Day school labor battles: Philadelphia’s Perelman Jewish Day School recently withdrew recognition of its teachers union of 38 years,
prompting the union to file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. Perelman’s board argues it is exempt from federal labor laws, because it is a religious institution. In 1982, the board of the Brandeis School, a day school on Long Island, made the same argument, yet
the NLRB slapped it with a complaint. (Ultimately,
much of the complaint was dismissed on technical grounds.)
Criticizing Israel at Hillel: This week the
Jewish student group at Wesleyan University became the third such group to officially support the
“Open Hillel” movement, defying Hillel International’s guidelines on what Israel programs campus Hillels can host. Disputes about Israel criticism have sparked tensions between Hillel’s central office and its local chapters before. In 1977, Hillel’s then parent organization, B’nai B’rith,
created a “blue ribbon” committee to make policy recommendations in response to charges that Hillel directors who were involved with Breira, a left-wing Jewish group, were promoting inappropriate messages about Israel
