A speaker event hosted by Hillel on Thursday, April 4, 2024, faced uproar on campus, with the University of California Riverside (UCR) Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) protesting the presence of Michael Alroy, a transgender Israeli veteran. Hillel promoted the event as an opportunity to learn about “sexual orientation, and tolerance” in Israel. Alroy, a transgender man, immigrated to Israel from South Africa when he was a child. However, SJP speakers pointed to Alroy’s time in the Israel Defense Force (IDF), protesting the presence of a former IDF soldier on campus, characterizing Alroy as a “former Israeli occupation soldier.”
Dozens gathered on the Highlander Union Building (HUB) balcony in opposition before the speaker event, which was originally slated to be held at the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Center at 6 pm. The protest follows recent demonstrations against IDF activities in Gaza, including a protest on Nov. 18, 2023, against another speaker invited on campus by Hillel.
Following the opening statements of the protest, a transgender woman and UCR alumni speaker announced to the crowd, “We stand here in solidarity. We are not here to oppose the transness of this man; we are here to oppose his violence.”
After learning of the event’s relocation to HUB 302, the protest organizers moved the protest to the 3rd-floor lobby after the speeches.
Hillel, the student organization that arranged the speaker event, viewed the event in a different light. In an announcement of the event on Instagram, UCR Hillel titled the event “Gender Identity and Judaism,” and stated the talk would discuss Alroy’s “experience with exploring gender identity, sexual orientation, and tolerance.” UCR Hillel Director, Eran Vaisben, deemphasized the role of the IDF in Alroy’s talk, stating, “This guy served when he was a woman. Women served in a very minor, insignificant role in the Israeli army, unfortunately, at the time that he served. Now they’re serving more on combat units, but at the time, he was just pushing papers. So what.”
Vaisben also emphasized that service in the IDF for Israeli citizens is mandatory, and hoped that the event would instead focus on Alroy’s experience growing up in a Jewish Orthodox family, and how he navigated growing up as a girl and struggling with his gender identity. He stated that hurdles arise in situations like that, “especially with [Jewish Orthodoxy] … So the goal is actually to meet a transgender face-to-face and to understand the struggle.”
According to Vaisben, an invitation was extended to the LGBT Resource Center (LGBTRC) in an effort to promote the event with their audience.
Nancy Jean Tubbs, director of the LGBTRC, confirmed that Hillel leadership did reach out to her about a speaker coming to campus to speak about being Jewish and transgender. A follow-up conversation occurred to better understand [the topic at hand] as the Instagram post did not go into much detail. Tubbs explained how “the only thing students could glean from such a post is what they find out by googling the name,” so after the follow-up conversation, she shared what she knew about the purpose of the speaker and context of the event in an email to student leaders at the LGBTRC, “so that they can be better informed.”
Some protestors saw fault with Hillel’s stated reason for the speaker, citing other concerns. Protestor Jordan Jackson, a comparative literature PhD student, voiced that the reason he was at the protest was because he is anti-western military imperialism, and views the Israeli military as an extension of that.
Jackson explained that he briefly looked into Alroy’s background prior to the event, expressing concern on how the IDF would often pop up in Alroy’s biography. He asked the question if the event was not focused on the IDF, “why was it such a large part of the speaker’s identity?” Jackson said his opposition to the speaker was less of an issue of free speech and more about the right to an audience. He stated, “my issue is there is a group on campus bringing an audience for a speaker with,” what Jackson characterized as “nefarious means.”
During the Hillel event, SJP transitioned to a sit-in outside of the event space. Throughout this time, protestors chanted various slogans such as “Michael Alroy, can’t you hear, terrorists aren’t welcome here.” Other protestors distributed pamphlets entitled “Queering the Map,” which shared Instagram posts of Queer Palestinian experiences. The sit-in concluded at around 7 p.m., with much of the crowd dispersing before the end of the speaker event.
The discussion with Alroy proceeded in HUB 302 until 7:40 p.m. The event was structured as a discussion circle, with Alroy at the head, sharing his story and answering questions from the students present. After speaking with Director Vaisben, The Highlander was able to attend the event after 7:25 p.m. during the question and answer portion, during which Alroy made references to his experiences attending an all-girls school and various countries he had visited during his travels, connecting back to how it influenced his journey with gender and identity.
The event was not the first time Alroy has done a discussion within the United States. A few days prior to the UCR Hillel event, Alroy had attended a conversation with the Hillel House at UC Berkeley, and in 2023 had done 17 talks across the country. Gesturing outside the event space where the protest and sit-in occurred, Alroy shared, “I have never come across this yet.” He claimed that if the protestors came in to sit down and speak to him, he would be “glad to hear what they want to say,” and that when people protest, they “don’t listen to each other,” and by doing so it is “just making it worse.”
While no information on the flier posted on the Hillel Instagram depicted the event as private, Hillel Director Vaisben stated that the conversation with Michael Alroy was a private event. The doors to enter HUB 302 were locked for the duration of the evening, and the speaker was unavailable to the public.
