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Seidler-Feller, director of Yitzhak Rabin Hillel Center for Jewish Life at UCLA, sings while carr

As Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller waits to hear if he will be allowed to continue as director of UCLA Hillel, the Los Angeles Jewish community pays close attention to the fate of one of its most important – and controversial – figures.

The Los Angeles Hillel Council is investigating allegations that Seidler-Feller assaulted a woman at a campus event Oct. 21, and will ultimately recommend if the outspoken politically liberal rabbi should be fired.

The interest of many members of the community in whether Seidler-Feller leaves or stays goes beyond the alleged assault. Seidler-Feller’s ordeal has highlighted a rift between Jews who have different perspectives on politics and, specifically, Israel – a nation that so often brings Jewish community members together.

As a vocal proponent for a dovish position that sometimes runs against the mainstream, Seidler-Feller, who declined to comment for this article, has drawn criticism from people who feel Jews must unequivocally support Israel, especially in its current state of impasse with the Palestinians. And as the head of one of the largest Jewish student organizations in the country, some people feel he forces his political views on impressionable students.

His position as someone who helps mold and shape the next generation of Jewish leaders is threatening to many.

The whole situation was brought to a head on Oct. 21 when Seidler-Feller allegedly kicked Rachel Neuwirth, a local community activist and journalist whose political views are almost 180 degrees different than Seidler-Feller’s.

The incident, which appalled many members of the Jewish community, opened a window of opportunity for some people who had disagreed with Seidler-Feller for years to put him under a spotlight and – they hope – get him fired.

Dr. Sheldon Wolf is a friend of Seidler-Feller’s who studied Jewish scripture under the rabbi. He describes himself as conservative, in line with the Israel advocacy group Stand With Us. He is also a strong supporter of Seidler-Feller because of his profound respect for the rabbi’s accomplishments.

The talk Wolf has heard in the Jewish community about Seidler-Feller falls along two lines – those who discuss the Oct. 21 incident as an isolated event, and those who discuss it in terms of its political ramifications. Wolf compared the political aspect of the discussion to the discussion that might happen were there to be a vacancy in the U.S. Supreme Court. If a more liberal judge was threatened with removal, Democrats would naturally rush to the judge’s defense while Republicans would call for the judge’s ouster.

The analogy to the Supreme Court may seem dramatic, but it is not far-fetched. Los Angeles is home to the country’s second-largest Jewish community. UCLA is Los Angeles’ largest and most prestigious university – the self-described place where great futures begin.

The setting places Seidler-Feller in a powerful position. Some say he uses that position to impress his political views on students.

“(People) feel that he is misteaching their children, the youth of America, the future leaders,” said Ross Neihaus, president of Bruins for Israel.

The perception that Seidler-Feller’s political views are a problem has gained greater prominence because of events in Israel.

The second intifada, or Palestinian uprising against Israel, has changed relationships within the Jewish community, especially on college campuses. After the intifada broke out in September of 2000, Jewish organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League documented a rise in anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic incidents on campuses around the country. The movement against the war in Iraq, which tended to hurl defiance at Israel and the U.S. government, also increased concerns about such sentiments on campus.

To counter the movement, Jewish organizations poured millions of dollars into Israel advocacy groups which sought ways to outreach to campus communities. As the intifada continued, the perception among many of these advocacy groups is that they had to defend Israel aggressively.

As the deterioration of the Mideast peace process agitated relationships between American Muslims and Jews, it also agitated relationships within the politically diverse Jewish community. The Jewish American mainstream generally followed Israeli public opinion as it shifted to the right, and people who didn’t follow suit felt increasingly marginalized. Some were branded as traitors and “self-haters.” Some were intimidated into silence.

Not so for Seidler-Feller.

As an outspoken liberal, Seidler-Feller continually expressed dovish views as Jews on campus felt more and more threatened.

David Myers, a UCLA history professor and a friend of the rabbi, said some people perceive Seidler-Feller to be the cause of the tension in the community because of his outspoken nature, a conception Myers calls “preposterous.” Myers said Seidler-Feller is nothing more than a recognizable figure who expounds a particular view despite some people’s efforts to put the “onus of responsibility” on him.

“He’s a Jewish community activist who has not been shy in expressing his views about the Middle East conflict, and at a point in history when initiatives for peace are not favored in the Jewish community, he ... finds himself in a somewhat unfavorable position,” Myers said.

Gideon Baum, president of UCLA’s Jewish Student Union, said Seidler-Feller’s views make people, including himself, uncomfortable sometimes. But he added that being made uncomfortable is often beneficial to spiritual and mental development. Furthermore, Seidler-Feller brings “way more” people to Hillel than he drives from it, Baum said.

Others say Seidler-Feller crosses lines he should not cross. They oppose not just his views, but the way he expresses them.

Ben Shapiro, a fourth-year political science student and nationally syndicated columnist, said most of the speakers Seidler-Feller recruits for Hillel events are from the left-wing. When a more conservative figure is brought in, the speaker will likely be hotly contested by Seidler-Feller, Shapiro said.

It is not Seidler-Feller’s nature to let assertions he disagrees with stand uncontested – whether or not he is attending a Hillel-sponsored event.

For instance, when the late Edward Said spoke on campus last year, Seidler-Feller challenged the Palestinian intellectual and activist on a statement that 800,000 Palestinians were expelled from Israel in 1948. He then asked Said to sign a petition calling for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and a two-state solution to the conflict. (Said did not sign it.)

At a Hillel-sponsored event with Dennis Prager in Spring 2002, Seidler-Feller took exception with a comparison Prager drew relating Israel’s relationship to the West Bank with the United States’ to Puerto Rico. In a letter to the Daily Bruin, Seidler-Feller said Prager’s comparison was “imprecise.” He said Prager’s exaggerated defense of Israel ultimately hurt Israel’s cause.

It’s his style, more than the substance, that some find bothersome.

Bruins for Israel President Neihaus said, “He just puts his views out there and in your face and he argues them adamantly and he pushes them on you. ... I wouldn’t even say it’s his views that are the problem. I agree with a lot of his views. It’s just the way he goes about pushing them. He will state his views very forcefully.

“He claims that he’s open to dialogue and listening but you find that in practice it’s actually very hard to sit in a dialogue with him.”

There’s more to Seidler-Feller’s public persona than forcefulness of opinion. A passionate man, his temper has flared at times.

During a campus demonstration, Seidler-Feller once grabbed a sign equating the Star of David to a Swastika from a protester. The rabbi ripped it up and stormed away, stunning onlookers.

The incident between Seidler-Feller and Neuwirth was the most controversial incident – by far. It was reported on in major newspapers, including the Jerusalem Post. UCLA students traveling to Israel have been asked about the developments at their school’s Hillel.

The Oct. 21 incident began after a presentation by Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, who was discussing his book “The Case for Israel” in Royce Hall. According to eyewitnesses, Seidler-Feller was leaving the event when he encountered several protesters.

Seidler-Feller stopped to talk with the demonstrators, and at some point in the conversation Sari Nusseibeh’s name was mentioned. Nusseibeh is the president of Al Quds University and the Palestinian Authority Commissioner for Jerusalem and was speaking on campus the next day about a joint Jewish-Palestinian effort to gather signatures for a proposed peace plan. Neuwirth heard the name and approached Seidler-Feller, saying Nusseibeh had helped direct Iraqi Scud missile attacks against Israel during the 1991 Gulf War.

Accounts at this point become muddled. Seidler-Feller allegedly grabbed Neuwirth’s wrist and confronted her about her claim. At some point during the confrontation, Neuwirth allegedly called Seidler-Feller a derogatory term for a Jew who helped the Nazis during the Holocaust. Allegedly, Seidler-Feller began kicking her. Accounts differ on whether Seidler-Feller attacked before or after he the derogatory term was mentioned.

The two were pulled apart by students before the incident escalated. But the damage – to Neuwirth, Seidler-Feller and a wide swath of the Jewish community – was done.

Almost immediately it was evident that what had just happened was about more than just a man kicking a woman.

•••

Ten days after the incident, Rob Eshman, editor in chief of the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, wrote a column for his paper. “This week,” the column began, “while fires raged, strikes festered and three or four wars smoldered, most of the urgent phone calls I received were about Chaim Seidler-Feller.”

Some callers to the Jewish Journal asked the newspaper to downplay the incident; others wanted the Journal “to go after the rabbi,” Eshman wrote.

In an interview, Eshman said those calling for the newspaper to be more critical, typically had different politics than Seidler-Feller.

“It was political,” he said. “It wasn’t one-to-one, though.”

Eshman’s column went on to criticize Seidler-Feller’s role in the incident, but in the end recommended Seidler-Feller not be dismissed.

Noting Seidler-Feller’s contribution to the Jewish community, Eshman said, “I thought we should temper the reaction. ... At the time I wrote it, the drums were beating very loudly.”

By all accounts, the drum beat has softened with time.

Since the incident, Seidler-Feller has agreed to attend anger management classes and apologized to Neuwirth. He also agreed to stop attending campus political events for a period of time, and in January he voluntarily took a leave of absence from Hillel until the investigation of his incident finishes.

Some of his actions may be seen as attempts to make peace with groups opposed to his politics. He found an influential sponsor in the Jewish community for Bruins for Israel, the most right-wing of major campus Jewish groups.

Roz Rothstein, the executive director of Stand With Us, said the polarization which occurred after Oct. 21 has mostly died, and said people who tried to make the incident political were “unethical.”

Though the politicization of the incident has largely withered, Myers expressed apprehension that groups on the extreme right-wing were trying to keep the dispute alive to get Seidler-Feller fired.

Working largely through the Internet, such fringe groups are attacking Seidler-Feller’s character and integrity and calling for his ouster. Some go so far as to call Seidler-Feller a “wife-beater.”

But if some of Seidler-Feller’s supporters argue his opponents are responsible for politicizing the event, others say the rabbi’s supporters have downplayed a violent incident by accusing those calling for his removal of political bias.

Gary Ratner, executive director of the Pacific Southwest Region of the American Jewish Congress, said politics are irrelevant.

“This is solely a question about someone assaulting a woman,” he said.

He asked how people claiming to be “peace loving and progressive” would not call for Seidler-Feller’s removal after he allegedly assaulted a woman.

He did acknowledge, however, that many in the Jewish community wanted Seidler-Feller out long before the alleged assault.

•••

For 28 years, Seidler-Feller has been the director of UCLA Hillel. Although an orthodox rabbi, he has been a man of unorthodox style.

He’s challenged the mainstream with unusual religious and political views, sometimes to the point of making people downright angry. A man who has for years had many adversaries now faces the most serious threat to his job.

Baum said, “The sharks were swimming around him and he slipped up and they went after him – and they went after him in a big way.”

A representative from Hillel declined to comment on the specifics of the investigation. But a source close to the investigation said it is essentially over and that Hillel will make a recommendation very soon.

Since those conducting the investigation are tight-lipped, it may never be perfectly clear what role, if any at all, politics played in its outcome. But there is no doubt Seidler-Feller is a political figure.

Both supporters and detractors – even while demanding an investigation free of politics – admit that there are interests within the Jewish community that could be served depending on the outcome.

Some people perceive Seidler-Feller to be a problem that needs to be removed, or at least set aside. But to others, Seidler-Feller is a leader asking questions about problems that cannot be removed or set aside.

With all of its diversity, the Jewish community waits.