Jewish community members to boycott JMU’s Holocaust Remembrance event

By CHARLOTTE MATHERLY & ASHLYN CAMPBELL The Breeze

Two dozen Jewish faculty, faculty emeriti and staff from JMU intend to boycott a “Holocaust-centered” lecture event planned for Jan. 26, the group said in a letter addressed to President Jonathan Alger, in which they say the planning of the program “disrespected and disparaged Jewish individuals, dismissed Jewish participation and failed to reflect the inclusive values that JMU purports to foster.”

The letter, included in full on The Breeze’s website, was created to share the faculty members’ concerns, perspectives, feelings of isolation and to ask for action in response to their “alienation,” according to the letter. Several sources sent the letter to The Breeze.

The three Jewish members of the planning committee resigned following concerns about the planning process, saying Jewish voices at JMU and in the community were “casually diminished,” according to the letter. This was confirmed by several people familiar with the matter.

The event, “An Evening Conversation on the History and Legacy of the Holocaust,” is to be held Jan. 26 at 6 p.m. in the Festival Ballroom. According to a copy of the event program sent to The Breeze, the event is sponsored by JMU’s Office of the Provost, the Office for Inclusive Strategies and Equity Initiatives, the Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence and the Madison Center for Civic Engagement, and the evening will feature two speakers: Alan Berger from Florida Atlantic University and Phyllis Leffler, a professor emerita from University of Virginia. There’ll also be a musical performance featuring JMU Provost and Senior Vice President for

Academic Affairs Heather Coltman on piano.

The letter also takes issue with the tone and language of the event. A local rabbi who wasn’t involved with the writing of the letter, Jeffrey Kurtz-Lendner, said the program for the event felt insensitive because it felt more like a celebration than a commemoration. If JMU had made “adequate preparations,” the letter reads, the university “would have marked the somberness of the occasion.”

The letter also alleges that JMU “ignored members of the community” who pushed for more consultation and reliance on experts, uninvited those who sought change and didn’t acknowledge concerns raised by Jewish faculty behind closed doors “for years.”

No matter the toll it takes.

“I lost my son,” Kym said. “I’ll always be honest — I’m miserable. I think I’ll be miserable for the rest of my life.”

‘Can happen to everyone’

When Tyler died, the Hilinskis had three options: Stay put, run away or make a difference in other student-athletes’ lives before it’s too late.

Kym talked to her oldest son, Kelly, about what to do — how to keep living without Tyler. They considered to “just dig our heads in the sand,” she said, in their California home and let Tyler’s suicide go. Kym also contemplated taking Mark, Kelly and her youngest son, Ryan, off to a faraway island to try to live, breathe and walk again.

Those two options didn’t seem right, Kym said.

They chose option No. 3, just as Tyler wore No. 3 at Washington State. In 2018, Mark and Kym started the Hilinskis Hope Foundation, also called H3H, which strives to improve mental health for student-athletes. Tyler Talks are part of H3H, as are mental health modules and other resources. JMU football players adorned green-ribboned stickers with a No. 3 on the back of their helmets Oct. 1 against Texas State, as did 123 other programs across the country, to honor Tyler during College Football Mental Health Week.

But all that doesn’t make rehashing Tyler’s story over and over any easier.