Dear Editor,

Thank you for the reporting from Esther Balaban on a recent tension between Hillel and the Brandeis Jewish Bund.  Though that tension is regrettable, that an updated version of the old Jewish Bund exists on campus is really remarkable.  Kudos to the students who chose that historic name for their organization, aligning themselves with a socialist spirit very much under fire these days!  They have adapted the name towards a cause they hold dear, of rights for Palestinians and Palestine, but under a historically Jewish moniker.  Though I am personally uncomfortable with the use of labels that seem unnecessarily inflammatory to me--settler colonialism, apartheid, genocide--and believe the moral concerns those terms channel can be otherwise expressed, I appreciate the presence these students make on a campus I remember, and cherish in memory, for its broad ecumenism in religion and moral urgency in the face of injustice. 

Sincerely,

Ernest Rubinstein

B.A. 1974