After a year-long consultative process, the student organization previously known as Hillel has changed its name to ‘The Jewish Association at Middlebury (JAM)’, while maintaining an on-paper affiliation with Hillel International, an umbrella network of Jewish campus groups across the United States.
Since 1954, Hillel, now JAM, has provided religious and social programming for Jewish students at Middlebury. They provide Shabbat and Havdalah services each week, celebrate major Jewish holidays such as Passover and Rosh Hashanah, and host fun events for the community.
In an email sent to JAM membership last week, the organization board noted: “While Middlebury College will continue to be affiliated with Hillel International, we believe this name better reflects our local community. This decision was made to reflect the desires of our diverse student body, and it doesn’t endorse any one political persuasion.”
According to co-presidents Caroline Jaffe ’26 and Anya Rose ’28, conversations about disassociating with Hillel International were sparked after a fundraiser held on Nov. 10 2023, in which JAM raised $656 by selling Challah bread. Proceeds from the fundraiser went to World Central Kitchen, an organization that provides food relief in both Palestine and Israel.
“We had a fundraiser for World Central Kitchen, which was operating in Gaza and in Israel, and we got a stern email from Hillel International, saying, ‘Why are you guys raising money for Gaza?’ I think that was the first time I remember [thinking], oh wow, this really isn't aligned with my Jewish values at all, to be like, ‘Why are you guys feeding these starving people?’” Jaffe noted in an interview with The Campus.
As a result of the email, JAM changed its Instagram caption about the event to “All proceeds will go to World Central Kitchen’s team in Israel and Gaza,” adding ‘Israel’ at Hillel International's request.
Hillel International asks all its affiliate chapters to maintain an unwavering commitment and support for Israel, discouraging criticism of the Israeli state. It also does not allow its chapters to engage with any other student organization that supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, a Palestinian-led strategy to pressure the state of Israel into ending its oppression of Palestinians.
“Taking out any perspective that I have on BDS, I just kept coming back to this idea of how are we ever going to get to peace in Israel and Palestine if we can't even have a Middlebury Jewish group and a Middlebury SJP [Students for Justice in Palestine] talk to each other in Vermont, pretty much as far removed as you could be,” Jaffe said.
JAM does not receive any funding from Hillel International, and, unlike many other college campuses, Hillel does not employ a rabbi at Middlebury.
Jaffe and Rose, along with other JAM board members, started a consultative process to rename the organization and disaffiliate with Hillel in the summer of 2025, after the international organization’s continued support for Israeli attacks on and incursions into Palestine.
“We are feeling increasingly gross about being kind of the front face of an organization that is affiliated with a parent organization that has these values that we don't agree with,” Jaffe added.
After meeting with the college’s Rabbi and Associate Chaplain, Daneille Stillman, the JAM board hosted in-person and online listening sessions, allowing JAM members to voice their opinions on a potential name change and also provided students with a Google form to share their thoughts anonymously.
“I was absolutely blown away by how supportive people were for disaffiliating, even people, even students that I knew to be more pro-Israel than I was, were supportive of the idea,” Jaffe said.
“This was primarily a student initiative, but the Scott Center and other administrators were involved in supporting the students and helping them think through the different perspectives of various stakeholders in the community who might be impacted by a name change,” Stillman said in an email to The Campus.
At the request of Dean of Spiritual and Religious Life Mark Orten, JAM invited Associate Vice President for Student Engagement and Belonging Brian Lind to host these listening forums.
Jaffe and Rose noted that these sessions were important for the board to decide how to vote. Generally, board members voted to disassociate, not solely based on their personal belief, but on the overall desire of JAM membership.
However, in Nov. 2025, one week before the board planned to vote, JAM received an email from Lind and Smita Ruzicka, Vice President for Student Affairs, informing them that they did not have the authority to rename the organization and disassociate with Hillel International.
“The communication felt contradictory. We'd been communicating with them and keeping them in the loop, and really clear that the goal of all these listening sessions was to have a vote on it,” Rose said.
“We felt like it was disrespectful to ask people to be really honest and transparent with us about their relationship with Judaism on campus, and then … kind of leave them in the dark, wondering what was happening,” Jaffe added.
However, the board still voted, resulting in a 7-to-1 recommendation to disassociate.
“Let us be clear: this decision is not a rebuke of Zionism, Zionist students, or the importance of Israel to many in the Jewish community. Rather, it reflects a desire to create the most welcoming and pluralistic space possible,” a Dec. 2025 email to JAM membership read.
One of the concerns raised by the college administration regarding disassociation and a name change was an alleged contract between JAM and Hillel International. Jaffe and Rose noted that despite inquiries to Middlebury administrators, General Counsel Hannah Ross, staff at the Scott Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, Hillel International representatives, and a search of their own JAM archives, no such contract has since been found.
The college suggested that Jewish students interested in disassociation with Hillel International — the vast majority — form their own organization, a suggestion JAM firmly rejected.
“There are just not enough Jewish students to have all these different groups, and then from a spiritual sense, it's really important to me that we weren't siloing people off as much as possible. And the fact that [the college suggested] separating people according to their views on Israel and Palestine is antithetical to what we're trying to do in creating a more pluralistic space,” Jaffe said.
At the request of the college, JAM organized a virtual meeting between their leadership and a representative of Hillel International.
“This, I think, for me, was what really sealed the deal. It was, first of all, really hard to get in contact with them despite our rabbi [Danielle Stillman] really trying to help us out and us taking steps to reach out,” Rose noted.
The organization told JAM board members that they must universally adopt Hillel International’s political views and values about Israel.
“When we asked them pretty directly [about these values], they also said something along the lines of that their expectations are different from the ones that are posted online. When we asked them to clarify, she said she would rather not,” Rose said.
The Hillel International representative who attended this meeting refused to share any contact information with JAM.
Nevertheless, while JAM could not formally disassociate from Hillel International, board members proceeded with a name change to better reflect the values of its membership.
“We said we want to disaffiliate, and they said you can't. And we said, well, we're going to change the name anyway. And they said, we can't stop you,” Jaffe said.
Renamed to JAM, Jaffe and Rose hope that the organization continues to maintain its Jewish-focused programming while continuing to disassociate with the guidelines of Hillel International.
“My hope for the organization would be that under this new name, people feel less of an obligation to follow or even pay attention to these guidelines that I think the vast majority of our students don't agree with,” Jaffe said.
For Jewish students at Middlebury, the Scott Center provides other opportunities for support and religious guidance alongside JAM.
“Our office organizes, funds and leads High Holiday services and meals (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), the campus Passover Seder, and the Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) service … In addition, Jewish students are supported by all the offices on campus that intersect with Jewish life — from the Jewish Studies and Modern Hebrew and Israeli Society programs to the Office of Student Engagement and Belonging to the Hebrew Language and Culture Club,” Stillman added.
Yuvraj Shah '26 (he/him) is a Managing Editor.
He has previously served as the Senior Opinions Editor. He is a joint major in History and English Literature. He was awarded a $5000 Mellon Humanities For All Times Grant through the Axinn Center for the Humanities and is conducting research about the citizenship rights of the British Kenyan Asian diaspora. He studied abroad at Keble College, University of Oxford. He is a Senior Fellow at Middlebury College Admissions, a Residential Advisor, and Arts Events House Manager. He is a member of Middlebury College’s new 10-year plan development committee. He has previously interned with the New England Review and the Middlebury Magazine. He is an international student from Nairobi, Kenya, and London, UK. He is a UWC Davis Scholar.
