When Hillel's Brown Street building first opened its doors in 2004, Brown Hillel staff intentionally refrained from hanging the Israeli flag within its structure, concerned that students would see the flag as a symbol of political partisanship.
Two years later, student leaders at Hillel influenced the decision to raise the flag for the first time. To them, the symbol represented support for Israel from a standpoint of religious identity rather than political partiality. Today, the Israeli flag hangs next to the American flag in the Hillel building lobby.
While some students oppose the flag's tenancy, saying that support for Israel should not be inferred by a strictly apolitical religious organization like Hillel, others support it, saying support for Israel is important for non-political reasons.
"Currently, we do have the flag up because we stand by Israel," said Eytan Kurshan '08, Hillel president. "The stance of the national Hillel organization is, 'Wherever we stand, we stand with Israel,' and we live by that," Kurshan added.
Though Hillel is apolitical, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has prompted political dialogue and activism among many Hillel participants, Kurshan said. "When it comes to speaking about Israel, Hillel tries to bring people together from all viewpoints. Ultimately, what Hillel is trying to do is not spread a particular viewpoint, but engage people in conversation," he said.
Carly Edelstein '08, chair of Hillel's social justice committee, said that most people in Hillel are pro-Israel, but warned that "while being pro-Israel tends to be considered a Jewish view, this is not true for everyone."
"You can relate to Israel culturally, religiously, politically - it's not a black and white issue," Edelstein said. "I don't think I could generalize about one political tendency here."
For some participants in Hillel, as for members of other student religious or political groups, religion informs politics.
"Often, the goal of Hillel's programs is to get people thinking about these issues as Jews, and how their understanding of Judaism applies to whatever they're talking about," said Danielle Levine '09, Hillel's vice president for campus relations.
"Religion informs the conversation for certain people more than others," added Kurshan.
The story behind the Israeli flag in Hillel's lobby suggests that certain religious conversations are inevitably infused with politics, and that religion often plays a role in shaping political dialogue.
For Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom, politics and religion merge in discussions about a woman's right to choose. "We talk about women's reproductive choice in two contexts: political and moral," said Herald Senior Staff Writer Kristina Kelleher '09, who interned for the organization with two other Brown students. In the political sphere, the group often talks about the legal restrictions placed by government on a woman's right to choose. In the moral realm, the group discusses various religious viewpoints and the plurality of circumstances under which various religions consider abortion to be morally acceptable.
"Anywhere that life and quality of life are in question, politics and religion intersect," said Christina Cozzetto '10, co-president of Brown Students for Life. "Taking care of those less fortunate than you are, for instance, is a big focus of members of the Catholic community," she added.
Lamia Khan '08, who serves on Brown's Multi-Faith Council, said that as a Muslim, religion and politics particularly merge for her on poverty and human rights issues. "Broadly speaking, an important theme in Islam as in any religion is to act justly in all situations, whether it means treating those around you with dignity and respect or working to promote justice and equality among all people on a broader social level," Khan said.
Sometimes, religious groups hold events specifically to highlight the intersection of religion and politics. The Brown Christian Fellowship brings pastors and other speakers to campus who "frequently talk about the intersection of religion and politics," said Joshua Marshall '08, the longest-standing member of the group.
"We have to be wary on the institutional level for reasons evidenced by our history, but on a personal level, yes, religion and politics go hand in hand," Marshall said.
Political and religious organizations on campus also partner for events. The Brown Democrats and Hillel partnered for last year's Human Rights Film Festival and the Dems co-sponsored with Brown Students for Israel an Oct. 19 lecture by New Republic editor-at-large Peter Beinart, "Why Liberal Values are Moral Values."
"We have similar interests - but also, a lot of Democrats are Jewish," explained Dems President Gabriel Kussin '09.
Hillel leaders noted that Hillel has also partnered with the College Republicans for various events and lectures, and President of Brown College Republicans Marc Frank '09 serves on its board.
Frank estimated that Brown's College Republicans has a higher percentage of religious individuals than Brown's student population as a whole. "About half have fairly strong religious principles that lead to explain why they are Republicans," Frank said.
By contrast, Kussin said that for the three years he has been involved with the organization, the Dems have never framed political issues in terms of religion. But "we've framed them in terms of morality and values, which may be indirectly shaped by religion," he said.
"When (the College Republicans) have formal discussions, I wouldn't say that as an organization we frame issues through religion, but individual members do," Frank said.
Most students involved with political and religious student organizations agreed that diversity in participants' faith contributes positively to political dialogue.
Both Frank and Kussin said individual members' varied religious experiences add to the richness of political discussion and can help strengthen political arguments formulated within their groups. "Because we have such a wide range of religions in our group, we can't base our arguments on just one principal," Kussin said.
"Political and religious discourse are tricky for the same reason," Hillel President Kurshan said. "So the question becomes, how do you engage people with completely different viewpoints while still incorporating those who want to speak about the issue that don't have experience in it?" But the intersection of politics and religion, he said, is inevitable.
"Religion teaches certain values, and political parties are collections of values," Kurshan said.
