Jewish Group at Catholic University Cancels LGBTQ+ Event After Harmful Threats
A Jewish student organization group at a Catholic university was forced to cancel their LGBTQ+ event after getting hateful messages, reports New Jersey 101.5.
The group, Seton Hall Hillel, is part of Seton Hall University, the largest Catholic university in New Jersey. The students were planning to host a “Drag Queen Bingo” last month.
Before the event was supposed to take place, members of the organization received “unacceptable, hateful messages.”The organization posted the following statement on their social media channels:
“With deep disappointment, we must announce the cancellation of Tuesday’s ‘Drag Queen Bingo’ event. Hillel GMW [Greater Metro West] and Hanukah Lewinsky made this decision out of abundance of caution and care for the safety and well-being of our students, community, and performer.
“What was meant to be a joyful (belated) celebration of Purim—a holiday that embraces resilience, Jewish pride, inclusivity, and joy—instead became a target for hostility as our Hillel community received unacceptable, hateful messages in response. While we regret that we must cancel this program, our commitment to fostering a vibrant and welcoming Jewish community remains steadfast.
“We are grateful to Seton Hall administration for their continued support of our work in building Jewish spaces and for standing with us during this difficult decision. We appreciate the enthusiasm of those who looked forward to this event and hope to create future opportunities to celebrate together in a welcoming environment,” the statement read in full.”
The group added that they chose to cancel the event out of an abundance of caution for its members, the guest performer, and the Seton Hall community. They did not provide more specifics regarding the hateful crime.
New Ways Ministry’s Executive Director Francis DeBernardo commented on the incident: “At a time when anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and incidents are on the rise in this nation, it is deplorable that these students should be forced, out of safety concerns, to cancel an event. There’s no place for such hateful threats anywhere, and especially on a Catholic campus. We’re glad to hear that the administration supported the Hillel students during this dangerous situation”
—Elsie Carson-Holt, New Ways Ministry, May 26, 2025
This harmful rhetoric and behavior is completely unacceptable.
I am so sorry you had to cancel the event due to harmful threats.
The hate seems to be growing in this country. My thoughts
and prayers will be with you as you go forward. Blessings,
Ginny King, OP
The statement by Seton Hall Hillel implies that the threats against the Drag Queen Bingo were motivated by anti-queer bigotry not antisemitism since there is no use of that term in the Hillel statement. I am unaware of any antisemitic rhetoric or incidents being on the rise in the US. I am aware of anti-Zionist, anti-genoicde/apartheid/occupation peaceful protests organized by Jewish and Muslim students on college campuses. The recent condemnable shooting of Israeli embassy staff was motivated by anti-Zionism, not antisemitism. There is a distinction between Judaism and Zionism. Judaism is a beautiful religion. Zionism is a political, white supremacist settler colonial genocidal project to erase the indigenous people of Palestine and take control of their homeland. Christianity is a beautiful religion. The conquest and genocide of Native Americans in the name of bringing Christ to the heathens was a political, white supremacist settler colonial project. It’s very important we keep these distinctions between religion and political oppression masquerading as religion.
I don’t see drag bingo as an LGBTQ event. It’s show business.
The Israeli state is fuelling what real antisemitism does exist by conflating the profound beauty of the Jewish faith with the brutality of Zionism in Palestine. More and more people around the world people are simply anti-zionist and anti-colonial – for very good reason.