I have JSU's side of the DAFKA/JSU argument. Their primary reasoning was that being JSU-affiliated meant your leadership had to be student-run, instead of being run by an older, non-student organizer. The two bylaws that broke were

a) Be formed, led and directed by Jewish students (a majority of whom attend U.C. Berkeley),” and “c) Not serve, primarily or exclusively, as a vehicle for non-student, community groups, organizations, or persons.”

JSU was willing to work with DAFKA to come up with a compromise. Instead, DAFKA started urging visitors to not donate to Berkeley Hillel, and stonewalled against changing their bylaws at all. Typical ineffective extremism-- the crux of the matter was changing leadership roles, but groups like DAFKA are unable to handle compromise or bending to an external requirement.

In any case, after DAFKA went nuclear, JSU voted to revoke affiliation with them, for the foreseeable future.Email This Post!