Like a huge family reunion, students, families and community members gathered under a tent Sunday in the parking lot of the Lester J. Morris Hillel Jewish Student Center for the building’s dedication.

“This is a day of personal pride and accomplishment,” said David Bittker, chair of the capital campaign. Supporters raised $3.1 million during a yearlong campaign that started in June 2001 to build the center, now at 360 Charles St.

Richard Joel, president and international director of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, said that because Jewish students look for quality, Hillel centers on campuses nationwide are expanding and improving.

“This is the twentieth building I’ve dedicated,” Joel said. “This is about advancing and partnering up with people of goodwill.”

He also expressed his respect for the efforts students and community members put into the building of the new center. “There is no better organized Jewish community in the United States,” Joel said. “Five years from now, we’re going to meet together and talk about this building being too small.”

Guest speaker MSU President M. Peter McPherson presented a framed picture of Beaumont Tower to Hillel as a symbol of the university’s relationship with the center.

“Michigan State is home to a growing number of Jewish students,” McPherson said.

McPherson also took the time to clarify the university’s position on divestment. The dedication came a day after Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, a student organization based at the University of Michigan, began its second National Student Conference on the Palestine Solidarity Movement.

The organization called on universities to divest any interests with companies doing business with Israel.

“We’re not going to divest in Israel. We have not divested in anything since South Africa, which was back in 1978. We don’t think it’s appropriate,” McPherson told gatherers. “All criticism of Israel isn’t anti-semitic, but some criticism does have the feel of anti-semitism.”