More than 120 prominent Jewish Americans signed a statement released today voicing 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. The statement reaffirms the signers’ support for free speech and independent scholarship and condemns the “heinous and anti-democratic policies of the Trump administration.”
The statement says: “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.”
The statement––initiated by leadership at RootsAction, Progressive Democrats of America, and Jewish Voice for Peace––was signed by activists, authors, academics, rabbis, artists, and attorneys. The signers include: author Ariel Dorfman; Wesleyan University President Michael Roth; UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky; legal scholar Marjorie Cohn; Middle East expert Phyllis Bennis; Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen; academics Aviva Chomsky and Judith Butler; filmmakers James Schamus and Robert Greenwald; LA Weekly founder Jay Levin; journalists Peter Beinart, Maya Schenwar and Dave Zirin; and artists Molly Crabapple, Eric Drooker and Peter Kuper.
SAM ROSENTHAL; [email protected]
Rosenthal is a researcher and the RootsAction political director.
JEFF COHEN; [email protected]
Cohen is a media critic and retired journalism professor, and a co-founder of RootsAction.
Rosenthal told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “This statement, from prominent American Jews across the U.S., could not come at a more critical time. As the academic year starts, Donald Trump is sure to use ‘anti-semitism’ as a smoke screen to persecute his political enemies at universities again. We stand united in saying ‘Not in our name!’ and denounce the disingenuous invocation of anti-semitism to curtail our civil liberties.”