Hi There – it’s Erin, the director of J Street U.
I was so proud of our student leader Meirav for speaking before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week as they held a hearing on antisemitism.
Since her testimony, the White House and their MAGA allies have intensified their attacks on higher education by causing chaos at Columbia University – stripping hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funding and threatening the constitutional rights to free speech and due process by revoking the permanent legal status of a protest leader.
In light of these dangerous developments, please take a moment to read Meirav’s note below.
Thank you, sincerely, for taking the time.
Erin
Erin Beiner
Director, J Street U
Friends,
My name is Meirav. I’m a student at Tufts University and a J Street U student leader.
Last week, I testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee as they held a hearing on antisemitism in America. As the only Jewish college student to participate, I was disheartened by the spin Republican senators pushed at me despite having not stepped foot on campuses themselves.
We know that the MAGA movement will ignore the antisemitism in their own ranks – the Nazi salutes, the conspiracy theories and the history of hate-fueled mass shootings – to push a warped narrative that the real threat to the Jewish people is higher education.
Here’s what I told senators: The majority of my classmates aren’t Hamas-aligned radicals. They’re students whose perspectives may differ from ours, but who must be welcome as long as they voice them respectfully. I told them that we must protect higher education. That institutions must safeguard dialogue.
If you agree, can I ask you to sign this petition?
✍️ Add your name if you agree ✍️
As the daughter of two rabbis, with both Israeli and Palestinian friends, I learned the hard way what it feels like to be caught up in fierce, partisan politics playing out on campus – to be ignored or even exploited by the very institutions that pledge to keep us safe.
My friends and I have experienced the increase in antisemitic incidents that you’ve read about. Since October 7, we’ve seen some rhetoric at anti-war protests cross the line into ugly stereotyping, hateful vitriol on social media and violent threats against Jewish students. It’s true that too many protesters have embraced antisemitic tropes or conflated the government of Israel with Jewish people around the world.
But we cannot give up on the colleges and universities we call home. We have no common cause with those who want to discredit or defund higher education. Protecting education, civil rights and open dialogue is vital to my future and to the ability of Jewish students to succeed and thrive.
The past few days have seen the Trump Administration escalate their attacks on campuses by zeroing in on Columbia University – justifying threats to student visas and cutting hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funding by claiming antisemitism while in reality doing nothing to protect Jewish students.
It’s chilling. And it’s just the beginning.
The MAGA movement seems determined to sacrifice resources that keep Jewish students safe at the altar of their culture war, and we – Jewish Americans – cannot allow it.
By attacking higher education, Trump and his allies are threatening to abandon the most effective tools the government has to fight antisemitism in all its forms – and I won’t stand idly by while they do it.
If you’re with me, please click here to sign the petition. We need to show that our perspective is broadly shared – so every signature makes a difference, and I’m counting on you to add yours.
Thank you, sincerely, for your support.
Meirav Solomon
