🎓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. 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.” Read the full piece >>

🚨 We Need Your Help to Amplify Student Voices: Share highlights from our discussion on Facebook and Instagram, or the full discussion on YouTube, Spotify and 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 Bluesky and 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. 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.” Read and share Joseph’s piece >>

💬 Share Joseph’s message on Instagram >>

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.” Read our full statement >>

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🔍 Policy Center Corner: The latest from the 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, “The Present Day: Peacemaking Alternatives for Israeli Policy,” endorsed by more than 130 Jewish and Arab Israeli scholars. 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. 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.” 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.” Read the full piece here >>

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?!” Read the full speech and 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 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. 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?” Read and share >>

🗳️ Our Pro-Democracy To-Do List:

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

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

Vote for the Hatikvah Slate for the World Zionist Congress >>

Sign up for J Street’s 2026 National Convention >>

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✅ 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.

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.

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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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