Trump targets universities and Gaza protesters over antisemitism, drawing mixed reactions from Jewish Americans
The Trump administration has cited antisemitism as a key reason it has targeted universities and activists. While some Jewish groups have cheered these moves, others have fiercely criticized them.
LOS ANGELES — In recent weeks, President Donald Trump’s administration has pointed to the fight against antisemitism as one reason it is threatening to pull hundreds of millions in funding from Ivy League universities and attempting to deport international student activists who protested against Israel’s war in Gaza.
In some instances, Jewish organizations have cheered what they view as Trump’s crackdown on the antisemitism that has swelled since the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks on Israel and the subsequent invasion of Gaza. But in many other cases, leading Jewish groups and advocates have expressed deep discomfort with what the government professes to do in the name of Jewish safety.
The divide echoes some of the internal political divisions among Jewish Americans over the last 18 months.
Rabbi Sharon Brous, the founding and senior rabbi of IKAR, a Jewish community based in Los Angeles, succinctly captured that unease with a sermon she delivered to her nondenominational congregation on March 8. It was titled, “I Am Not Your Pawn.”
“What may feel, today, like a welcomed embrace is actually putting us at even greater danger,” Brous said, according to a copy of her sermon published on IKAR’s website. “We, the Jews, are being used to advance a political agenda that will cause grave harm to the social fabric, and to the institutions that are best suited to protect Jews and all minorities.”
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