Jewish Americans Are Sick Of Trump Exploiting Them

Whether it’s in the halls of power or out in the streets, Jewish Americans are uniting against the abduction of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil — and demanding the Trump administration stop its free speech crackdown under the guise of fighting antisemitism.

A dozen Jewish organizations — including some pro-Israel groups — called Thursday for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to stop efforts to detain and deport those who are student visa holders or legal permanent residents without due process, according to a letter first obtained by HuffPost.

“In the past, laws and policies that limit the right to free speech have often been wielded against the Jewish community, and we are worried that we are seeing signs that they are being wielded against Muslim, Arab and other minority communities now,” the letter said, particularly expressing concern for Khalil.

A green card holder himself, Khalil and his pregnant wife had just reached their university-owned apartment in New York City on Saturday when federal immigration agents took him without a warrant and sent him to a detention center in Louisiana. The Columbia University graduate was abducted for helping lead anti-war student protests last year on campus and has not been charged with a crime.

“President Trump is dressing up his assault on free speech and due process as if it was about fighting antisemitism. That is a lie,” New Jewish Narrative President Hadar Susskind told HuffPost. “Trump is exploiting very real concerns about rising antisemitism to mask his anti-democratic agenda. As a Jew, I am offended and worried.”

Hundreds of Jewish New Yorkers, including rabbis and activists, demonstrated on Thursday in support of Khalil and in opposition of the Trump administration weaponizing their Jewish identity to further crush free speech. The protesters wore red shirts saying, “Not in Our Name” while staging a sit-in at the Trump Tower’s lobby. About 100 protesters were arrested in the demonstration, according to Jewish Voice for Peace.

Khalil’s abduction is “further proof that we are on the brink of a full takeover by an authoritarian regime,” said Jane Hirschmann, whose grandfather and uncle were kidnapped by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

“As Jews of conscience, we know our history and we know where this leads. This is what fascists do as they cement control,” she continued. “This moment requires all people of conscience to take bold action to resist state violence and repression. Free Mahmoud now.”

Khalil’s lawyers attended a hearing on Wednesday to argue for bringing the activist back to New York. The judge did not decide on whether to bring him back from Louisiana, but maintained that he not be deported until his pending habeas petition is reviewed.

“Jewish leaders need to ask themselves if they’re willing to allow our community to be used in this way to dismantle democratic norms,” said Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. “If the answer is no, their condemnation of this arrest should be loud and swift.”

Immigration officials said that Khalil’s arrest was in line with President Donald Trump’s executive order that is dressed as an effort to combat antisemitism on college campuses. In reality, the order is set up so that any constitutionally protected speech and protest that isn’t approved by the president will be quashed ― making Khalil’s arrest a dangerous test.

“We will not take lectures on antisemitism from segregationists and neo-Nazis,” Columbia professor Joseph Howley, who joined Khalil during last year’s protests, said at Wednesday’s press conference. “We will not allow a white supremacist president and his party to claim the mantle of Jewish safety as they shred the Constitution and spin outlandish legal theories to justify the suppression of dissent and the brutalization of those who oppose war and apartheid.”

The 2024 student protests against Israel’s military campaign had already faced violence, harassment and academic consequences under the Biden administration, notably so in Columbia. But under Trump, the government’s crackdown is in line with a far-right Zionist blueprint called “Project Esther” ― named after the heroic queen celebrated during the Jewish holiday of Purim.

But despite the far-right coopting the story, some Jewish protesters tried to reclaim it on Thursday, the start of Purim.

“I mean, this is a story about scapegoating a minority of people and corralling those in power to kill them, and I think that’s exactly what we’re seeing now,” JVP’s Liv Kunins-Berkowitz told HuffPost. “We’re seeing the regime, the Trump regime, scapegoat Palestinian people and trans people, and trying to get people to turn against them.”

“So it has been just remarkable, because this is an ancient, ancient story that I grew up with. And it feels so resonant today,” she continued. “So I think it feels extra meaningful to be taking this action as we prepare to observe this holiday.”

While the Heritage-created strategy paper markets itself as a champion against antisemitism, the contents are largely fascist, xenophobic and racist, and seek to quash any kind of dissent, including among anti-Zionists and progressive Jewish Americans whom the blueprint says it sees as complacent. Trump’s executive order that led to Khalil’s arrest can be traced back to the project.

“Where exactly are we in the poem that begins, ‘When they came for the communists, I did not speak out?’” Howley said. “Well, they’ve already come for the asylum-seekers. They’ve come for the migrant families. Now, they’ve come for Mahmoud Khalil.”

“It’s not a very long poem ― so how far down the list do you think you are?”