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DC’s Elections Were Divisive—But Embracing Partnership is the Path to Jewish Safety
History has taught us that Jews are safest in societies and political systems that pursue true safety for everyone who faces marginalization and hate.
Jun 28, 2026
During an election season, it’s natural to take sides—that’s what elections are for. But taking sides doesn’t have to mean dividing the Jewish community, or isolating Jews from the broader community around us.
As the Executive Director of Jews United for Justice and the JUFJ Campaign Fund in Washington, DC and Maryland, I lead a group that has worked for more than a quarter century to ensure that everyone in our region—no matter our religion, where we come from, how much money we have, or what we look like—can live with freedom, safety, and belonging. Unfortunately, in DC, we just witnessed primary elections that saw national political polarization impacting us locally. Disagreements and concerns within the Jewish community are intersecting with local electoral politics—in ways that I fear could leave us more divided and less safe. But there is another path forward.
The JUFJ Campaign Fund endorses candidates who we believe will use their voices and their offices to build a more just region for all of us, including Jews. In this month’s DC Primary election, all seven of the progressive candidates that we endorsed won. That includes Janeese Lewis George, the winner of the Democratic Primary for Mayor, and soon-to-be Councilmember Aparna Raj, both of whom have also been endorsed by local chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
Given DSA’s anti-Zionist positions, for some Jews, DSA’s backing is enough to warrant labeling these politicians as a threat to our community. Yet for myself and our organization, our personal experiences of these candidates could not be more contrary to that image.
When we feel alone and misunderstood, every disagreement can seem like a threat. Yet I know, from these past 20 years, that the way through this anxiety is relationships.
All of our endorsees, including Lewis George, Raj, and others endorsed by DSA, have shown up for my colleagues and me individually, our organizations, and their own Jewish constituents. They’ve cited our community’s needs and concerns as important to them, and recognized our community as part of their winning coalitions on election night. Even—and especially—when we have had disagreements, we have remained in relationships that allow us to recognize each other’s humanity and to build a strong Jewish presence in our shared political work.
At JUFJ’s community seders this spring, we hosted a dozen candidates for local and statewide office in DC, Montgomery County, and Baltimore. These candidates were Jewish and non-Jewish, ones who had received our endorsements and ones who hadn’t, DSA members and not, of many races and ethnicities—and they all came together to retell the Passover story and connect it to the struggles we face here in our region. I’ve seen these candidates build relationships and create space for conversation with our Jewish community over many years, and throughout this campaign season. And these relationships bear fruit during hard times.
After the terrorist attack against Temple Israel in Michigan this March, a non-Jewish, DSA-endorsed candidate wrote to one of my colleagues: “I saw the news coming out of Detroit and just wanted to say I’m thinking of you. It means a lot to be able to organize alongside you and others in the Jewish community to create a vision for a multiracial democracy where we’re all safe together. Hope you're doing ok.” Another non-Jewish DSA-endorsed elected official called all the senior rabbis in their jurisdiction on October 8, 2023, and has since worked to arrange additional security for Jewish institutions after antisemitic violence. In DC and Montgomery County, our endorsed candidates in elected office have voted time and time again to support funding for Jewish nonprofits and providing security grants for places of worship.
When I started at JUFJ in 2008, I didn’t see antisemitism as one of the pivotal challenges to address in our region. Today, that has changed. We’ve made dismantling antisemitism a key piece of our ongoing work, including working with candidates and elected officials to help them gain a better understanding of antisemitism, how it affects us, and what they can do. Unfortunately, we are living through a time when some politicians and community leaders attempt to build their own power by fueling antisemitism and exploiting divisions within our communities. They want Jews to feel isolated and alone. But isolation is not a path to safety. Anger and resentment is not a strategy.
When we feel alone and misunderstood, every disagreement can seem like a threat. Yet I know, from these past 20 years, that the way through this anxiety is relationships. Building and maintaining relationships with people who are different from me means that I have people to reach out to for a better understanding of our differences. As the great Black activist and musician Bernice Johnson Reagon put it, “Coalition work is not work done in your home.” To build coalitions with people who are different from us, we must resist the urge to isolate—despite fears and disagreements.
As DC’s next mayor and other progressive and democratic socialist candidates across the country take office, we in the Jewish community have a choice ahead of us. We can treat them as potential threats—even as they say they are working to build a city where everyone can thrive. Or, we can consider them to be potential partners and allies, despite any differences—and engage openly and honestly with them on that basis.
History has taught us that Jews are safest in societies and political systems that pursue true safety for everyone who faces marginalization and hate. That is why our movement here in the DMV has endorsed candidates who are committed to tackling antisemitism, and who are also looking out for my Black, brown, immigrant, and low-income neighbors. When we look out for and talk to each other, only then can our society be a place where all of us can live with respect and dignity.
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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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Universities Raze Jewish Students' Gaza Solidarity Sukkahs
"I think it's despicable, cowardly, and highly hypocritical—after all the U.W. administration's efforts to supposedly address antisemitism on campus... just to tear down our sukkah?" said one student.
Oct 22, 2024
Some U.S. universities have torn down solidarity sukkahs that Jewish students opposed to Israel's war on Palestinians have built in recent days to honor the Sukkot holiday and to "protest as the Israeli military continues to invoke the Jewish tradition as fuel for the destruction of Gaza."
Sukkahs are temporary booths erected for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, an eight-day celebration of the fall harvest and the ancient Israelites' escape from slavery in Egypt.
To honor the holiday, students from Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and other Jewish-led organizations constructed Gaza solidarity sukkahs on campuses including Northwestern University; University of Chicago; Brown University; Columbia University; University of Washington; University of California, Berkeley; Stanford University; Yale University; University of North Carolina; University of California, Los Angeles; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Rutgers University; University of California, San Diego; and other schools.
"For the past year, we have witnessed the Israeli government, the U.S. government, and even administrators at our university distort our thousands of years-old Jewish tradition to justify genocide," University of Washington student Talia Braester said in a statement.
"We will not allow our tradition to be exploited by those who seek death and destruction," Braester added. "Our ancestors, many of whom endured genocide and ethnic cleansing, taught us never to be bystanders in the face of injustice. We call for an arms embargo and divestment from the Israeli military out of a commitment to life itself."
According to JVP:
In alignment with Jewish tradition, Jewish students intended to spend eight days dwelling in the sukkah—a ritual in remembrance of Jewish ancestors forced to live in temporary structures in the desert while fleeing slavery. This year, students could not separate their observance from the fact that tens of thousands of Palestinians are forced to live in temporary shelters due to the Israeli military's mass destruction of homes in Gaza. And this week the world witnessed Israeli forces bomb Al-Aqsa Hospital, burning alive Palestinian patients, including 19-year-old Sha'ban al-Dalou, who was recovering from an operation in his tent with an IV still in his arm. Jewish students across the country are observing Sukkot and hung banners from their sukkahs saying, "Stop Arming Israel" as Israeli forces murder tens of thousands of innocent people in Gaza.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health and United Nations agencies, Israel's 382-day assault and siege of the enclave has left more than 152,000 Palestinians dead, injured, or missing, and millions more forcibly displaced, starved, and sickened. Israel's conduct in the war is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case. Meanwhile, thousands more Palestinians have been killed or wounded in the illegally occupied West Bank. Thousands of Lebanese have been killed or maimed by the Israeli bombardment and invasion of Lebanon, according to officials there.
The U.S. supports Israel's war effort with tens of billions of dollars in
military aid and diplomatic backing including vetoes of multiple United Nations Security Council cease-fire resolutions.
On several of the campuses where sukkahs were built, university administrators destroyed the sacred structures—in some cases, throwing them in dumpsters. Some students said they now face disciplinary action, even though in years past they were allowed to sleep in their sukkahs.
"Many of the sukkahs were adorned with plants and gourds from local farms as a way to honor the harvest," said JVP. "In a callous display, the administrators discarded these as well."
"Many administrators cited draconian policies passed in the wake of the Gaza solidarity encampments that forbid students from camping overnight," the group noted, referring to protests during the last academic year. "The students explained that sleeping in sukkahs is an essential part of this holiday and part of their religious rights, but administrators choose to disregard the students' pleas."
Another University of Washington student, Roza Fernandez, said that "I think it's despicable, cowardly, and highly hypocritical—after all the U.W. administration's efforts to supposedly address antisemitism on campus... just to tear down our sukkah?"
"It shows the truth: Admin does not care about antisemitism and is not afraid to wield it to silence criticism of Zionism and their complicity in genocide," Fernandez added.
JVP media coordinator Liv Kunins-Berkowitz said that "these universities desecrate these students' Jewish practice because their faith is intertwined with their solidarity with the Palestinian people."
"A university has no right to dictate what types of Jewish practice are legitimate," Kunins-Berkowitz added. "Anti-Zionist Judaism is a long-standing and rapidly growing expression of being Jewish."
The U.S. students' campaign of solidarity sukkahs stood in stark contrast with the sukkahs erected by far-right Israeli settlers during this week's "Preparing to Settle Gaza" conference, which was backed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin's ruling Likud party and featured speakers including Cabinet ministers and several members of the Knesset, Israel's parliament.
"Each of you will witness how Jews go to Gaza and Arabs will disappear from Gaza," one prominent settler and advocate for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians told the audience at the event.
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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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800+ Jewish Professors Urge Biden, Senate to Oppose 'Dangerous' Antisemitism Bill
"Criticism of the state of Israel, the Israeli government, policies of the Israeli government, or Zionist ideology is not—in and of itself—antisemitic," reads a new letter.
May 09, 2024
A Dartmouth University professor who once served as the school's head of Jewish studies and was violently arrested at a Palestinian rights protest last week was among more than 800 Jewish educators who had signed a letter as of Thursday, demanding that lawmakers and U.S. President Joe Biden oppose a bill claiming to combat antisemitism.
The Awareness of Antisemitism Act, said the letter, would actually "amplify the real threats Jewish Americans already face" by "conflating antisemitism with legitimate criticism of Israel."
The bill, which was passed by the Republican-controlled House last week over the objections of 70 progressive Democrats and 21 Republicans, would codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, which includes "targeting of the state of Israel" and "drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis."
The Awareness of Antisemitism Act, which could soon be taken up by the Senate, would require the Department of Education to consider the group's working definition when determining whether harassment is motivated by antisemitism.
The professors noted that the working definition has been "internationally criticized," with more than 100 civil society organizations—including some Israeli groups—calling on the United Nations last year to reject the IHRA's interpretation because it has been "misused" to shield Israel from legitimate criticism.
"We hold varied opinions on Israel," reads the letter. "Whatever our differences, we oppose the IHRA's definition of antisemitism. If imported into federal law, the IHRA definition will delegitimize and silence Jewish Americans—among others—who advocate for Palestinian human rights or otherwise criticize Israeli policies."
The professors pointed out the irony that by using the IHRA definition—which also includes "accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel" than their own home countries—the bill "hardens the dangerous notion that Jewish identity is inextricably linked to every decision of Israel's government."
"Far from combating antisemitism, this dynamic promises to amplify the real threats Jewish Americans already face," the letter reads.
Annelise Orleck, the Dartmouth professor who was arrested last week, was joined by other Jewish academics including City University of New York professor Peter Beinart and professor emeritus Avishai Margalit of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in signing the letter.
Orleck, a labor historian, told ABC affiliate WMUR after her arrest that she hopes Dartmouth and other schools that have cracked down on and condemned pro-Palestinian protests in recent weeks will "stop weaponizing antisemitism."
The professors urged political leaders who are "earnestly concerned with antisemitism" to "join hundreds of Jewish scholars from across the globe who have endorsed alternative definitions of antisemitism—such as those contained in the Nexus Document or Jerusalem Declaration. Unlike the IHRA definition, these documents offer meaningful tools to combat antisemitism without undermining Jewish safety and civil rights by insulating Israel from legitimate criticism."
When the Antisemitism Awareness Act was passed by the House last week, Jewish-led Palestinian rights groups were among those that condemned the proposal.
Biden has angered pro-Palestinian rights groups by suggesting the campus protests that have spread across the U.S. in recent weeks, with students and faculty demanding an end to U.S. support for Israel as it bombards Gaza, are inherently antisemitic.
"Criticism of the state of Israel, the Israeli government, policies of the Israeli government, or Zionist ideology is not—in and of itself—antisemitic," reads the professors' letter, which was first publicized Wednesday. "We accordingly urge our political leaders to reject any effort to codify into federal law a definition of antisemitism that conflates antisemitism with criticism of the state of Israel."
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750+ Jewish Students Affirm Support for Pro-Palestine Campus Protests
The students' open letter—which circulated as U.S. President Joe Biden again linked campus encampments to antisemitism—urges institutions of higher learning to "take immediate action" to stop Israel's Gaza genocide.
May 07, 2024
Against the backdrop of President Joe Biden's Tuesday speech condemning antisemitism, hundreds of Jewish students at U.S. universities signed an open letter supporting the nationwide pro-Palestine campus protests, decrying the false smearing of the encampments as antisemitic, and urging institutions to take action to stop Israel's "genocidal assault on Gaza."
"In the last week, we have watched the movement of student encampments for Gaza spread across the country. We have also watched as these protesters have been met with repression, arrests, violence, and false claims of antisemitism," states the letter—which as of Tuesday afternoon had been signed by more than 750 students.
"We demand that academic and political leaders stop misrepresenting and demonizing protests and their organizers."
While the letter's signers are "deeply disturbed by the small number of individuals who have attempted to co-opt these encampments to spread violent, hateful, and antisemitic messages," they "wholeheartedly reject the claim that these encampments are antisemitic and that they are an inherent threat to Jewish student safety."
The letter continues:
The narrative that the Gaza solidarity encampments are inherently antisemitic is part of a decadeslong effort to blur the lines between criticism of Israel and antisemitism. It is a narrative that ignores the large populations of Jewish students participating and helping to lead the encampments as a true expression of our Jewish values. The beautiful interfaith solidarity by Jewish students observing Passover seders and Shabbat at encampments across the country show that the rich Jewish tradition of justice is on full display inside the encampments. The denial of Jewish participation in this movement is not only incorrect, but it is an insidious attempt to justify unfounded claims of antisemitism. As neo-Nazis are marching in the streets and fascist politicians are campaigning on the antisemitic Great Replacement theory, we wholeheartedly reject the lie that these student activists are targeting Jewish students in their protest.
The letter came as Biden blasted the "ferocious" surge in antisemitism around the world since October 7 during a Capitol Hill speech marking Holocaust Remembrance Day.
"On college campuses, Jewish students blocked, harassed, attacked, while walking to class," Biden said. "Antisemitic posters, slogans calling for the annihilation of Israel, the world's only Jewish state. Too many people denying, downplaying, rationalizing, ignoring the horrors of the Holocaust and October 7... It is absolutely despicable, and it must stop."
Biden faced backlash last week for falsely characterizing the campus encampments as lawless and violent while ignoring police brutality and physical attacks against protesters, including a mob assault at the University of California, Los Angeles. Critics also pointed out the president's ahistorical admonition that "dissent must never lead to disorder"—a statement that ignores how the United States was founded via violent revolution.
The Jewish students' letter stresses that "while the world's focus is on students, we cannot forget that Israel is continuing its genocidal assault on Gaza."
"More than 34,000 Palestinians and 1,200 Israelis have been killed since October 7," the document notes. "Israel has killed more than 14,000 children and destroyed schools, hospitals, and all institutions of higher learning in Gaza. The Israeli government has done nothing to return the remaining 133 hostages to their families as they continue to hold thousands of Palestinian prisoners without charge."
"We as Jewish students demand divestment from Israel and an academic boycott of all Israeli educational institutions contributing to the Israeli military assault on Gaza or protection of settlers in the West Bank."
"The devastation is unfathomable, and it is truly heinous to see individuals attempting to demonize student peace activists in our name as Israel continues to massacre Gazans, massacres that our educational institutions are complicit in through their investments and repression," the signers said.
"We as Jewish students demand divestment from Israel and an academic boycott of all Israeli educational institutions contributing to the Israeli military assault on Gaza or protection of settlers in the West Bank," the letter states. "We also demand amnesty for all nonviolent student protesters and an end to the brutal repression by academic institutions and law enforcement."
"Finally," the signers concluded, "we demand that academic and political leaders stop misrepresenting and demonizing protests and their organizers, protect the voices of student activists, and take immediate action to stop Israel's genocidal acts before more Palestinians are killed."
Jonathan Mendoza, a graduate student at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. who signed the letter, said in a statement that "while the Israeli military begins its assault on Rafah, college campuses continue to protest the ongoing genocide of Palestinians."
"Journalists and public officials are falsely labeling these campus protests as antisemitic and dangerous to Jewish students, silencing demands to end complicity with Israel's actions, despite consistent evidence of Jewish students participating in and organizing these protests," Mendoza added. "With this open letter, we demonstrate our support, as over 700 Jewish students and counting, for protests to end our universities' and country's complicity with Israel's mass killing of Palestinians."
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Jewish Americans to Lead Shabbat Protests Against US Complicity in Gaza
The protests will condemn "the hypocrisy of American politicians cracking down on 'unlawful' behavior at home while repeatedly voting to send Israel more bombs to kill Palestinians in Gaza."
May 03, 2024
Jewish organizers announced plans to hold bicoastal "solidarity Shabbat" protests Friday evening to demand a cease-fire in Gaza and an end to the violent repression of campus anti-war protests across the country.
The Jewish-led organization IfNotNow announced plans to hold the protests in Los Angeles and New York, with "hundreds of American Jews" gathering "together with a multi-faith coalition to take a moral stand against U.S. complicity in the genocide in Gaza."
The Shabbat actions come more than two weeks into a wave of mass protests that have spread on college campuses nationwide, with students setting up encampments and occupying school buildings to demand that universities divest from companies that work with the Israeli government, such as tech firms and weapons manufacturers.
IfNotNow directed participants to wear white and not bring signs to the events, where demonstrators will "uplift the demands of the students of NYC and around the world: Divestment now. Palestinian freedom now. Power to the Students. Eyes on Gaza."
More than 300 protesters were arrested last week at a Passover Seder rally that had been organized by Jewish advocates near Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-N.Y.) home in Brooklyn.
Arrests of protesters on college campuses in the last two weeks have surpassed 2,100, with more than 200 detained both at the University of California, Los Angeles and at Columbia University—both of which have celebrated their histories of student activism in the civil rights era and during the U.S. war in Vietnam.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden denounced the protests, saying "dissent must never lead to disorder."
IfNotNow called on political leaders to condemn "Israel's war crimes in Gaza, not student protesters taking action for peace."
"The media and politicians would rather scrutinize college campuses than confront the human misery and destruction happening in our name in Gaza which is, of course, the source of these protests," said the group.
"The Shabbat protests will serve to condemn state violence aimed at peaceful student protesters, as well as the hypocrisy of American politicians cracking down on 'unlawful' behavior at home while repeatedly voting to send Israel more bombs to kill Palestinians in Gaza," added IfNotNow.
On April 24, a week into the campus protests, Biden signed a foreign aid bill that included $17 billion in additional funding for the Israel Defense Forces.
At campus protests, some Jewish organizers have held other Shabbat services.
Protesters at New York University were planning a Shabbat dinner for Friday evening in solidarity with Gaza, and last week, students at the University of Pennsylvania took part in a Shabbat service.
"We pray together, we protest together, and we will get free together," said Jewish Voice for Peace Philadelphia.
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300+ Arrested Outside Schumer's Home During Jewish-Led Seder Against Gaza Genocide
"No one is free until everyone is free," read a banner representing a Seder plate. "Jews say stop arming Israel."
Apr 24, 2024
As U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer prepared to vote on Tuesday night for a foreign aid package including billions to continue arming Israel in its bombardment of Gaza, roughly 300 protesters were arrested outside his home in Brooklyn for holding an "emergency Passover seder" protest, demanding the U.S. end its support for an assault that has killed at least 34,262 Palestinians.
The protest was led by anti-Zionist Jewish organizers with Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, with a large round banner representing a traditional Seder plate at the center of the protest at Grand Army Plaza, a block from Schumer's home.
Hundreds of people, some wearing traditional Palestinian keffiyehs, linked arms and chanted, "Free, free Palestine!" while blocking traffic and displaying the Seder plate.
"No one is free until everyone is free," read the banner. "Jews say stop arming Israel."
Schumer's home has been the site of numerous protests since October, when Israel began its attacks on and blockade of Gaza, which have left parts of the enclave facing famine and the entire population of 2.3 million people suffering from "acute food insecurity," at a minimum.
"A genocide being carried out in our names as Jews demands that we adapt our sacred tradition again, take to the streets, and do everything we can to prevent more death," author and activist Naomi Klein said at the protest.
The Biden administration has approved numerous weapons transfers to Israel, and the Senate overwhelmingly voted Tuesday night in favor of the package that includes $17 billion more in unconditional aid for the Israel Defense Forces.
Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) were the only members of the Democratic caucus who voted against the funding bill. Fifteen Republicans also opposed the bill over its inclusion of Ukraine aid.
The demonstration at Grand Army Plaza was organized amid a burgeoning protest movement on U.S. college campuses, including at Columbia University, where more than 100 students were suspended and then arrested for trespassing last week after setting up an encampment to demand the school divest from all companies that work with the Israeli government.
The student-led protests have been denounced by President Joe Biden and other pro-Israel critics as "antisemitic" and endangering Jewish students, despite the fact that Jewish students have helped to organize the nonviolent demonstrations.
One organizer, Calvin Harrison, told The New York Times that he attended the Brooklyn protest Tuesday night "because I'm a Jew and I was raised to believe that Judaism is about justice."
"Passover is a celebration of liberation for the future," he told the Times. "We can't celebrate liberation for ourselves while we're oppressing Palestinians."
Yonah Lieberman, co-founder of IfNotNow, recalled the group's Liberation Seder in 2016 in New York, where campaigners protested the Anti-Defamation League's support for the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
"Eighteen of us were arrested," he said. "Tonight: [Organizers] led a Seder in the streets demanding Schumer stop arming Israel. Hundreds are being arrested. The movement grows."
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Prominent Jewish Americans Condemn AIPAC Effort to 'Dominate' US Primaries
"AIPAC is an essential link in the chain that holds in place the unbearable tragedy of Israel/Palestine."
Mar 20, 2024
More than 100 prominent Jewish Americans signed a statement released Wednesday condemning the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's increasingly aggressive interventions in U.S. elections, particularly Democratic Party primaries in which the powerful lobbying group is spending big to unseat progressives.
The statement's list of signatories includes well-known scholars, rabbis, anti-war activists, journalists, and filmmakers who have "agreed to come together to highlight and oppose the unprecedented and damaging role of AIPAC" and its allied organizations in the American electoral process. The statement calls on Democratic candidates to reject all funding from AIPAC's political network.
AIPAC's political entities, including its United Democracy Project super PAC, are expected to spend $100 million this election cycle targeting candidates who have backed a cease-fire in Gaza or have otherwise been deemed inadequately pro-Israel.
"We recognize the purpose of AIPAC's interventions in electoral politics is to defeat any critics of Israeli government policy and to support candidates who vow unwavering loyalty to Israel, thereby ensuring the United States' continuing support for all that Israel does, regardless of its violence and illegality," reads the new statement from Jewish Americans, which can be read in full below.
"Given that Israel is so isolated internationally that it could not continue its inhumane treatment of the Palestinians without U.S. political and military support, AIPAC is an essential link in the chain that holds in place the unbearable tragedy of Israel/Palestine," the statement continues. "In the coming U.S. elections, we need to break that chain in order to help free the people of Israel/Palestine to pursue peaceful coexistence."
"In contrast to AIPAC, we are American Jews who believe that U.S. support for foreign governments should only be extended to those that respect the full human and civil rights, and right to self-determination, of all people."
The statement comes days after more than 20 progressive advocacy organizations—including Jewish Voice for Peace Action and the Jewish-led IfNotNow Movement—formed a coalition aimed at countering AIPAC's influence in the 2024 elections after the lobbying group had a significant impact on the 2022 midterms.
According to OpenSecrets, most of the candidates AIPAC supported in the 2022 cycle won their races after the group's super PAC raised more than $30 million.
In the current cycle, AIPAC's top targets are members of the progressive Squad who have called for a cease-fire and end to weapons exports to Israel. As The Intercept reported earlier this month, AIPAC recruited and is funding Rep. Jamaal Bowman's (D-N.Y.) primary challenger and is expected to spend heavily to unseat Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), who overcame AIPAC money to win her seat in Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District in 2022.
On top of working to sink progressives, AIPAC has also previously "endorsed Republican extremists and dozens of Congress members who'd voted against certifying" President Joe Biden's 2020 victory over former President Donald Trump, the Jewish Americans noted in their new statement.
"In contrast to AIPAC, we are American Jews who believe that U.S. support for foreign governments should only be extended to those that respect the full human and civil rights, and right to self-determination, of all people," the statement reads. "We oppose all forms of racism and bigotry, including antisemitism—and we support the historic alliance in our country of Jewish Americans with African Americans and other people of color in the cause of civil rights and equal justice."
"Therefore, we strongly oppose AIPAC's attempts to dominate Democratic primary elections," the statement adds. "We will support candidates who are opposed by AIPAC, and who are advocates for peace and a new, just U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine."
Read the full statement and list of signatories:
We are Jewish Americans who have varying perspectives. We’ve agreed to come together to highlight and oppose the unprecedented and damaging role of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and allied groups in U.S. elections, especially within Democratic Party primaries. We recognize the purpose of AIPAC's interventions in electoral politics is to defeat any critics of Israeli Government policy and to support candidates who vow unwavering loyalty to Israel, thereby ensuring the United States' continuing support for all that Israel does, regardless of its violence and illegality.
Given that Israel is so isolated internationally that it could not continue its inhumane treatment of the Palestinians without U.S. political and military support, AIPAC is an essential link in the chain that holds in place the unbearable tragedy of Israel/Palestine. In the coming U.S. elections, we need to break that chain in order to help free the people of Israel/Palestine to pursue peaceful coexistence.
In the same 2021-22 election cycle in which AIPAC endorsed Republican extremists and dozens of Congress members who’d voted against certifying Biden's victory over Trump, the AIPAC network raised millions from Trump donors and spent the money inside Democratic primaries against progressives, mostly candidates of color. AIPAC is now vowing to spend even more millions in the 2024 Democratic primaries, targeting specific Democrats in Congress—initially all legislators of color—who’ve advocated for a Gaza cease-fire, a position supported by the vast majority of Democratic voters. AIPAC’s election spending increasingly works to defeat candidates who criticize the racist policies of Israel.
In contrast to AIPAC, we are American Jews who believe that U.S. support for foreign governments should only be extended to those that respect the full human and civil rights, and right to self-determination, of all people. We oppose all forms of racism and bigotry, including antisemitism—and we support the historic alliance in our country of Jewish Americans with African Americans and other people of color in the cause of civil rights and equal justice.
Therefore, we strongly oppose AIPAC's attempts to dominate Democratic primary elections. We call on Democratic candidates to not accept AIPAC network funding, and demand that the Democratic leadership not allow Republican funders to use that network to deform Democratic primary elections. We will support candidates who are opposed by AIPAC, and who are advocates for peace and a new, just U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine.
Signed by: (Organizational Affiliations For Identification Purposes Only)
Adam Gold, Senior Strategist, Working Families Party
Adam Shatz, London Review of Books
Alan Levine, Civil rights lawyer
Alan Minsky, Executive Director, Progressive Democrats of America
Alicia T. Singham Goodwin, Political Director at Jews For Racial & Economic Justice
Rabbi Alissa Wise, Lead Organizer, Rabbis for Ceasefire
Alisse Waterson, Presidential Scholar and Professor, John Jay College, CUNY
Anna Baltzer, Author, “Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories”
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright, M4BL Black Hive/Black Alliance for Peace
Ariel Dorfman, Novelist, playwright, essayist, human rights activist
Ariel Gold, Executive Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation
Ariela Gross, Distinguished Professor, UCLA School of Law
Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen, Professor, American Jewish University
Aurora Levins Morales, Writer
Aviva Chomsky, Professor of History, Salem State University
Aviva Orenstein, Professor, Maurer School of Law, Indiana University
Ben Cohen, Co-founder, Ben & Jerry’s, philanthropist
Ben Ehrenreich, Author, winner of American Book Award
Beth Miller, Political Director, Jewish Voice for Peace
Rabbi Brant Rosen
Rabbi Brian Walt
Caroline Levine, Professor of the Humanities, Cornell University
Dan Segal, Professor Emeritus, Anthropology and History, Pitzer College
Dan Simon, Professor of Law and Psychology, University of Southern California
Daniel Stolzenberg, Associate Professor of History, University of California, Davis
Danny Goldberg, Music executive, author
Dave Zirin, Sports editor at The Nation, author
David Vine, Professor of Anthropology, American University
Deborah Eisenberg, Writer and actress
Deena Metzger, Poet, novelist, and essayist
Dennis Bernstein, Poet, human rights reporter, and host of Flashpoints
Donna Nevel, Educator
Eliot Katz, Poet, author “The Poetry and Politics of Allen Ginsberg”
Elliott Gould
Eric Drooker, Graphic novelist and artist
Estee Chandler, Board Chair, Jewish Voice for Peace Action
Eva Borgwardt, National Spokesperson, If Not Now
Ira Shor, Professor Emeritus, Graduate Center, CUNY
Gabriel Winant, Assistant Professor of History, University of Chicago
Gail Hershatter, Professor Emeritus of History, University of California, Santa Cruz
Gene Bruskin, Labor leader and playwright
Hadar Cohen, Scholar, mystic, and artist
Hollie Ainbinder, Program Director, Institute for Public Accuracy
Howard Horowitz, Board President, WESPAC Foundation
Howard A. Rodman, Screenwriter, novelist, and educator
Ivan Handler, J Street Chicago
James Schamus, Filmmaker, Professor, Columbia University
Jay Levin, Founder of LA Weekly
Jeff Cohen, Media critic, retired Ithaca College journalism professor
Jeff Gottlieb, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Jennifer Spitzer, Associate Professor, Literatures in English, Ithaca College
Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg, Organizer, founding member, Radical Jewish Calendar
Joel Beinin, Emeritus Professor of History, Stanford University
Judith Butler, Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Judith Gurewich, Publisher, Other Press
Kenneth Pomeranz, Professor, University of Chicago, Yuen Campus in Hong Kong
Larry Cohen, Former President of Communications Workers of America
Laura Dittmar, Professor Emerita, author of “Tracing Homelands”
Leora Auslander, Professor, University of Chicago
Lesley Williams, Librarian, Board Member, Jewish Voice for Peace Action
Lisa Sternlieb, Associate Professor of English and Jewish Studies, Penn State University
Marcy Winograd, Co-founder, Progressive Caucus, California Democratic Party
Marjorie Cohn, Professor Emerita of Law, past president of National Lawyers Guild
Mark Dimondstein, President of the American Postal Workers Union
Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Martin A. Lee, Author, “The Beast Reawakens”
Maya Schenwar, Director, Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism
Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK Co-founder
Michael Greenberg, Founder and Executive Director, Climate Defiance
Mike Hersh, Communications Director, Progressive Democrats of America
Mitchell Plitnick, President, ReThinking Foreign Policy
Molly Crabapple, Artist and writer
Morgan Spector, Actor
Naomi Dann, Chief of Staff, Housing Justice for All
Nomi Stolzenberg, Professor, USC Gould School of Law
Norman Solomon, National Director, RootsAction
Dr. Paul Zeitz, Author and activist
Penny Rosenwasser, Author, Center for Jewish Nonviolence
Peter Beinart, Editor-at-Large, Jewish Currents, author, and journalism professor
Phyllis Bennis, Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies
Rafael Shimunov, Radio host and co-founder, The Jewish Vote
Rebecca Vilkomerson, Organizer and author
Richard Bauman, Professor Emeritus, Indiana University
Richard Handler, Professor of Anthropology, University of Virginia
Rick Goldsmith, Documentary filmmaker
Robert Brenner, Professor Emeritus of History, UCLA
Robert Greenwald, Filmmaker, President of Brave New Films
Robert Herbst, Esq., Board Co-Chair, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)
Robert Naiman, Former Policy Director, Just Foreign Policy
Robert Scheer, Author, journalist, publisher of ScheerPost
Sam Rosenthal, Political Director, RootsAction
Samuel Moyn, Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History, Yale University
Sarah Jaffe, Journalist, author of “Work Won’t Love You Back”
Sarah Schulman, Writer
Seth Ackerman, Editor-at-Large, Jacobin
Sheldon Pollock, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University
Simone Zimmerman, Co-founder, IfNotNow
Sarah Sophie Flicker, Artist, actress, and activist
Spencer Ackerman, Journalist and author
Stefanie Fox, Executive Director, Jewish Voice for Peace
Susan Adelman, Feminist, activist, and philanthropist
Suzanne Gordon, Journalist and author
Suzi Weissman, Professor of Politics, St. Mary’s College
Tony Kushner, Writer
Victor Wallis, Professor of Liberal Arts, Berklee College of Music
Wallace Shawn, Actor & Playwright
Zillah Eisenstein, Professor Emerita of Politics, Ithaca College
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US Jews Demand Biden Apologize for Linking Their Safety With Israel
"This is false, Israel is the least safe country for Jews, Israel fans the flames of antisemitism, their genocidal and apartheid behavior makes us less safe everywhere," said one critic.
Dec 12, 2023
Progressive Jewish Americans on Tuesday expressed anger and disbelief after U.S. President Joe Biden linked their safety with Israel—a nation which many critics say is placing Jews around the world in danger by waging a genocidal war on Gaza.
Speaking at the White House Hanukah party on Monday evening, Biden
said, "Were there no Israel, there wouldn't be a Jew in the world that is safe," a reprise of earlier comments in which he asserted that Israel is "the only ultimate guarantee" of Jewish safety.
"We are deeply alarmed by President Biden's antisemitic statement that only Israel can keep Jews safe. As president of the United States, it's his job to make this country safe for everyone, including Jewish Americans," said Eva Borgwardt, national spokesperson for the peace group IfNotNow. "We demand that he apologize for his hurtful remarks."
Alyssa Rubin, another campaigner at IfNotNow, said that Biden's remarks were "a truly unhinged thing to say to a room of American Jews at the White House Hanukkah party."
Jewish Daily Forward contributing columnist Emily Tamkin asserted that Biden, as president of a country that millions of Jews call home, is ultimately responsible for the safety of all Americans.
Tamkin wrote:
There have been Jews in the United States, today home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, for longer than it has been a country. Some American Jews' families have been here for generations, and some immigrated here themselves. But all of us—and I can't believe I am typing this in 2023—are a part of the fabric of this country. And our safety should not rely on the existence of a foreign state.
"I am an American. And my safety, as well as my family's safety, here in the United States should not be contingent on a foreign leader," she added, referring to far-right Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "I would hope that the head of the state in which I actually live would be the first to recognize that."
Stephen Wertheim, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said on social media that "as a Jew in America, I resent the implication that Jews in America are unsafe and that they must rely upon a foreign government, rather than their own, to make them safe."
Biden's Hanukah party remarks came after Jewish-led activists demanding an immediate end to Israel's assault on Gaza demonstrated outside with White House, with 18 women elders chaining themselves to a fence. The women were all later arrested. Protests spearheaded by Jewish-led groups—mostly Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow—have swept the nation since Israel began its retaliatory war on Gaza on October 7.
Since then, Israeli forces have killed, maimed, or left missing more than 70,000 Palestinians—mostly women and children—while obliterating much of Gaza and displacing at least 1.9 million Gazans, or around 85% of the besieged strip's population, according to United Nations officials.
Biden has been widely derided as "Genocide Joe" for his self-described "rock-solid and unwavering" commitment to Israel following the October 7 Hamas-led attacks, and for his pushing a $14.3 billion emergency military aid package to boost Israel's fighting power. The vast bulk of Israel's imported arms and ammunition come from the United States.
Some critics have argued that Israel's slaughter in Gaza—and U.S. support for it—is endangering Jews around the world. Human rights groups report antisemitic incidents have risen sharply over the past two months, as have Islamophobic attacks and other bigotry against not only Muslims but also Sikhs and others, by mistake.
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