Hillel Apologizes for Disinviting Hotovely

YERUSHALAYIM

The Jewish student organization Hillel has apologized for its abrupt cancellation of an invitation to Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely to speak at its Princeton branch on Tuesday.

In a statement published in The Jerusalem Post, Hillel called it “a mistake” due to poor planning, and not, as Hotovely had called it, “silencing the voice of Israeli democracy,” by giving in to campus leftists who opposed her appearance.

“Unfortunately, we did not treat the Israeli deputy foreign minister with the respect that her office deserves, and postponed the event. We did this because it had not been reviewed by the Center for Jewish Life’s Israel Advisory Committee, which is designed to review and facilitate a broad range of Israel programming throughout the year.

“To be clear: This was not a good enough reason to postpone the event, and for that mistake, we apologize.

“This mistake was not caused by an effort to silence MK Hotovely,” they said, terming it an “isolated incident” and noting that she spoke at Columbia/Barnard Hillel last week and will be the guest of the Hillel at New York University on Tuesday night.

Following her appearance at Princeton Chabad, which stepped in to host Hotovely when Hillel backed out, she thanked Princeton students and the campus Chabad “for not surrendering to the liberal dictatorship, and insisting on allowing the students to have academic freedom and [access to] a variety of opinions on campus. It was fascinating.”

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