{"id":10681,"date":"2025-04-15T20:04:29","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T20:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jewishpublicaffairs.org\/?p=10681"},"modified":"2025-04-17T20:07:38","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T20:07:38","slug":"nbc-jewish-communal-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jewishpublicaffairs.org\/news\/nbc-jewish-communal-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"NBC News: Some Jewish Americans wrestle with Trump’s sweeping crusade against antisemitism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published by NBC News<\/a><\/p>\n

April 15, 2025
\nby Daniel Arkin<\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2014 In recent weeks, President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has pointed to the fight against antisemitism as one reason it is threatening to pull hundreds of millions in funding from Ivy League universities and attempting to deport international student activists who protested against Israel\u2019s war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

In some instances, Jewish organizations have cheered what they view as Trump\u2019s crackdown on the antisemitism that has swelled since the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks on Israel and the subsequent invasion of Gaza. But in many other cases, leading Jewish groups and advocates have expressed deep discomfort with what the government professes to do in the name of Jewish safety.<\/p>\n

The divide echoes some of the internal political divisions among Jewish Americans over the last 18 months.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Sharon Brous, the founding and senior rabbi of IKAR, a Jewish community based in Los Angeles, succinctly captured that unease with a sermon she delivered<\/a>to her nondenominational congregation on March 8. It was titled, \u201cI Am Not Your Pawn.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat may feel, today, like a welcomed embrace is actually putting us at even greater danger,\u201d Brous said, according to a copy of her sermon <\/a>published on IKAR\u2019s website. \u201cWe, the Jews, are being used to advance a political agenda that will cause grave harm to the social fabric, and to the institutions that are best suited to protect Jews and all minorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are being used. Our pain, our trauma, is being exploited to eviscerate the dream of a multiracial democracy, while advancing the goal of a white Christian nation,\u201d Brous added.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Brous is not alone in voicing displeasure with the Trump administration\u2019s tactics and strategy. In a joint statement Tuesday<\/a>, a coalition of 10 organizations representing a wide swath of American Jewry flatly rejected what they characterized as \u201cthe false choice between confronting antisemitism and upholding democracy.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n

The organizations \u2014 assembled by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, a pro-democracy group \u2014 made clear they believe that antisemitism has become more \u201cvisible, chilling, and increasingly normalized,\u201d and \u201crequires urgent and consistent action.\u201d But they forcefully criticized the Trump administration\u2019s sweeping crackdown on universities and pro-Palestinian protesters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn recent weeks, escalating federal actions have used the guise of fighting antisemitism to justify stripping students of due process rights when they face arrest and\/or deportation, as well as to threaten billions in academic research and education funding,\u201d the 10 organizations said. \u201cStudents have been arrested at home and on the street with no transparency as to why they are being held or deported, and in certain cases with the implication that they are being punished for their constitutionally-protected speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUniversities have an obligation to protect Jewish students, and the federal government has an important role to play in that effort; however, sweeping draconian funding cuts will weaken the free academic inquiry that strengthens democracy and society, rather than productively counter antisemitism on campus,\u201d the groups added. \u201cThese actions do not make Jews \u2014 or any community \u2014 safer. Rather, they only make us less safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The groups behind the message included the National Council of Jewish Women, the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Union for Reform Judaism.<\/p>\n

The statement was released a day after the government said it would freeze more than $2 billion<\/a> in grants to Harvard University after the school said it would not accept demands from the administration\u2019s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. The demands included limiting the acceptance of international students who are \u201chostile to the American values and institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Columbia University signaled last month<\/a> it would comply with the administration\u2019s demand in exchange for restoring some $400 million in federal funding. The administration has also paused university funding for grants and contracts at Brown, Cornell, Northwestern, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the most prominent Jewish elected official in the country and the author of a recent book about antisemitism, blasted the White House for \u201cmaking unprecedented demands of universities aimed at undermining or even destroying these vital institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schumer, who is a Harvard graduate, said Monday that institutions of higher learning \u201cmust do more to fight antisemitism on campus,\u201d but applauded the nation\u2019s best-known Ivy League school for bucking Trump\u2019s demands: \u201cHarvard is right to resist.\u201d<\/p>\n

The American Jewish Committee, an influential advocacy group, recently reiterated calls for universities to \u201ctake action to counter and prevent antisemitism on their campuses.\u201d But the organization took issue<\/a> with what it called \u201cthe broad, sweeping, and devastating cuts in federal funding that a growing number of American research universities have been subjected to in recent weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The organization added that the administration\u2019s cuts, initiated \u201cunder the auspices of combating antisemitism, will damage America\u2019s standing as a center of innovation and research excellence.\u201d<\/p>\n

But crucially, some Jewish organizations have vocally supported Trump\u2019s second-term agenda, while others have refrained from harshly criticizing the president.<\/p>\n

Nathan Diament, the executive director of public policy for the Orthodox Union, the nation\u2019s largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization, said in an interview Tuesday that his constituents were pleased that the White House appears to be taking antisemitism seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say, overall, without getting into each individual instance, certainly the segment of the American Jewish community that we represent appreciates that President Trump and his team are being much more aggressive in fighting the surge of antisemitism that we\u2019ve seen for more than a year and a half,\u201d Diament said.<\/p>\n

He said his organization had repeatedly lobbied the Biden administration to take a tougher line on antisemitism, adding that while he recognized that the previous White House \u201ctook some steps,\u201d he was glad to see Trump\u2019s more bellicose approach.<\/p>\n

Matt Brooks, the chief executive of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said his organization \u201centhusiastically applauds the Trump administration for taking bold, decisive action to combat anti-Americanism and antisemitism in higher education after years of weakness and appeasement of the campus mobs by the Biden-Harris administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a new sheriff in town, and his name is Donald J. Trump,\u201d Brooks added.<\/p>\n

The Anti-Defamation League, one of the nation’s foremost Jewish advocacy groups, drew criticism<\/a> after it backed the March 8 arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate student who played a prominent role in the sprawling protests last year against Israel at Columbia University.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

\u201cWe appreciate the Trump Administration\u2019s broad, bold set of efforts to counter campus antisemitism \u2014 and this action further illustrates that resolve by holding alleged perpetrators responsible for their actions,\u201d the ADL wrote in part in a March 9 post on X.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, any deportation action or revocation of a Green Card or visa must be undertaken in alignment with required due process protections,\u201d the ADL added. \u201cWe also hope that this action serves as a deterrent to others who might consider breaking the law on college campuses or anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khalil is a 30-year-old legal permanent resident from Syria. In a ruling last week<\/a>, a federal judge said the Trump administration can deport him. The administration has cited Khalil\u2019s beliefs in justifying his deportation. In one memo<\/a>, Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote that allowing Khalil to stay in the U.S. would create a \u201chostile environment for Jewish students.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the midst of the Trump administration\u2019s flurry of activity, some Jewish voices have expressed a certain ambivalence about the White House\u2019s confrontation with universities.<\/p>\n

The publisher and editor-in-chief of The Jewish Journal, a publication based in Los Angeles that prints editorials from a conservative viewpoint, recently wrote he was \u201ctorn between two sentiments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the one hand, it\u2019s good to see that our government is taking seriously the anti-Jewish onslaught that began on college campuses right after the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7,\u201d David Suissa wrote in an editorial published April 2<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if the government goes too far and uses \u2018antisemitism\u2019 as an excuse to unlawfully kick out agitators, the effort will end up backfiring on the Jews. The last thing we need is to be held responsible for the overreach of an overly aggressive government.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published by NBC News April 15, 2025 by Daniel Arkin LOS ANGELES \u2014 In recent weeks, President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has pointed to the fight against antisemitism as one reason it is threatening to pull hundreds of millions in funding from Ivy League universities and attempting to deport international student activists who protested against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNBC News: Some Jewish Americans wrestle with Trump's sweeping crusade against antisemitism - Jewish Council for Public Affairs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jewishpublicaffairs.org\/news\/nbc-jewish-communal-statement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NBC News: Some Jewish Americans wrestle with Trump's sweeping crusade against antisemitism - 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