A Statement From US Jews Opposing Trump’s Attacks on Colleges and Students
The statement condemns Trump’s “disingenuous” weaponization of antisemitism to target universities and deport campus activists.
Donald Trump is introduced at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Annual Leadership Summit at the Venetian Resort Las Vegas on October 28, 2023.
(Ethan Miller / Getty Images)As the new academic year begins, more than 100 prominent Jewish Americans have signed a statement released today voicing strong opposition to the Trump administration’s policy of “disingenuously” using accusations of antisemitism to facilitate attacks on colleges and the detention and deportation of campus activists.
“We write, specifically, as Jewish Americans who condemn the charge of antisemitism being leveled against student activists—many of whom are Jewish—for their legitimate criticisms of Israel’s violence in Gaza and their universities’ connections to the Israeli occupation,” the statement says.
The diverse list of signers includes Jewish activists, authors, academics, rabbis, artists and attorneys, as well as Jewish leaders of progressive organizations.
One of the signatories is Nation columnist Dave Zirin. He writes: ”I proudly signed this letter out of respect for my great-grandparents who fled the pogroms. They never, ever would have believed that human rights atrocities would keep us safe, but instead that safety lies in justice followed by peace: justice and peace for us, for Palestinians, for all. They certainly would have been appalled that anyone would take seriously that an administration of Nazi-curious Christian Zionists would have our best interests at heart. I am proud to carry that outrage forward and say that the political grandchildren of the fascists of old must never be allowed to weaponize our history or pain. And it must be said that this condemnation extends to AIPAC and the JDL. That they would support, cover for, and excuse these antisemites is a mark of shame they will carry in perpetuity. Not in our name. Hell no.”
The full statement follows.
We, the undersigned, stand in opposition to the Trump administration’s targeting of college students and professors whose only “crimes” are exercising their First Amendment rights.
We write, specifically, as Jewish Americans who condemn the charge of antisemitism being leveled against student activists—many of whom are Jewish—for their legitimate criticisms of Israel’s violence in Gaza and their universities’ connections to the Israeli occupation. That this accusation is being used as a pretext to abrogate students’ rights to free speech, and to deport non-citizen students, should raise the highest level of alarm.
We also oppose how the Trump administration disingenuously uses accusations of antisemitism to wage an assault on American higher education and on the ability of scholars to pursue research and knowledge independent of government interference.
We also write to remind our fellow Jewish Americans that the weapons the Trump administration now wields against political dissidents — public humiliation, state persecution, expulsion and deportation — are the very same that Jews have suffered from at various points in history. It is imperative that we stand on the frontlines in opposing this wanton assault on civil liberties and the right to dissent. We should know history well enough to understand that such curtailment of individual freedoms will not stop here.
We are aware of the danger inherent in an administration full of people comfortable using antisemitic tropes while using purported anti-antisemitism as a cudgel to attack free speech, the most sacrosanct of American values.
We, as Jewish Americans, reaffirm our support for free speech and independent scholarship. We wholeheartedly condemn these heinous and anti-democratic policies of the Trump administration.
Initial list of signers: (Organizational affiliations for identification purposes only)
Abba A. Solomon, American Zionism researcher and author
Adam Green, Immigration attorney
Adam Shatz, US editor of the London Review of Books
Alan Minsky, Executive director, Progressive Democrats of America
Alice Rothchild, MD, retired asssistant professor, Harvard University
Alyosha Goldstein, Professor, University of New Mexico
Rabbi Andrue Kahn, Executive director, American Council for Judaism
Ariel Dorfman, Novelist, playwright, essayist, human rights activist
Rabbi Aryeh Cohen, American Jewish University
Ash Bohrer, Assistant professor of gender and peace studies, University of Notre Dame
Aviva Chomsky, Professor of history, Salem State University
Barbara Weinstein, Silver Professor of History, New York University
Barry Trachtenberg, Rubin Presidential Chair of Jewish History, Wake Forest University
Ben Cohen, Cofounder, Ben and Jerry’s
Ben Katchor, Cartoonist
Ben Manski, Assistant professor of sociology, George Mason University
Beth Miller, Political director, Jewish Voice for Peace
Rabbi Brant Rosen, Founding rabbi of Tzedek Chicago
Rabbi Cat Zavis, Beyt Tikkun
Cecilie Surasky, University of California, Berkeley
Charlie Fisher, Emeritus associate professor of sociology, Brandeis University
Corinne Hirsch, JD
Cynthia Kaufman, Director, Vasconcellos Institite for Democracy in Action, De Anza College
Dan Segal, Professor emeritus, anthropology and history, Pitzer College
Daniel Boyarin, Taubman Professor of Talmudic culture, UC Berkeley (emeritus)
Dave Zirin, Sports editor at The Nation, author
Rabbi David Cooper, Emeritus, Kehilla Community Synagogue
David S. Goldstein, University of Washington
David N. Myers, Professor of Jewish history, UCLA
Rabbi David Mivasair, Member, Jewish Voice for Peace
David Rovics, Singer/songwriter
Dennis Bernstein, Journalist, KPFA/Pacifica Radio
Dev Noily, Senior Rabbi, Kehilla Community Synagogue
Rabbi Diane Elliot, Director, Wholly Present; Founding Faculty, Taproot Community
Donald Greenspon, Attorney and activist
Dove Kent, US senior director, Diaspora Alliance
Eliot Katz, Poet
Emma Saltzberg, US deputy director, Diaspora Alliance
Eric Drooker, Painter and graphic novelist
Eric Mann, codirector, Labor/Community Strategy Center–Los Angeles
Eric Ross, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean, Berkeley Law
Estee Chandler, Founder, Jewish Voice for Peace, Los Angeles
Eva Borgwardt, National spokesperson, IfNotNow
Gene Bruskin, Veteran labor organizer and playwright
Hollie Ainbinder, Program director, Institute for Public Accuracy
Ira Shor, Professor and author
James Schamus, Filmmaker, professor, Columbia University
Jane Gordon, Professor, University of Connecticut
Jay Levin, Founder of LA Weekly
Jeff Cohen, Media critic, retired Ithaca College journalism professor
Jeff Gottlieb, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist
Jennifer Loewenstein, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Jerry D. Rosen, California State University, Northridge
Jessica Backman-Levy, Professor of practice, Washington University in St. Louis SPH
Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg, Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council
Joel Beinin, Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History, emeritus, Stanford University
Jonathan Feingold, Professor, Boston University School of Law
Joshua Lewis Goldstein, Professor of history, University of Southern California
Judith Butler, University of California, Berkeley
Karen Ackerman
Karen Brodkin, Professor emerita, UCLA
Lara Langer Cohen, Associate professor, Swarthmore College
Leora Auslander, Professor, University of Chicago
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Marcy Winograd, Cochair, CODEPINK Central Coast
Margaret Morganroth Gullette, Scholar, Women’s Studies Research Center, Brandeis
Marjorie Cohn, Professor emerita, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Marjorie N. Feld, Professor of history
Mark Sapir, Author and physician
Mark Weisbrot, Codirector, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Martin Lee, Author, The Beast Reawakens
Martin S. Hirsch, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Maya Schenwar, Director, Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism
Rabbi Meryl Crean, Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinic Council
Rabbi Michael E. Feinberg, Director, Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition
Michael Kazin, Professor of History, Georgetown University
Michael Roth, President, Wesleyan University
Miriam Klein Stahl, Artist/activist/educator
Mitchell Plitnick, President, ReThinking Foreign Policy
Mneesha Gellman, Associate professor of Political Science, Emerson College
Molly Crabapple, Artist and writer
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, Instructor emeritus of practical rabbinics, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Morriah Kaplan, Interim executive director, IfNotNow
Nancy Stern, Professor, the City College of New York, CUNY
Nicole Schulman, Artist
Nina Menkes, Filmmaker
Noah Dor Lind, Havurah Shalom
Norman Solomon, National director, RootsAction
Orian Zakai, Hebrew literature scholar and writer
Osha Neumann, Human rights attorney, author, artist
Penny Rosenwasser, Author, instructor of antisemitism course, City College of San Francisco
Peter Beinart, Columnist and journalist
Peter Kuper, Illustrator and cartoonist
Phyllis Bennis, Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies
Phyllis R. Stein, career counselor
Rabbi Rebecca Alpert, Professor of Religion Emeritus, Temple University
Rebecca Vilkomerson, Codirector of Funding Freedom and former executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace
Richard (R.J.) Eskow, Journalist, host of The Zero Hour
Richard E. Rubenstein, Professor emeritus, George Mason University
Rick Goldsmith, Documentary filmmaker, Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink
Rick Perlstein, Historian and journalist
Rinat Abastado, Rabbinic student in AOP
Robert Brenner, Professor emeritus of history, UCLA
Robert Greenwald, President of Brave New Films and director, Gaza: Journalists Under Fire
Robert M. Gould, MD, physician and peace activist
Sam Rosenthal, Political director, RootsAction
Sandy O, Singer/songwriter, Emma’s Revolution
Santiago Slabodsky, Kaufman Chair in Jewish Studies, Hofstra University
Sarah Katz, Law professor, Temple Law School
Sarah Anne Minkin, PhD
Seth Morrison
Seth Tobocman, Comic book artist
Rabbi Shai Gluskin, Rabbinic Advisory Council, Jewish Voice for Peace
Stefanie Fox, Executive director, Jewish Voice for Peace
Stephanie Kristal, Therapist and immigrant defense advocate
Stephanie Levy, Hunter College
Steve Brodner, Illustrator, educator, journalist
Susan Adelman, Feminist, activist, and philanthropist
Suzi Weissman, Professor of politics, St. Mary’s College
Victor Silverman, Professor emeritus, Pomona College
Victor Wallis, Professor of liberal arts, Berklee College of Music
Zillah Eisenstein, Professor emerita, writer, activist
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