits close to home for me, and which I feel raises some important questions for us to consider.
This past summer, Rabbi Nikki Golomb received her ordination from Hebrew College and moved to Atlanta to serve as the rabbi at Emory Hillel. According to Rabbi Golomb, one month into her new position, she was summoned to the office of the CEO of Hillels of Georgia, and informed that she was being let go because of her relationships with “people who are critical of Israel.” She was then shown her engagement photo, and a still from a post by her fiancé, who posts on social media about witnessing settler and army violence against Palestinians on the West Bank.
After failing to negotiate more than a few weeks of severance pay, Rabbi Golomb has decided to go public with the story. Since then, Hillels of Georgia has accused her of “ongoing false and misleading statements,” claiming that her firing was due entirely to her behavior since being hired, which indicated “a misalignment with Hillel’s mission,” and called into question her “judgment and integrity” – according to a statement they released to the Forward. They did not mention any specifics.
I have strong reasons to believe Rabbi Golomb’s account over that of her former employer, and I have seen statements by them and their proxies, that verge on character assassination. But among the arguments I have heard most often from people who defend Hillel’s actions, the most revealing is that Rabbi Golomb is associated with Rabbis for Ceasefire, which itself has been associated with Jewish Voice for Peace – an avowedly anti-Zionist organization, and how could she possibly make a safe space for Zionist students with sympathies like that?
Beyond the obvious missteps in Hillels of Georgia’s hiring and firing practices, the assumption that a rabbi who is sympathetic to critics of Israel could not at the same time be supportive of Zionist students is in and of itself sin’at chinam – baseless hatred: a destructive force to our body politic. Nikki Golomb was studying in Jerusalem on October 7, 2023, and she chose to stay there for the year, rather than return home to the US with many of her fellow students. I find the assumption that she would be unable to support Zionist students truly mystifying, no matter her personal opinions on the rightness or wrongness of Israel’s actions. This circling of the wagons to defend Israel and its actions shuts out significant portions of our Jewish community, and does more to fracture our people than to unite us.
My friend Rabbi Rachel Barenblat, in her blog velveteenrabbi.com, described a better vision for us:
I have congregants who align with AIPAC and congregants who align with JStreet and congregants who align with JVP and all of them belong in my shul and at my Shabbes table and in my heart. To me this seems so basic. It’s my job to serve God and my people, and my people don’t all hold the same views; isn’t that just… what it means to be in community?
May we as Jews (and as Americans!) remember that our strength lies in our diversity.
~Reb Josh
