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The Right Uses ‘Religious Freedom’ to Attack Trans People—What About Mine?
When politicians attempt to ban gender-affirming care, bar trans kids from playing sports, and legally erase trans people, they are not protecting religious freedom; they are imposing Christian nationalism.
Jul 02, 2026
This week, the Supreme Court dealt transgender Americans another devastating blow, upholding state bans on transgender athletes’ participation in girls' and women's sports. The decision represents the latest in a long series of attacks on trans lives, as we remain in the crosshairs of a manufactured culture war. The architects of these attacks usually wrap their bigotry in a familiar defense: “religious freedom.” They claim their faith compels them to legislate a strict, inflexible gender binary, and that any deviation from it is a threat to their religious liberty.
But as a trans Jew, and a leader of a major national Jewish organization, I have a question for them: What about my religious freedom? What about the freedom to live our Judaism?
My grandmother was born at home on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, spoke Yiddish as her first language, and was raised by immigrants who worked 12 hour physical jobs six days a week. She would not have known the phrase “gender identity” if her life depended on it. And yet, when I transitioned two decades ago, she did not hesitate. She took a deep breath, took a long look at me, decided it was still me she was seeing, and accepted me completely from that moment on.
When politicians attempt to ban gender-affirming care, bar trans kids from playing sports, and legally erase trans people, they are not protecting religious freedom. They are imposing Christian nationalism. Real religious freedom—the principle this country was founded on—only counts if it applies to all of us. Christian nationalists advocating against the rights of LGBTQ+ people are actively suppressing Judaism and other religions that don't neatly align with their theology.
We cannot let that vocal and well-funded Christian nationalist minority implement laws that endanger transgender people like me.
For years, the far-right has successfully monopolized the concept of religious liberty in this country, weaponizing it as a license to discriminate. But our past does not have to be our future. The theology they are attempting to encode into law is not a universal truth. In fact, it runs in direct opposition to my own religious tradition.
Judaism is a deeply embodied religion. It does not view the physical body as a prison, a shameful secret, or a rigid test of obedience; it delights in it. More than a thousand years before the advent of contemporary thinking about gender identity, the rabbis of the Talmud recognized seven different embodied genders. When faced with the reality of human diversity, they didn’t panic or attempt to legislate it out of existence. They acknowledged it, discussed it, and made space for it in Jewish law.
Today, the major streams of American Judaism, including the Reform, Reconstructionist, and Conservative movements, as well as plenty of Orthodox communities, explicitly affirm that being transgender is real, and healthy, and holy. And again, that affirmation is grounded in ancient theology and Jewish religious law.
At Bend the Arc, we organize progressive Jews because we understand attacks on trans people are a part of the authoritarian playbook. The very same political forces attempting to erase trans lives are the ones mainstreaming antisemitism, suppressing votes, abducting immigrants, and attacking reproductive freedom. They demand conformity because human diversity is a fundamental threat to their consolidation of power.
When I transitioned, my Jewish grandmother understood on a theological level that I was still me, and still made in the image of God. She also taught me that we do not abandon our people to appease bullies.
We cannot let a vocal and well-funded Christian nationalist minority dictate the narrative on religious freedom in America. We cannot let that vocal and well-funded Christian nationalist minority implement laws that endanger transgender people like me. LGBTQ+ people and everyone who loves us must wield our joy and pride every day as a weapon against Christian nationalism and authoritarianism, and we must stand unapologetically in our own traditions as we insist on living that joy in public.
My faith commands it. My humanity demands it. And our democracy depends on it.
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ICE Is Counting on Our Silence
It is more critical than ever to be in the streets, showing up for our neighbors, advocating to our elected officials, and using all the tools available to us to show the Trump administration that we are still paying attention.
May 13, 2026
When thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents invaded Minneapolis this past January, Twin Cities residents, and people across the country, jumped into action, trailing these agents, organizing major protests, and dropping off food and supplies to those understandably afraid to leave their homes.
Both of our organizations, too, took action. Bend the Arc: Jewish Action leadership traveled to join a clergy day of protest alongside close partners in Minneapolis, and T’ruah sent some 50 rabbis to support dozens of their colleagues who live and work there.
Lay people and clergy alike similarly stepped up in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and other cities targeted by major Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. Minnesotans successfully diminished the massive ICE takeover of their city. This is a testament to the power of citizen organizing and action.
But the absence of visible deployments of thousands of agents to a single city does not mean that the threat of ICE has disappeared, or has changed its tactics of kidnapping our neighbors, detaining immigrants without due process, and deporting people to places where they won’t be safe–including both their birthplaces and countries they’ve never even been to.
Every time we show up in the streets matters as we move through the wilderness to become the country of our aspirations.
Without the daily photos of masked ICE agents facing off against citizens armed only with whistles and cell phones, or dragging children in bunny hats or dads in pajamas out of their homes, it is easy to sit back and to believe that the threat to our neighbors has dissipated.
This is far from the truth. Last year's “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” gave the Department of Homeland Security $191 billion for immigrant detention and deportation, the largest immigration enforcement funding surge in American history. ICE alone received $75 billion, nearly nine times its annual budget. With that money, ICE is detaining more than 70,000 people per day across the country in truly horrific conditions; at least 17 people have already died in custody this year, which follows a record high 32 deaths in 2025.
ICE has yet to spend most of the money they received last year, and still they can enact this much violence in our communities. But for President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans this is not enough—right now they are trying to funnel up to $140 billion more dollars to these agencies to separate immigrant families.
In the Jewish calendar, we are currently counting the Omer, noting each day and each week between Passover and Shavuot. Within the biblical narrative, the Israelites have achieved freedom from slavery, but have not yet reached Mount Sinai, where they will receive Torah. With the drama of fleeing Egypt and crossing the sea in the past, they are stuck in the day-to-day slog of becoming free. They are disoriented, complaining, backsliding, and agitated. Counting the Omer reminds us that liberation does not come in a single moment, but rather takes days and weeks and even years of plodding through the wilderness.
It would be easy to throw up our hands and demand to go back to Egypt, as the Israelites did. But the true work of liberation requires continued action, even in the absence of flashy images and dramatic victories.
This is why our organizations, along with over 60 co-sponsoring Jewish groups, led a national day of Jewish moral action against ICE last month. This day of action followed a massive protest outside ICE headquarters in February that involved more than 600 Jews, including some 100 rabbis and cantors.
Scholars of fascism and democracy teach us that sustained nonviolent protests engaging only 3.5% of a population have been effective at multiple points in history at creating regime change. Every time we show up in the streets matters as we move through the wilderness to become the country of our aspirations.
Indeed, it is even more critical to be in the streets, showing up for our neighbors, advocating to our elected officials, and using all the tools available to us to show the Trump administration that we are still paying attention. That their attempts to distract and wear us down will not work. That we will always show up for each other.
Minneapolis may not be in daily headlines but the impacts of ICE’s violence will linger. The same remains true in far too many American cities. In the wilderness, the ancient Israelites kept complaining. They built a golden calf. They begged to go back. And they still made it to Sinai. Not because the wilderness was easy, but because they kept moving through it.
This is not a metaphor for passive endurance. Counting the Omer is an active process—you have to say the words out loud, with intention, or the count does not count. We can’t drift through the 49 days on autopilot. We have to choose, each day, to be in the middle of the story. We have a vision of the Promised Land we are trying to achieve here in the United States. It’s one where all of us, regardless of faith, race, ethnic background, ability, or birthplace, can be free.
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Progressive Jews Decry ADL 'Mamdani Monitor' for Conflating Israel Criticism With Antisemitism
The head of one group decried the ADL's "disproportionate attention on left-of-center activists’ views on Israel while failing to apply the same scrutiny to the Trump administration."
Dec 23, 2025
The heads of three left-leaning US Jewish groups on Monday admonished the Anti-Defamation League after the controversial watchdog once again conflated criticism of Israel with antisemitism in its latest report on New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and his transition team.
The Anti-Defamation League noted approvingly in its updated "Mamdani Monitor" that "at least 25 individuals" in the democratic socialist's transition team "have a past relationship with the ADL or partner organizations, or a history of supporting the Jewish community."
The group also appreciated that "Mamdani's team can and will respond appropriately" to actual incidents of antisemitism, pointing to last week's resignation of Catherine Almonte Da Costa, Mamdani's former director of appointments, following the revelation of antisemitic social media posts she published in the early 2010s.
However, the ADL said it remains "deeply concerned" by Mamdani's statements and actions, highlighting what the group claimed were "many examples of individuals who have engaged in some type of antisemitic, anti-Zionist, or anti-Israel activities and/or have ties to groups that engage in such activities" among the mayor-elect's transition team appointees.
"These activities include spreading classic antisemitic tropes, vilifying those who support Jewish self-determination in their ancestral homeland, seeking to undermine the legitimacy and security of the Jewish state, and more," the ADL said, adding that "at least a dozen transition committee appointees expressed support for the anti-Israel campus encampments in the spring of 2024."
The Mamdani Monitor also noted that "at least 20% of the 400-plus appointees have ties to anti-Zionist groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which openly glorifies Hamas’ October 7 attack... Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a fringe group that advocates for the eradication of Zionism and demonizes Zionists; Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a New York-based radical anti-Zionist organization... and others."
Asked about the report during a Monday press conference, Mamdani said, "We must distinguish between antisemitism and criticism of the Israeli government."
“The ADL’s report oftentimes ignores this distinction, and in doing so it draws attention away from the very real crisis of antisemitism we see not only just in our city but in the country at large,” he continued. “When we’re thinking about critiques of Zionism and different forms of political expression, as much of what this report focuses on, there’s a wide variety of political opinion, even within our own 400-plus transition committee.”
Critics say the ADL's claim in the update that it "has long distinguished between legitimate criticism of Israeli government policies and antisemitism" is belied by not only the Mamdani Monitor's language, but also its own significantly expanded definition of antisemitism and antisemitic incidents, which include protests against Israel’s US-backed genocidal war on Gaza.
Jamie Beran, CEO of the progressive group Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, said in an X thread that "we were disappointed but not surprised to see today’s ADL report continue their conflation of criticism of the Israeli government’s actions with antisemitism" and the group's "favoring of Trumpian tactics over bridge building and its prioritization of fearmongering over the safety of American Jews and our neighbors."
Beran continued:
The ADL of today seems to have three interests: keeping their right wing megadonors happy, protecting the current Israeli government’s violent far-right agenda by conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism, and cozying up to [US President Donald] Trump to stay close to power.
None of this fights antisemitism. Their McCarthyist Mamdani Monitor is the first of its kind because the ADL chose not to deploy a similar tactic when their bedfellows offered Nazi salutes, hired and pardoned neo-Nazis, and continued to openly spread dangerous antisemitic conspiracy myths.
"If the ADL truly wanted to fight antisemitism—like we do every day—they would actually confront it at its roots and how it works alongside all forms of bigotry, not instrumentalize it for an unpopular political agenda that has nothing to do with Jewish safety," Beran added.
Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal Jewish group J Street, also rejected the ADL's "continued conflation."
“J Street continues to be deeply concerned by the ADL’s ongoing use of its so-called ‘Mamdani Monitor,’ which goes well beyond combating antisemitism and too often conflates legitimate political speech with hate," Ben-Ami said in a statement Monday.
Ben-Ami asserted that there is "something deeply wrong when major Jewish leaders and institutions focus disproportionate attention on left-of-center activists’ views on Israel while failing to apply the same scrutiny to the Trump administration and MAGA leaders, whose blatant antisemitism and ties to white nationalist movements pose a clear and dangerous threat to American Jews."
"Our communal institutions should fight antisemitism consistently and credibly, wherever it appears—not selectively, and not in ways that inflame fear or deepen division," he added.
Another liberal Jewish antisemitism watchdog, Nexus Project, also decried the ADL update, which it said "repeatedly blurs the line between antisemitism and anti-Zionism."
J Street among the groups supporting the Antisemitism Response and Prevention Act (ARPA), legislation introduced last week by US Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Becca Balint (D-Vt.), and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) in the wake of the Sydney Hanukkah massacre.
According to Nadler's office, the bill "clearly states that it is against the policy of the United States to use antisemitism as grounds to pursue ulterior political agendas, including attacks on educational institutions, suppressing constitutionally protected speech, or any other enforcement of ideological conformity."
ARPA stands in stark contrast with the Antisemitism Awareness Act (ARA), which was introduced in 2023 by Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ, Max Miller (R-Ohio), and Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) in the House of Representatives and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) in the Senate.
The bill would require the Department of Education to consider the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism when determining whether alleged harassment is motivated by anti-Jewish animus.
The ADL has pushed a wide range of governments, institutions, and organizations to adopt the IRHA definition, which conflates legitimate criticism and condemnation of Israeli policies and practices with anti-Jewish bigotry, and forces people to accept the legitimacy of a settler-colonial apartheid state engaged in illegal occupation and colonization, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.
House lawmakers overwhelmingly approved the legislation last year; however, the bill remains stalled in the Senate.
Zionism—the settler-colonial movement for the reestablishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine—is being rejected by a growing number of Jewish Americans due to the racism, settler-colonialism, illegal occupation, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and genocide perpetrated by Israel and rooted in claims of divine right and favor.
Jewish-led groups like JVP, IfNotNow, and Jews for Economic and Racial Justice (JERJ) have been at the forefront of pro-Palestine demonstrations since the start of Israel's war and siege on Gaza, which have left more than 250,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing; 2 million others displaced, starved, and sickened; and most of the coastal strip in ruins.
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Progressive Jewish Group Hits Back After Trump Calls Jews Voting for Mamdani ‘Stupid’
"Trump and his allies claim to defend Jews, yet ignore antisemitism in their own ranks," Jamie Beran of Bend the Arc told Common Dreams.
Nov 04, 2025
President Donald Trump used one of his final messages before New York's mayoral election on Tuesday to insult the many Jewish supporters expected to turn out in favor of the Democratic nominee, state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani.
“Any Jewish person that votes for Zohran Mamdani, a proven and self-professed JEW HATER, is a stupid person!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social just hours after polls opened.
It was one final attempt to smear the assemblyman, who pre-election polls showed leading comfortably, as antisemitic over his criticism of Israel and support for Palestinian rights, which has revealed stark divisions in opinion among American Jews, with New York being no exception.
Courting Trump's support—which he earned Monday along with that of Elon Musk and senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller—former Gov. Andrew Cuomo has leaned into the most vulgar of Islamophobic attacks against Mamdani over the home stretch of the campaign, referring to him as a "terrorist sympathizer" and suggesting he'd support a second 9/11.
But in the face of these attacks, Mamdani's support among Jewish voters has remained strong. In July, with the field still fractured, he outright led among Jewish voters. And though Cuomo has bolstered his Jewish support since the dropout of incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, polls have varied widely, with some showing Mamdani and Cuomo virtually tied among Jewish voters and others showing Cuomo with a commanding lead.
Mamdani has nevertheless managed to make tremendous inroads with Jewish leaders, most recently the influential Orthodox rabbi, Moshe Indig, who endorsed Mamdani at a meeting in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on Sunday.
He had previously earned the support of the Brooklyn native Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), and local leaders, including a former mayoral contender for this cycle, Comptroller Brad Lander, and Ruth Messinger, a former Manhattan borough president and Democratic nominee for mayor in 1997.
He has also received the endorsement of several Jewish organizations, including the pro-Palestinian Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Action, the New York-based Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), and Bend the Arc, a progressive Jewish organization that deals primarily with domestic matters.
Following his latest insult to Mamdani, Jamie Beran, the CEO of Bend the Arc, said that “Trump is showing once again that he doesn’t care about Jewish people. He only uses us when it’s convenient for him, with no regard to the damage he does to the Jewish community or the danger he puts us in. Both Trump and disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo use smokescreen antisemitism to manipulate Jewish fears for their personal gain."
Trump's attack on Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, is hardly his first. In recent days, the president has slurred the assemblyman as a "communist lunatic" and indicated he'd cut off federal funding from New York if he wins the election. With support from Republican members of Congress, he's also threatened to strip Mamdani's US citizenship and have him deported from the country if he attempts to interfere with deployments of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to carry out mass deportations.
But although Trump has often invoked "antisemitism" to justify his efforts to punish pro-Palestine speech, he's long degraded Jewish people who vote in ways he disagrees with. During the 2024 election, he ranted that “any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion"—an insult to the 79% of Jewish voters who voted for his opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris. Before that, he'd repeatedly referred to Jewish Americans who do not vote for him as "disloyal" to Israel, a country in which they do not live.
In recent weeks, the Republican Party has been dogged by several scandals related to antisemitism. Last month, a leaked group chat of Young Republican operatives—including several who worked for the New York GOP—was revealed by Politico to be full of praise for Adolf Hitler and jokes about gas chambers. Shortly after, Trump's pick for the Office of Special Counsel, Paul Ingrassia, had his nomination tanked after it was revealed that he'd described himself as having a "Nazi streak."
And over the past week, the Heritage Foundation—the influential right-wing think tank behind Trump's Project 2025 agenda—has dealt with discord in its own ranks after its leader, Kevin Roberts, stridently defended right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson's friendly interview with self-described fascist and white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
"The antisemitism smears against Zohran Mamdani increasingly fall flat because people are learning to see through smokescreen antisemitism," Beran told Common Dreams. "That is, how bad actors who have never joined our work, or any work, to actually end antisemitism, instead only use antisemitism to promote themselves and their agendas—which harm Jews, our loved ones, and our neighbors. Trump and his allies claim to defend Jews, yet ignore antisemitism in their own ranks."
"Jewish leaders who actually want to end antisemitism know that leaders like Zohran understand that a strong democracy keeps Jews—and all of us—safest," she continued. "Jews exist across many identities, from immigrants, to trans people, from Black and brown people, to those with disabilities who are struggling to afford life in the city. And actually trying to end antisemitism and all bigotry requires all of us.”
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Palestinian Rights Advocates Condemn Boulder Attack on Vigil for Hostages
"I don't want to see a single person saying this was warranted by the carnage in Gaza, that this was for Palestinians," said congressional candidate Kat Abuhazaleh. "I am Palestinian and I do not want senseless acts of terror committed in my name."
Jun 02, 2025
Two Palestinian American politicians were among those who condemned Sunday's attack on people attending a vigil in Boulder, Colorado for Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas—with Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman saying she was "appalled that anyone would do this in our name."
"Committing violence makes everyone less safe and makes peace impossible," said Romman. "Those who do must be held accountable. Praying for the victims and their loved ones."
Her comments came after a suspect identified as Mohamed Sabry Soliman allegedly threw a "makeshift flamethrower" using two bottles into a crowd of people who were taking part in a "Run for Their Lives" event in honor of people who were kidnapped by Hamas in October 2023.
At least two people were flown to a burn unit in Denver for serious injuries; eight people in all were hurt in the attack.
Mark D. Michalek, a special agent in the FBI's Denver field office, said Soliman yelled, "Free Palestine" during the attack, echoing the suspect in the killing of two Israeli embassy workers in Washington, D.C. last month. There was no indication that Soliman was linked to any particular group, Michalek said.
Soliman was taken into custody on Sunday.
Romman condemned the "cruelty and dehumanization" that appear to have led to attacks on individuals by suspects who have been motivated by anger at the Israeli government, which began bombarding Gaza in retaliation for Hamas' attack in 2023.
Israeli forces have killed more than 54,000 Palestinians since October 2023, waging attacks on schools, shelters, and hospitals while claiming to target Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has also imposed a total blockade on Gaza since March—pushing the population towards famine—and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Sunday opened fire on hundreds of Palestinians who were attempting to retrieve food at a distribution center set up by an Israel- and U.S.-backed company.
"Enough with the cruelty and dehumanization," said Romman. "Equating the Jewish community with the Israeli government fuels antisemitism further enabling extremism, conspiracy theories, and violence."
Critics have warned that the Israeli government has consistently conflated Judaism with Zionism and its actions in Gaza. In recent days officials have accused media outlets and critics of "blood libel"—a reference to ancient false allegations of ritual murder by Jewish people—for reporting on and condemning Israel's starvation of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the IDF's attacks.
Yonah Lieberman, co-founder of the Jewish-led Palestinian rights group IfNotNow, said that while the "horrific" attack in Boulder was "a random act by an individual" and was "not representative of any movement," the killing of Palestinians in Gaza is the "result of official policy by the Israeli government."
Kat Abughazaleh, a progressive candidate for the U.S. House in Illinois' 9th District, warned that "senseless, antisemitic attacks do not help Palestinians, Jews, or Israelis."
"I don't want to see a single person saying this was warranted by the carnage in Gaza, that this was for Palestinians. I am Palestinian and I do not want senseless acts of terror committed in my name... Equating Jewish people with Israel's far-right government inevitably leads to antisemitism. It leads to innocent people getting hurt, more Jewish organizations being targeted, and Netanyahu preying on fear."
"My heart breaks every single day when I see what is happening in Gaza," she added. "I feel helpless. I know many of you do too. But when people enact violence in our name, it makes everyone less safe and it makes peace less likely."
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Jewish Groups Denounce Latest 'Cynical' GOP Hearing Equating Criticism of Israel With Antisemitism
"Israel is a nation state, not a Jewish person," said Rabbis for Cease-Fire. "Criticism of Israel's genocidal assault is not equivalent to antisemitism."
Mar 27, 2025
Following the Republican Party's latest hearing on antisemitism on college campuses—part of a campaign in which discrimination against Jewish people has been conflated with calls for Palestinian liberation and opposition to Israel's U.S.-backed killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza—the rights organization Rabbis for Cease-Fire on Thursday said it rejected "the basic premises" of the hearing.
The hearing held by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee on Thursday, titled "Antisemitic Disruptions on Campus: Ensuring Safe Learning Environments for All Students," was part of an effort to "instrumentalize concern for Jewish safety to shield Israel from accountability," said the group.
The committee scheduled the hearing as supporters of Palestinian rights and the First Amendment have grown increasingly alarmed by the Trump administration's abductions, via Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), of several students who have participated in Palestinian rights protests and spoken out against the U.S. government's support for Israel's assault on Gaza and the West Bank.
But while more than 1,400 academics signed onto an academic boycott of Columbia University over its refusal to stand up to the Trump administration and defend students who have exercised their First Amendment rights, warning that the GOP's agenda and the school's actions "endanger all students, staff, and faculty," Republicans on the committee spoke only about rising antisemitism on college campuses.
Committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said that "antisemitic incidents on college campuses were up almost 500% between 2023 and 2024, totaling 1,200 reports."
Cassidy cited the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which compiles reports on what it views as campus antisemitism, including expressions of hostility toward Jewish people—but also calls for divestment from Israel and the presence of "anti-Zionist groups" who oppose Israel's policies in Palestine.
While the ADL has loudly condemned pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses—some of which have been led by Jewish students—it dismissed outcry over what appeared to be a Nazi salute displayed by far-right billionaire Elon Musk, an ally of President Donald Trump, at an inauguration event in January.
Rabbis for Cease-Fire said Thursday that "repression of political dissent regarding U.S. involvement in the genocidal assault of
Palestinians is not in the best interest of Jews and has nothing to do with Jewish safety."
"To suggest it does actually threatens Jews by taking away civil rights and liberties in our name," said the group.
The group also clarified that by definition, Trump's efforts to rid college campuses of students who speak out against Israel's U.S.-backed military operation is not confronting antisemitism.
"Antisemitism is a bias against or hostility toward Jewish people because they are Jewish, regardless of nationality," said Rabbis for Cease-Fire. "Israel is a nation state, not a Jewish person. Criticism of actions carried out by the state of Israel is a political position and Israel, like every state, must be criticized for illegal and unjust actions, and held to account for war crimes. Criticism of Israel's genocidal assault is not equivalent to antisemitism."
The group added that the vast majority of pro-Palestinian campus protests "were not and are not antisemitic: they are focused on holding Israel and the United States accountable for collaborating on a brutal 18-month assault on Palestinians in Gaza that has claimed over 60,000 lives and destroyed schools, mosques, hospitals, libraries, and tens of thousands of homes."
The hearing was held a day after thousands of Boston-area residents assembled in Somerville, Massachusetts to speak out against ICE's abduction of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student and visa holder who was reportedly targeted for writing an op-ed criticizing the school's response to a call for divestment from Israel.
"Jewish people's fear of antisemitism is being exploited to to carry out a broad attack on higher education and free speech," said the rabbis. "This administration's policies are designed by far-right Christian nationalists and are antisemitic themselves. These hearings falsely proclaim that their goal is 'safe learning environments for all students.' In fact, this is actually making learning environments unsafe through universities' draconian rules prohibiting free speech and assembly that result in suspension and expulsion of students, and their use of local police to control and arrest students."
"These hearings are a wholesale attack on higher education as a primary location of the democratic values of the free speech, open dialogue, and political dissent that Trump and the Republicans want to destroy," the group added.
Rabbis for Cease-Fire was joined by other Jewish-led groups in denouncing what Bend the Arc: Jewish Action called "another cynical antisemitism hearing."
"This is Trump's cronies using the guise of caring about Jews to further its agenda of deporting student activists and instilling fear to silence political dissent," said Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace.
Miller credited Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) with using the hearing to condemn Trump's amplification and defense of antisemitism from the far-right, such as in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 and his association with Musk.
But the hearing was part of a growing body of evidence that "Trump and his cronies do not care about Jews or Jewish safety," said Miller. "Their attacks on student activists are part of an authoritarian power grab and an attempt to silence the movement for Palestinian rights. We must stand together and fight back against fascism."
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US House Urged to Stop Bill Enabling Trump to Attack Nonprofits
"The bill could usher in repression on a massive scale," one critic warned.
Nov 11, 2024
The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote soon on legislation that would further empower President-elect Donald Trump, who won a new term last week after fear-mongering about the so-called "enemy from within" and vowing to "root out" people he described as "radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country."
Nonprofits and rights advocates are sounding the alarm about H.R. 9495, or the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act. The bill would provide tax relief for U.S. nationals and their spouses who are unlawfully or wrongfully detained or held hostage abroad but also includes legislation to terminate the tax-exempt status of "terrorist-supporting" groups.
A version of the section targeting groups accused of backing terrorism previously passed the House but stalled in the Democrat-held Senate. As legal scholar Maryam Jamshidi explained on social media Monday, "The cynical move is intended to coerce Congress to pass the 501(c)(3) bill because no one wants to be seen as opposing tax breaks for U.S. hostages/prisoners abroad."
While the bill has long been on the radar of organizations like the ACLU—which led a diverse coalition that spoke out against it in September—the recent election results, Trump's campaign promises, and the upcoming vote are sparking fresh concerns.
"As soon as tomorrow, the House will vote on a bill that would give the incoming Trump administration a new tool they could use to stifle free speech, target political opponents, and punish groups that disagree with them," the ACLU said on social media Monday. "This broad, vague bill is an open invitation for abuse. Tell your representatives to vote NO on H.R. 9495."
The ACLU highlighted reporting by The Intercept, which on Sunday detailed how the legislation would work:
Under the bill, the Treasury secretary would issue notice to a group of intent to designate it as a "terrorist-supporting organization." Once notified, an organization would have the right to appeal within 90 days, after which it would be stripped of its 501(c)(3) status, named for the statute that confers tax exemptions on recognized nonprofit groups.
The law would not require officials to explain the reason for designating a group, nor does it require the Treasury Department to provide evidence.
"It basically empowers the Treasury secretary to target any group it wants to call them a terror supporter and block their ability to be a nonprofit," said Ryan Costello, policy director at the National Iranian American Council Action, which opposes the law. "So that would essentially kill any nonprofit's ability to function. They couldn't get banks to service them, they won't be able to get donations, and there'd be a black mark on the organization, even if it cleared its name."
The bill is widely seen as an attempt to silence fierce critics of U.S. support for Israel's ongoing slaughter and starvation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has led to a genocide case against the Israeli government at the International Court of Justice. However, Costello warned that "the danger is much broader than just groups that work on foreign policy."
"It could target major liberal funders who support Palestinian solidarity and peace groups who engage in protest. But it could also theoretically be used to target pro-choice groups, and I could see it being used against environmental groups," he said. "It really would be at the discretion of the Trump administration as to who they target, with very little recourse for the targeted organization."
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action similarly stressed on social media Monday that "this bill would grant Donald Trump unilateral power to investigate and effectively shut down any tax-exempt organization based on a unilateral accusation of wrongdoing—without any explanation required."
"The House must vote no on H.R. 9495," Bend the Arc argued. "It is critical that we are able to organize and that we have a robust nonprofit sector that represents our needs and our interests to the government. This will be a necessary tool against the harms threatened by the second Trump presidency."
Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, said in a statement that "this bill should be a five-alarm fire for anyone who seeks to protect free speech, civil society, and democracy. This bill is part of a broader MAGA assault on the right to protest that begins with attacks on Palestinian rights groups, and is aimed at outlawing the social justice movements that fight for progressive change. This is part of a well-worn authoritarian playbook to dismantle fundamental freedoms."
Describing the legislation as "terrifying," Ajam Media Collective editor Alex Shams said Monday that "the bill could usher in repression on a massive scale."
The threat extends to media organizations like Common Dreams. Freedom of the Press Foundation—whose director of advocacy, Seth Stern, wrote about the legislation for The Intercept in May—declared Monday that "this bill is a serious threat to nonprofit news outlets and Trump is sure to abuse these powers if given the chance."
"The threat is far more dire in light of the election," the foundation added. "Tell your representative to stop H.R. 9495 today."
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Open Letter to Joe Biden on Behalf of Jewish Americans: Stop Sending Israel Offensive Weapons
The continuation of violence will continue to increase the heart-wrenching death toll, increase the number of calls for a ceasefire, and decrease your poll numbers — straight through the election.
Jun 05, 2024
Editor's Note: The following is an open letter addressed to U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday, June 5, 2024 from Jamie Beran, CEO of the progressive Jewish organization Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, a domestic-focused organization that explained that while it "does not work on policy toward Israel-Palestine or any foreign policy issues... chose to send this letter because of the urgency of the danger posed by the ongoing war to the safety of American Jews and to democracy" in the United States.
The Honorable Joseph R. Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear President Biden,
As American Jews deeply committed to justice, equity, and collective safety, we welcome your support for a permanent ceasefire plan. Since that announcement, unfortunately, Israeli officials have made it clear that they do not support such a plan.
Time and time again, despite your calls to end this violence, you have not followed through with material action. With over one million Palestinian refugees now being forced to flee Rafah, their last guaranteed refuge, thousands of lives lost, and families of captives being fined in Israel for demanding a ceasefire, it is long past time to end U.S. support for these attacks. Now is the moment to make good on your promise to stop providing offensive weapons to the Israeli military.
We as Jews — and particularly as Jews who have built and maintained strong, decades-long partnerships with all communities targeted by the rapidly encroaching white nationalist movement — know that historically, we are most in danger when democracy is weakened, and safest when it is strengthened.
We cannot overestimate how challenging it has been to focus on our strictly domestic priorities at Bend the Arc during this time. One of Bend the Arc’s founding principles is to mobilize American Jews as we are: a multi-issue community. We care deeply about pursuing justice in the United States, for Jews and non-Jews alike. But since the horrors of October 7th, the violence in Israel-Palestine has permeated our borders to the point where it jeopardizes our collective safety. It impacts Jewish life in the U.S. and the safety of Jewish and Arab Americans. And, under the threat of an emboldened authoritarian movement at our doorstep, it threatens our shared ability to defend and build what will protect all of us — a vibrant, multifaith, multiracial democracy.
When you named the deadly rally in Charlottesville as your motivation to run for President in 2020, we knew you shared our vision. We knew you saw that day as a harbinger of an alternate, likely irreversible, and very disturbing timeline for this nation — one further cemented by the January 6th insurrection and hardened each time Trump spells out his public plan to disassemble democracy.
From our shared fights to appoint Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, to bolster our historic movement for labor unions, and to champion the Inflation Reduction Act, we know we want to continue to work together to improve this democracy. And from our shared fights to counter antisemitism and protect public education — and from your invitation to collaborate with the White House, Department of Justice, and the Department of Education — we know we want to continue to work together to defend this democracy.
So today, as the Israeli government continues to ignore your red lines, has publicly vowed to continue to cross them, and has now promised at least seven more months of attacks, we, as American Jews, are sounding an alarm:
U.S. support for continued violence in Gaza is putting American safety and U.S. democracy in danger. For the sake of the lives of all people in the region, and the safety and futures of all of us in the United States, we urge you to make good on your own promise to cease sending offensive munitions to Israel. We urge you to end the ongoing violence, and reach a resolution that brings all captive loved ones home to their families, ends mass atrocities, prevents world war, and begins to achieve self-determination for all Israelis and Palestinians.
The status quo does not address our immediate safety. We’ve learned from history and the last eight months that explosions of global violence dramatically increase violence at home. Antisemitism, anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry, racism, and xenophobia continue to surge. In these moments, leaders scramble for false solutions to quickly provide illusions of safety, ultimately increasing criminalization and decreasing the liberties required to keep democracy healthy.
The status quo does not address our future safety. Your victory this November is the single most powerful tool we have to obstruct an irreversible timeline towards the end of U.S. democracy and our continuing work to build a society that serves everybody — from protecting voting rights, to enshrining the right to abortion, to creating just pathways for immigration. Your success as a candidate is tied inextricably to the people’s faith in your ability to keep us safe. As the violence overseas continues to intertwine itself across all of our domestic work, it too is now tied to your success and all of our safety.
Since October, the majority of your voters among American Jewish Democrats and the vast majority of American Democrats have called for an end to this. The continuation of violence will continue to increase the heart-wrenching death toll, increase the number of calls for a ceasefire, and decrease your poll numbers — straight through the election. We’ve seen uncommitted movements nearly overtake your previous margin of victory in key regions and, in some cities, win. We’re seeing your base of young voters and progressives increasingly losing faith. Across our community, we’re seeing too many unaffiliated Jews — the second largest group of American Jews — go unheard. And across our partnerships with non-Jewish communities, we hear stories of alienation and isolation. Not acting on your own red lines, combined with the Israeli government’s promise to continue to violate them, will further erode your viability as a candidate in a race where every vote will matter.
At Bend the Arc, we fight for the joyful future we deserve: an American society free from white supremacy, antisemitism, and racism. One where Black liberation is realized and where we are all safe and thriving, no matter what we look like or where we come from. Our vision shines brightest against the ominous backdrop of white nationalism’s threat.
Your candidacy can also reintroduce that contrast and end a status quo that threatens to mirror the opposition. In doing so, we pray that you can regain the faith of voters and that we can work together to reintroduce the bright vision of the future required to inspire Americans in November.
Sincerely,
Jamie Beran
CEO, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action
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Leading Jewish Group to Biden: Backing Israel's War on Gaza Puts 'US Democracy in Danger'
"For the sake of the lives of all people in the region, and the safety and futures of all of us in the United States, we urge you to make good on your own promise to cease sending offensive munitions to Israel."
Jun 05, 2024
A leading American Jewish group that historically has not engaged with the Israel-Palestine conflict sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday warning his continued support for Israel's assault on Gaza is endangering countless lives and threatening democracy at home.
The letter, penned by Bend the Arc: Jewish Action CEO Jamie Beran, urges Biden to immediately "stop providing offensive weapons to the Israeli military" as the nation's far-right leaders make clear their opposition to a permanent cease-fire deal and barrel ahead with a devastating offensive in Rafah.
"Time and time again, despite your calls to end this violence, you have not followed through with material action," the letter reads. "With over 1 million Palestinian refugees now being forced to flee Rafah, their last guaranteed refuge, thousands of lives lost, and families of captives being fined in Israel for demanding a cease-fire, it is long past time to end U.S. support for these attacks."
Bend the Arc typically focuses on domestic issues, but Beran wrote in the new letter to Biden that since the Hamas-led attack on Israel in October, "the violence in Israel-Palestine has permeated our borders to the point where it jeopardizes our collective safety."
"It impacts Jewish life in the U.S. and the safety of Jewish and Arab Americans. And, under the threat of an emboldened authoritarian movement at our doorstep, it threatens our shared ability to defend and build what will protect all of us—a vibrant, multifaith, multiracial democracy," Beran continued. "U.S. support for continued violence in Gaza is putting American safety and U.S. democracy in danger."
"For the sake of the lives of all people in the region, and the safety and futures of all of us in the United States," she added, "we urge you to make good on your own promise to cease sending offensive munitions to Israel."
Dear President @JoeBiden,
Continued U.S. Support for the Siege of Gaza is a Threat to Millions Abroad and Democracy at Home.https://t.co/GUUKT0TNgH
— Bend the Arc: Jewish Action (@jewishaction) June 4, 2024
The letter comes a week after the Israeli military used U.S.-made bombs in a deadly attack on a camp for displaced people in Rafah. The attack killed at least 45 people and wounded more than 240.
The strike was just the latest example of Israel's army massacring Gaza civilians with American weaponry, which has flowed to Israel with virtually no restrictions since October 7. Shortly after the Hamas-led attack, Israel used U.S.-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions in a pair of strikes that killed 43 civilians in Gaza, including 19 children.
Beran noted in her letter that a majority of Jewish Democratic voters and Democratic voters overall "have called for an end to this," supporting a cease-fire and an arms embargo on Israel until it stops its attacks on the Gaza Strip, which has been utterly decimated by the eight-month Israeli assault. Growing public opposition to Israel's war on Gaza comes despite a coordinated Israeli propaganda effort aimed at swaying Americans' views and bolstering U.S. military aid for Israel.
Biden's support for the Israeli military's atrocities, Beran warned Tuesday, "will continue to increase the heart-wrenching death toll, increase the number of calls for a cease-fire, and decrease your poll numbers—straight through the election."
"Your victory this November is the single most powerful tool we have to obstruct an irreversible timeline towards the end of U.S. democracy and our continuing work to build a society that serves everybody—from protecting voting rights, to enshrining the right to abortion, to creating just pathways for immigration," she argued. "Your success as a candidate is tied inextricably to the people's faith in your ability to keep us safe. As the violence overseas continues to intertwine itself across all of our domestic work, it too is now tied to your success and all of our safety."
"Not acting on your own red lines, combined with the Israeli government's promise to continue to violate them, will further erode your viability as a candidate in a race where every vote will matter," Beran added.
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Ocasio-Cortez Says Stripping Marjorie Taylor Greene of Committees Isn't Enough--'She Must Be Expelled'
House Democrats and 11 Republicans came together Thursday to remove the GOP congresswoman from her committee assignments.
Feb 03, 2021
As the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday prepared to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her assigned committees, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez charged that doing so wasn't a strong enough rebuke of her colleague's widely condemned views and behavior, instead advocating for her expulsion from Congress.
Greene (R-Ga.) has long faced criticism for her past support of conspiracy theories including QAnon, claims that school shootings were "false flag" operations, and anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, anti-Black, and white supremacist views--but that criticism ramped up in the wake of recent reporting by CNN that before taking office in January, she repeatedly showed support online for executing prominent Democrats and chased a Parkland massacre survivor on video while yelling about her gun ownership.
Just 11 Republicans joined with House Democrats on Thursday in the 230-199 vote to kick Greene off the House Budget as well as Education and Labor committees. Ahead of that vote, Greene sent out a fundraising email spreading lies about Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and other progressive Democrats in the House.
In response to the email--published in full by The Washington Post--which falsely claims Ocasio-Cortez encouraged protesters to "punch a cop," the New Yorker said that Greene "pumping this lie to her insurrectionist base is making them feel justified in further violence"--an apparent reference to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
"The prospect of stripping her committees clearly isn't quelling her," Ocasio-Cortez added of Greene. "She must be expelled."
Calls for Greene's expulsion have mounted in recent weeks as Republican congressional leadership has refused to take any action. During a closed-door GOP meeting Wednesday night, Greene reportedly apologized for her past remarks and support for the QAnon conspiracy theory, and received a standing ovation from some colleagues.
Progressive critics responded to the meeting by calling out House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for his refusal to discipline Greene and more broadly condemning the Republican Party. As Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)--also targeted in Greene's fundraising email--put it in a tweet late Wednesday: "The Q party is born!"
Greene addressed the House before the vote. As David Corn reported at Mother Jones:
And on Thursday, as the House began debate, she attempted to mount a limited retraction, saying she no longer believes the QAnon nuttiness and declaring that 9/11 "absolutely happened" and that school shootings are indeed real. But she also decried those who "crucify me for words that I said and I regret a few years ago." And she claimed the media are "just as guilty as QAnon" in mixing "truth and lies." She did not address her previous comments that supported violence against prominent Democrats, and instead tried to present herself as someone who had made a slip or two and had learned her lesson. "These are words of the past," she said.
The cup-rattling email Greene zapped out a few hours earlier had a much different tone. It displayed absolutely no remorse. It contained no acknowledgement of her past falsehoods or other bigoted, worrisome, and dangerous statements. Instead, Greene blamed her current predicament entirely on--you guessed it--liberals, Democrats, and unnamed elites.
"With this email, Greene is monetizing the notoriety she's gained by promoting unhinged and ugly perilous statements and notions," Corn concluded. "These positions may cost her her committee assignments, but they have gained her a following willing to pony up. 'Please remember, they are coming after me because I am standing up for you,' she wrote in this email. This is Greene's way of telling conservative and Republican contributors 'I am you.' What's most dangerous--and a problem for the GOP--is that many of them agree."
The criticism of Republicans more broadly continued after the bulk of GOP House members voted against stripping Greene of her committee assignments.
"It's tempting to laugh at Marjorie Taylor Greene's absurd fantasies about 'Jewish space lasers,' but there is nothing funny about the hatred and violence which is fueled by her incendiary rhetoric," said Stosh Cotler, CEO of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, in a statement Thursday night. "Greene's anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and racist, anti-Muslim rhetoric should have no place in the halls of Congress, and removing her from House committees is an appropriate start toward holding her accountable."
"However, the broader problem here isn't the ravings of a back-bench congresswoman," Cotler added, "but the shameful complicity of Republicans in refusing to stand up to their colleague's bigotry, and by defending Greene's racism and Islamophobia with more racism and Islamophobia."
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