Support Jewish Students at the Claremont Colleges
Tax deductible
What is Haverim?
Haverim (“friends,” in Hebrew) is the de facto Jewish Student Union for the Claremont Colleges (Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, Scripps, Harvey Mudd) in Claremont, California. We are a 100% student-led group that cultivates community for Jewish students and their friends and combats antisemitism on campus. We defend the expression of Zionism as part of the identity of Jewish students–expression which has come under aggressive attack in the wake of October 7th and the anti-Zionist protest movement. Our goal is to create a strong sense of community for Jewish students in the midst of a hostile campus climate.
Led by a 12-member student board, Haverim hosts a wide variety of events on campus. Over the past year, we’ve brought speakers–including an October 7th survivor –to campus, and hosted social events for Jewish students and their friends. We collaborate with 5C Chabad and the Claremont Colleges’ Jewish Chaplain, and partner closely with Claremont Hillel to ensure that no Jewish 5C student feels alone. We also advocate on behalf of Jewish students to the administrations of the Claremont Colleges. This has included countless meetings with administrators as well as coordination with the Brandeis Center, Anti-Defamation League, and other outside Jewish organizations in holding these colleges accountable. We also take more public action when necessary, such as painting over a collection of antisemitic, hateful comments left on Pomona’s free speech wall (you can read about that in this article, published in the student paper).
Why do we need your support?
Over the past 14 months, the Claremont Colleges have seen an alarming rise in antisemitism on campus. Jewish students have been bullied, harassed, and socially isolated by anti-Israel student groups and professors. Lists of students and professors with “Zionist-sounding last names,” a student-government-distributed pamphlet alleging that Israel created Covid-19 to kill Palestinians, a BDS referendum , a celebratory countdown to the one-year anniversary of October 7th, the storming and ransacking of Pomona’s Carnegie Hall on that anniversary, the public mourning of the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah: the stories from Claremont are shocking.
We rely on outside funding to continue hosting speakers and organizing events, while expanding our advocacy work. Though we are a registered student club at the 5Cs, we have received minimal funding from student governments. For the entire year, we were allocated only 15% of our budget request. Over the summer, we received $5,500 in gifts from generous members of the community. Our expanded programming has made use of that additional funding, and we further plan to increase the number of events and initiatives in the spring semester. To make that happen, we need your help and generosity.
How will we use your contribution?
Haverim relies on gifts to fund the two major elements of its mission: Community and Advocacy.
Community:
- Bi-weekly social events on Shabbat, with major expenses being food and beverages. Costs on average $350 per event. This year, we’ve been getting 50-60 students showing up, a four-fold increase over last year and we expect this momentum to continue.
- One-off events, like BBQs and Community days. Costs can vary widely, from $50 to $400 depending on the size and scale (our semester kickoff BBQ, for example, which we did in conjunction with Hillel, cost us around $600)
- Major events like our planned Bar-Mitzvah Party in the spring, which may cost up to $2,500.
- Team-building events for the Haverim Board, who put a lot of energy and time into their work for the Jewish community.
Advocacy:
- Public advocacy: this takes the form of actions like painting Walker Wall, the public free speech wall on campus. We last did this at the beginning of the year, in response to the student government’s distribution of antisemitic fliers at the club fair which alleged that COVID-19 was a weapon created by Israel to commit mass genocide against first the Palestinians and then the entire world population. Our painting of the wall (“WHY DO ASPC AND SJP SPREAD ANTI-JEWISH PROPAGANDA? ASK THEM YOURSELF. WE’RE NOT AFRAID”) put a spotlight on the issue, leading to a public apology from ASPC and an investigation into the incident by the school. Cost for painting the wall: $400 for supplies (it’s a big wall). We do more actions like this as necessary, depending on campus events.
- Bringing speakers to campus: together with Hillel and college professors and departments, we have been able to fund speakers including a Nova Festival Survivor.
Claremont Hillel acts as Haverim’s financial sponsor, meaning they supervise expenditure of money we have raised, though Haverim receives no direct financial support from Claremont Hillel itself. This also means that your donation is tax-deductible.
Thank you. Your support means the world to us.
– The Haverim Claremont Board
Organizer
Haverim Claremont
Organizer
Claremont, CA
Claremont Colleges Hillel Council
Beneficiary