You’d think the hullaballoo over Hillel’s claims of a culture of anti-Semitism at the Daily Targum would have died down by now.

In the January 23, 2014 issue of the The Daily Targum, Rutgers senior Colleen Jolly asked “Can Hillel’s Funding be put to better use elsewhere?” Jolly made unattributed statements a la Glenn Beck, presenting unfounded introspection such as “I am not 100 percent sure where this money is going, but seeing that they used a University building my only guess would be to the University, or specifically to the proposed Hillel building.” While Rutgers Hillel has taken no money from Rutgers, Jolly used inaccurate statements like this to question the virtue of Rutgers spending money on a building built, she felt, only for the benefit of the Jewish community on campus. (The Targum has since taken down Jolly’s letter).

In the succeeding days, the Daily Targum received letters decrying Jolly’s commentary. A letter written by the Alliance to Advance Interfaith Collaboration at Rutgers University alleged hateful, anti-Semitic, and bigoted language. The letter, written collaboratively by reverends, rabbis, and an imam, called Jolly’s accusation that “pro-Israel parties are good at getting money…” a “nasty Jewish stereotype.”

Criticisms of the paper and its editors were overt. “Last Thursday, I read one of the most factually inaccurate, as well as plan meanest and rudest pieces of commentary I’ve ever come across in The Daily Targum — which says a lot,” one letter said.

Following the removal of the original article from the paper’s website and a column by Daily Targum editor-in-chief Enrico C. Cabredo apologizing for the content of the piece, clarifying the misinformation in it, and promising to practice better judgement in the future, Rutgers Hillel published a press release criticizing Cabredo’s apology:

“We are embarrassed for you. We are embarrassed that you disgraced yourselves and the entire Rutgers community. … We are embarrassed for you because you chose to publish a commentary that was such poor writing and such impoverished thought, that its incoherence almost overshadowed its gross bigotry. … But we are also embarrassed for you because, after publishing such a rambling, offensive screed, your editorial response demonstrated precious little understanding of what you had actually done.

Meanwhile, while this drama played out in Hillel press releases and the opinions page of the Daily Targum, the paper’s Board of Trustees sent a private letter to Hillel, apologizing for the pattern of insensitivity the student-run paper had exhibited over the past year or so. That letter was sent just over a week ago but now its been made public.

In a press release on Thursday, Rutgers Hillel claims it was given permission by the Daily Targum to publish the letter on their web site.

The letter:

Mr. Getraer and Ms. Lubow, Let me start by saying we are deeply sorry. It was antisemitic, it was inaccurate and it never should have run in the paper. The response the students published in the Targum was meant as an apology to Hillel and the Rutgers community at large, but please accept this as our personal apology. As soon as the Board of Trustees was made aware of Ms. Jolly’s letter to the editor, we promptly had the students remove it from The Daily Targum’s website. We asked that the comments section remain online so that the community could continue to react. The Daily Targum is an independent, student-run publication. The board is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the paper, but serves as an advisory group the students can turn to when they need assistance. In addition to the managing editor, editor-in-chief, business manager and marketing manager, the board consists of four alumni members, our comptroller and a Rutgers faculty member, staff member and student representatives. After removing Ms. Jolly’s letter from the website, the board also instructed the editor-in-chief to issue an apology and to correct some of the inaccuracies stated in her opinions piece. After learning of Ms. Jolly’s letter and because of various issues over the past year — including but not limited to the editing of letters submitted by Hillel representatives, inaccuracies in opinions pieces related to Israel and Palestine, and issues of imbalance being raised — the board has taken the unusual step of requiring the editor-in-chief to submit all letters and commentary on this topic to the board for approval before they can be published. While we do not like to insert ourselves into the editorial process, we understand that there is a long history of problems here and we want you to know that we are taking steps to address them. In direct response to your requests, please accept our apology to Rutgers Hillel and the entire Jewish community. As stated above the board is now working directly with the student editors to regulate what does and does not appear on our opinions page. The students work very hard to produce a paper five days each week while still maintaining a full course load. But they are students and they make mistakes. They have apologized for those mistakes and are working with the board to make sure this does not happen again. The editorial board is in the process of transitioning to new leadership. The current editors will be leaving in less than two weeks and a new group will be taking over. The board is exploring professional training with media industry experts. Once we decide on a program, all editors will be required to attend. We hope that you understand we cannot allow Hillel — or any other group on campus — to be involved in crafting this training. We hope that you will accept our apology and understand that we are working to remedy this situation. Sincerely, The Daily Targum Board of Trustees

Hillel’s commentary on it:

Rutgers Hillel is gratified to receive a mature and thoughtful response from The Daily Targum Board of Trustees, which demonstrates that leadership of the Targum understands the seriousness of this issue and is determined to change the culture and operation of our campus paper for the better. The Targum response clearly and directly acknowledges the anti-Semitism of the commentary by Ms. Jolly, as well as the responsibility of the Targum editorial board in publishing it. It is a personal apology to Hillel and the entire Jewish community that doesn’t try to hide or deflect criticism, and that is welcome and appreciated. We especially appreciate the candor with which the Targum Board acknowledges the Targum’s pattern of bias in coverage of the Jewish community and Israel. This has been an ongoing source of pain and frustration for many students and other members of the Rutgers community. We welcome their decision to take unprecedented action to change the culture of the Targum. We are hopeful that by providing student editors with additional training and by supervising opinion and editorial pieces that deal with the Jewish community and/or Israel, such bigotry and bias will be prevented in the future. We do understand that the Targum editors are students, that they have an extremely demanding job, and that they are often inexperienced. But they also have a extremely powerful communications platform in their hands, one that represents our state university, and with that comes an obligation to understand and use that platform responsibly. It is gratifying that The Daily Targum Board of Trustees is now taking action to educate student journalists so that they can fulfill this obligation in the future, for the greater good of our entire university community.

Considering the history of dick-measuring and jousting in Jewish, Muslim, Arab, Israeli, and Palestinian groups over the years in the opinions section of the Daily Targum and in media outside of Rutgers, we think we need to explore this issue a little more.

So, here’s what we know: Jolly published her allegedly anti-Semitic commentary. There was backlash from Jewish groups on campus and the Interfaith Council. Some students supported the Daily Targum’s right to publish diverse content. Others did not. The editor-in-chief of the paper apologized in a column but that was not enough for Hillel. Meanwhile, privately, the Daily Targum Board of Trustees — which consists of alumni, faculty and other professionals — stepped out of their advisory position into a managerial role, shifting away from the description given to the Rutgers University Senate in the concept plan they submitted for approval by the Senate and Rutgers President Robert Barchi in late 2012. They sent a private letter to Hillel that someone at the paper later approved for public eyes. That letter agreed with Hillel’s view that their was a series of events evidencing bias towards them and the state of Israel over the past year. Hillel posted the letter to their website in a press release, agreeing with the Board of Trustee letter that the student-management of the paper need to be taught to be sensitive to publishing topics related to the “Jewish community and/or Israel.” (Because those are interchangeable, obviously.)

We’ll have more on this issue soon. In the meantime, do you have any thoughts on the events of the past two weeks? Some wild conspiracy theories? Let us know in the comments.