[ ]J Street[ ]
This Week: Standing Up To Trump’s Authoritarian Attacks on Higher Ed 🎓 |
Settlers Terrorize Palestinian Communities 🔥 | One More Month to Vote Your
Values ✡️ | Trump’s Damaging, Arbitrary and Nonsensical Tariffs 📉 | Policy
Center Corner 🔍 | This Week’s Must Reads 📖 | Our Pro-Democracy To-Do List
🗳️ | And much more.

🎓Standing Up To Trump’s Authoritarian Attacks on Higher Education: The
situation on college campuses has never been so dire. Students tell us
their classmates are walking around with copies of papers, fearful they
could be swept away by masked agents. Administrators are changing courses
to avoid offending MAGA extremists. Support systems for minority students
– including Jewish students – are being cut. 

* J Street U Students Respond: To understand the impact of Trump’s
attacks, we spoke with Lauren Haines from the University of Michigan,
Ma’ayan Stutman-Shaw from Brown University and antisemitism expert
Stacy Burdett. [ [link removed] ]Watch and share the conversation here >>

* The Jewish Community Must Stand Up: Former J Street Board Chair and
Dean Emeritus of Tufts' Tisch College, Ambassador Alan Solomont
writes, “What happened to Ozturk, and many other international
students, will not make Jewish students safer, nor is it fighting
antisemitism. It is weaponizing legitimate Jewish pain and very real
concerns about antisemitism to undermine civil liberties and the rule
of law.” [ [link removed] ]Read the full piece >>

🚨 We Need Your Help to Amplify Student Voices: Share highlights from our
discussion on [ [link removed] ]Facebook and [ [link removed] ]Instagram, or the full discussion on
[ [link removed] ]YouTube, [ [link removed] ]Spotify and [ [link removed] ]Apple Podcasts.

🔥 Settlers Terrorize Palestinian Communities: This week, violent settlers
stormed the West Bank village of Duma by the truckload, attacking families
and destroying property. Meanwhile, Netanyahu's coalition is edging closer
and closer to outright West Bank annexation.

* Impunity, Never Accountability: “These pogroms continue because
Netanyahu and his extremist coalition treat them with impunity,” we
wrote, “While wreaking havoc and destroying lives across the West
Bank, these violent Israeli settlers are tarnishing the image of
Israel and Israelis abroad. We'll fight their vision with ours.
Democracy, equality and peace.” Share our message on [ [link removed] ]Bluesky and
[ [link removed] ]Twitter >>

* The Right Advances Annexation: Netanyahu’s agenda of West Bank
annexation is not performed through grand proclamations but creeping
legal changes, new settlement construction, and more checkpoints and
roads that slice through Palestinian territory. [ [link removed] ]Read how Netanyahu
is accelerating annexation by constructing West Bank roads >>

✡️ One More Month to Vote Your Values: Voting for the World Zionist
Congress closes in exactly one month. Now’s the time to start sending
emails, writing texts and making calls to friends and family urging them
to vote for the Hatikvah Slate. Get out the word to ensure $5 billion gets
directed toward defending Israeli democracy, not entrenching occupation.

* Why You Should Vote Hatikvah, A Student Perspective: Joseph Hillyard,
a J Street U student leader at NYU, writes, “I joined the Hatikvah
Slate because, as a progressive Zionist who refuses to see Jewish
safety and Palestinian rights as mutually exclusive, I believe it is
important for American Jews to make their voices heard.” [ [link removed] ]Read and
share Joseph’s piece >>

[ [link removed] ]💬 Share Joseph’s message on Instagram >>

[ [link removed] ]Vote Hatikvah

📉 Trump’s Damaging, Arbitrary and Nonsensical Tariffs: The Trump
Administration’s just imposed damaging tariffs on US allies and partners,
including a new 17% tariff on all Israeli imports.

* Our Response: “This economic self-sabotage amounts to a major
regressive tax hike on every American while seriously undermining our
alliances and diplomatic influence. The splitscreen is damning, coming
at the same time as Trump presses for a massive tax cut for the
wealthiest Americans.” [ [link removed] ]Read our full statement >>

[ [link removed] ]💬 Share on Instagram >>

🔍 Policy Center Corner: The latest from the [ [link removed] ]J Street Policy Center.

* Policy Center Briefing: An Alternate Path for Israeli Policy: To
understand alternatives to the Netanyahu government's current strategy
of war and occupation, the Policy Center held a briefing with Dr.
Assaf David and Dr. Smadar Ben-Natan, authors of the report, “[ [link removed] ]The
Present Day: Peacemaking Alternatives for Israeli Policy,” endorsed by
more than 130 Jewish and Arab Israeli scholars. [ [link removed] ]Watch or listen to
the briefing here >>

* The Way Forward in Syria: Policy Center Contributing Expert Jennifer
Gavito, and Policy and Research Coordinator Avraham Spraragen, break
down how the US and Israel should respond to the new Syrian
government. [ [link removed] ]Read here >>

* The Reality of Resuming the War in Gaza: Frank Lowenstein, J Street
Policy Fellow and former US Special Envoy, writes, “Polls and protests
in Israel clearly favor ending the war to free the hostages, but
Netanyahu has always cared more about the extremists in his coalition.
Meanwhile, large demonstrations have broken out in Gaza against Hamas
and the war, yet its leaders have long shown indifference to the
incredible suffering of the people.” [ [link removed] ]Read here >>

* Israel’s New Military Plan for Gaza is Incredibly Dangerous: Ilan
Goldenberg, J Street’s new Senior Vice President and Chief Policy
Officer, writes, “There have been multiple reports in recent weeks
that the Israeli military has drawn up plans for the near complete
reoccupation of Gaza.” “if Israel’s priority is to get the hostages
home – something 70% of the Israeli public agrees with – this is not
the way to do it.” [ [link removed] ]Read the full piece here >>

* [ [link removed] ]Subscribe to Ilan’s Substack.

📖 This Week’s Must-Reads:

* Ami Ayalon: How Do We Know We Are Ruled by a Tyrannical Regime?: In a
speech delivered outside of Netanyahu’s office, Ami Ayalon – former
head of the Shin Bet security service and commander-in-chief of the
Navy – said, “To preserve its rule, [the Israeli] government has
crushed the legislative authority, turning the Knesset into a mere
assembly of mockery.” “And I ask: How long will we keep our eyes shut
and pretend that Israel is still a democracy?!” [ [link removed] ]Read the full
speech and [ [link removed] ]share it on Instagram >>

* Will Jewish Americans Stand up for Democracy or Bend the Knee to
Autocrats?: J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami writes, “I’ll commit: J
Street will fight for the rights and freedoms that have allowed our
ancestors to find refuge and build a future here in the United States.
Other Jewish leaders and institutions must do the same.” Get the
[ [link removed] ]Word on the Street on Substack >>

* For Israel’s Security, Help Us Stop the War: J Street Israel Executive
Director Nadav Tamir writes, “We find ourselves with the war ramping
back up, hostages still in captivity, and a cruel humanitarian aid
blockade being imposed on Gaza by Netanyahu. IDF soldiers are
returning to combat when not all other options have been exhausted. As
an Israeli patriot and reservist’s father, I find it inexcusable that
this prime minister finds the lives of our troops as disposable as his
actions signal them to be. [ [link removed] ]Read and share >>

* A Call for American Jewish Organizations Leaders: Israeli hostage
advocate Vered Guttman writes, “Jewish communal leaders, where do you
stand on this issue? Calling 'bring them home now!' is no longer
enough. A military operation endangers the hostages. Can you openly
call for a ceasefire deal?” [ [link removed] ]Read and share >>

🗳️ Our Pro-Democracy To-Do List:

[28][ ] Tomorrow, our movement will be marching in mass protests across
the country to oppose Trump’s extreme agenda. [ [link removed] ]Join a ‘Hands Off!’
rally near you and [ [link removed] ]spread the word >> Be in touch with your chapter
chair or local staff to get J Street swag to wear to the rally!

[31][ ] [ [link removed] ]Show Solidarity with Israeli Peace Summit >> Learn more here
and mark your calendar to watch the rally in May.

[33][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Vote for the Hatikvah Slate for the World Zionist Congress
>> 

[35][ ] [ [link removed] ]Sign up for J Street’s 2026 National Convention >>

[37][ ] Share these actions with a friend!

✅ We Fought and We WON in Wisconsin! Our community stepped up with
significant grassroots support for Judge Susan Crawford, who handily
defeated MAGA-aligned Brad Schimel in last night’s Wisconsin State Supreme
Court race – despite Elon Musk pouring millions of dollars into the race.

✅ Democracy in Action: After thousands of J Streeters wrote petitions and
called their senators, every single Democrat in the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee voted no on the Huckabee nomination. Now, we’ll keep
up the pressure for the full Senate vote.

[ [link removed] ]Check out and share the regularly updated Democracy To-Do List on our
website >>

💡More Resources:

* J Street’s Haggadah Supplement: To guide your seder, we’ve put
together a Haggadah supplement offering readings and reflections to
ground your Seder table conversation in these difficult times.

[ [link removed] ]Link to Haggadah Supplement with readings.

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* Read More on Our Website:

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J Street is the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy
Americans who want Israel to be secure, democratic and the national home of the
Jewish people. Working in American politics and the Jewish community, we
advocate policies that advance shared US and Israeli interests as well as Jewish
and democratic values, leading to a two-state solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.



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