To our Minnesota Jewish Community,
We write as a diverse body of rabbis, serving communities with a wide range of perspectives on U.S. politics and on Israel. We write at a time when our Jewish community is feeling vulnerable. The fear of rising antisemitism has shaken us to the core. And yet, we cannot allow fear to keep us from facing another threat to our nation.
In the face of Egyptian oppression, Moses spoke to our Israelite ancestors who had every reason to fear saying, “Do not be afraid” (Exodus 14:13). With Passover, the Festival of Freedom approaching, we take these words to heart as we speak out in support of caring for the stranger and in defense of freedoms that have allowed us to thrive as Jews in America.
Today, we are witnessing a steadily growing crackdown on universities across the country, detaining international students and defunding universities. These detentions and financial penalties are being justified by the Trump Administration as part of the fight against antisemitism.
On the surface, this approach may seem to offer protection. But this short-term solution is short-sighted. We are concerned that this approach which targets and detains international students threatens to erode our democracy without making Jewish or Israeli students any safer. It is stirring up fear and stifling free speech. We want Jews and other minorities to feel safe on college campuses and not face threats of violence as we’ve stated in the past, and we object to the violation of anyone’s Constitutional rights as a strategy for fighting antisemitism.
The recent spate of immigrant arrests and withholding of Federal funding from universities are evidence of a strategy employed by the Trump administration called “Project Esther,” authored by the Heritage Foundation. This strategy uses claims of fighting antisemitism to dismantle values we hold dear as Jews and as Americans, including the right to express dissent and the imperative to protect the stranger.
History has taught us that whenever a government restricts the rights of a given group, oppression of the Jews will soon follow. We have learned that our safety and freedom as Jews is irrevocably bound up with the safety and freedom of all people.
In the story of liberation Jews around the world will read this Passover, Moses was a leader who could have lived comfortably to the end of his days as a prince. Instead, when he witnessed injustice, he responded and became God’s partner in the fight against oppression. We invite our communities to follow in Moses’ footsteps and stand up against the Administration’s violations of human dignity in the name of fighting antisemitism. Let us commit to an ethic of care, accountability, and civil rights for all – including for those with whom we may disagree. The work before us requires us to build coalitions to protect our community in ways that bind our safety and freedom with others.
Signed,
Rabbi Esther Adler
Rabbi Morris Allen
Rabbi Jill Avrin
Rabbi Barbara L. Block
Rabbi Michaela Brown
Rabbi Eva Cohen
Rabbi Norman M. Cohen
Rabbi Barry D. Cytron
Rabbi Alexander Davis
Rabbi Ryan S. Dulkin, Ph.D.
Rabbi Shosh Dworsky
Rabbi Avram Ettedgui
Rabbi Joey Glick
Rabbi Matt Goldberg
Rabbi Yosi Gordon
Rabbi Jennifer Hartman
Rabbi Justin Held
Rabbi Rebecca Kamil
Rabbi Ricky Kamil
Rabbi Emma Kippley-Ogman
Rabbi Harold J. Kravitz
Rabbi Arielle Lekach-Rosenberg
Rabbi Lynn Liberman
Rabbi David Locketz
Rabbi Tamar Magill-Grimm
Rabbi Cathy Nemiroff
Rabbi Avi Olitzky
Rabbi Debra Rappaport
Rabbi Heather Renetzky
Rabbi Jason Rodich
Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg
Rabbi Jeffrey Schein
Rabbi Sammy Seid
Rabbi Adam Stock Spilker
Rabbi David Steinberg
Rabbi Sharon Stiefel
Rabbi Samantha Thal
Rabbi David Thomas
Rabbi Aaron Weininger
Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman
Truly excellent letter
Very timely letter reflecting true Jewish Values
Thank you for this wonderful statement signed by the majority of rabbis in Minnesota. Beautiful articulation of our Jewish values!
I have read about Project Esther on the Heritage Foundation website. It looks to be a powerful strategy to combat antisemitism. I see nothing that suggests the strategy is going to dismantle values “we hold dear.”
I challenge others, including all the rabbis who wrote this letter, to study Project Esther as detailed by the Heritage Foundation, and illustrate its faults.
The Rabbi’s letter states that “History has taught us that whenever a government restricts the rights of a given group, oppression of the Jews will soon follow.” This is the opposite of what I have always been told. That is, “Whenever a government restricts the rights of Jews, oppression of others will follow.” How did the Rabbis get this so wrong?
Mike, please research the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025, and Project Esther further. The Heritage Foundation aims to create a CHRISTIAN nation. We are merely pawns in that. Project Esther had no input from major Jewish organizations, and leaked notes from contributors discuss certain rich JEWS being among the greatest threats to western civilization.
Here is a fine article “Trump’s Jewish Cover Story” by Yair Rosenberg from the Atlantic that powerfully elucidates the MRA’s point. It may explain why the reaction our statement has been getting so far been largely supportive and appreciative.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/04/trump-anti-semitism-agenda/682285/
We did this. Only we can undo this.
“The MRA frames its opposition to ‘this approach’ as an objection to apparently novel tactics devised by the Trump administration and the Heritage Foundation. The only problem with this posture is it entirely ignores the Jewish community’s role devising and enabling this approach. In fact, the MRA itself has been instrumental in its rise…
While rejecting the administration’s gestapo tactics, the MRA grants it the good faith presumption of aiming to protect Jews. But this has never been about antisemitism, a broad-brush defamatory label the pro-Israel community has deployed against any and all critics of the Jewish state for decades…
Had they chosen to listen to Raz Segal rather than suppress him, the MRA might have sooner internalized his warnings.
The cause of Palestinian freedom and core American values like the right to speech, assembly, and habeas corpus have all now become inextricably entwined. It is no longer possible to fight for the rights of student protestors—as the MRA wishes to do—but not fight for their cause—as the MRA does not wish to do…”
More here: https://certainthoughts.substack.com/p/we-did-this-only-we-can-undo-this
I am compelled to respond to the MRA’s letter to the Jewish Community. Surely the distinguished group of Rabbis who authored it are aware that the conduct engaged in by pro-Hamas groups on college campuses, including taking over and blockading buildings, damaging property, committing arson, injuring university employees, and physically assaulting Jewish students by preventing them from attending classes and disrupting classes in progress, does not constitute “protected free speech.” Indeed, Jewish students have now retained counsel and filed litigation against Columbia and other schools for their failure to protect the rights of Jewish students pursuing their education on campus, and for their toleration of a foreign terrorist organization engaging in criminal activity on campus. Will the MRA now issue a press release supporting those Jewish students and their lawsuit?
We in the Jewish community should not be surprised by this horrific rise in anti-Semitism, considering how Jew-hatred and hatred of Israel have been inflamed by elected officials such as our own Rep. Ilhan Omar, a vile, wretched anti-Semite, who has called Israel “evil,” has accused Jews of “dual loyalty,” and has declared that “For Jews, it’s all about the Benjamins baby.” And she, along with her fellow Democrats in Congress, have consistently voted, after the attacks on October 7, to cut all military aid to Israel. In doing so, she has been joined by nine members of our Minneapolis City Council, all endorsed by the DFL, who last year adopted their infamous “Ceasefire Resolution,” declaring, inter alia, that Israel “indiscriminately” bombed civilians, engaged in “targeting and killing of Palestinian … civilians,” and engaged in “collective punishment.” The Council then called on “our State and Federal delegations and the Biden Administration to … support an end to U.S. military funding to the State of Israel.” Mayor Frey, to his credit, vetoed this abhorrent Resolution, only to have nine Democrats on the Council vote to override the veto. Is it any wonder, therefore, that we have witnessed this frightening escalation in hatred and violence against Jews on campus, engaged in by groups who expressly support the goals of Hamas to “eradicate Israel and kill the Jews.”
Finally, I assume that the MRA would totally endorse what President Trump said during his State of the Union address in 2019, when he declared the following: “We will not avert our eyes from a regime [Iran] that chants death to America and threatens genocide against the Jewish people. We must never ignore the vile poison of anti-Semitism, or those who spread its venomous creed. With one voice, we must confront this hatred anywhere and everywhere it occurs.” History will record that President Donald Trump was the best friend that the State of Israel and the Jewish community ever had in the White House.
Thank you, Rabbis, for your compassion and wisdom. I am not religious, but I can appreciate that your letter–though grounded in religious beliefs–centers the Tikkun Olam core of Jewish practice and secular life: we as Jews all have a responsibility to repair the world. Not only Jewish existence, but the world. I can empathize with the above commentators who have deep concerns about the protestors who abused legitimate, peaceful campus protests to threaten Jewish students and question Israeli sovereignty, but those actions need to be handled by college administrators, and if laws have been broken, by law enforcement. To withhold federal funding for an entire college or university community, and to initiate deprtations of legally present students and educators, is fascism. And we know that neither Jews nor any other minority group are safe or respected in a fascist regime.
Thank you Mark for your excellent letter. It’s appalling that these Rabbis are far more interested in protecting so called “free speech” than in protecting and defending the rights of Jewish students. And since these universities and the Biden administration did nothing to stop the violence and harassment of Jews, the only thing that would get their attention is to cut off their funding. Unlike many other politicians, Trump is not being bought or intimidated by countries and groups that want to see the demise of Jews and Israel.
Excellent letter, Mark! Thank you for standing so strong for Israel and the Jewish students on campus. You are absolutely right — there is no better friend of Israel than President Donald J. Trump.
If it had been Obama or Biden who did what Trump has, these same Rabbis would be profusely praising them. Since it’s Trump, though, they can’t help but demonstrate their hatred for him with their ridiculous letter. It’s an example of biting the hand that feeds you. No president has been better for Jews than Donald J. Trump, yet this letter demonstrates a complete lack of gratitude. Shame on everyone who signed it. They would rather support students who threaten Jews than praise even a single act of President Trump’s. It’s disgusting.