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May 11, 2025
Key Developments and What We're Discussing Today:
1) Today, May 11, marks 583 days since October 7, 2023. The Hamas-led attack on Simchat Torah resulted in 1,182 fatalities (including 44 Americans) and over 4,000 wounded. 251 hostages (210 alive, 41 dead bodies) were taken during a day of brutal savagery and sexual violence. It was the largest single massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, with more than one in every 10,000 Israelis killed, and the third overall deadliest terrorist attack in the world to date.
2) The 59 remaining hostages, 35 known to be dead, 21 thought to be alive, and three of unknown status, include five Americans. Edan Alexander is the only remaining American believed to be alive. Hamas holds the bodies of Omer Neutra, Itay Chen, Judi Weinstein Haggai, and Gad Haggai. Releasing all the hostages might not be priorities for Trump and Netanyahu, but it's a top priority for us. We must continue to speak out.
3) Trump's deportations and attacks on universities will not stop antisemitism. They will make Jewish Americans less safe.
4) Fighting antisemitism on campus requires us to understand what antisemitism is and isn't, to better educate our kids about Israel and antisemitism, and to urge universities to adopt reasonable, uniformly applied, content-neutral time, place, and manner restrictions on campus speech. Events last week at Columbia prove the ineffectiveness and disingenuity of Trump's approach to antisemitism.
5) Trump has repeatedly sidelined and disrespected Israel during his second term.
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Hi Steve,
F. Scott Fitzgerald said that "the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function."
But in some cases, it's the test of stupidity, a test that the small but vocal minority of Jews who think that Trump's deportations and threats against universities will stop antisemitism have passed with flying colors.
On the one hand, they are right about antisemitism: It's a real threat. If anything, they not only see the threat, but they exaggerate it, especially the threat from the left and even more so, the threat on university campuses.
On the other hand, and here I almost envy their child-like innocence, as frightened as they are of antisemitism (sometimes with cause, sometimes without cause), it's beyond their cognitive capacity to imagine the tactics they support when applied to others one day being applied to Jews.
They are worried about antisemitism, yet they think that in today's climate of antisemitism, under an administration rife with antisemitism from the top down, it could never happen to us.
After all, when in history have Jews ever been deported, deprived of due process, or subject to restrictions on speech? It's impossible to know without opening a history book. They don't grasp that all minorities, especially Jews, benefit from the rights they support depriving others of.
It can happen here. It's happened everywhere else. Unless they wake up and start supporting the institutions and legal structure that have allowed Jews to thrive in America, it will happen here.
If we can't kick people we don't like out of the country, what should we do? For starters, we should stop labeling everything we disagree with or makes us (very) uncomfortable "antisemitism." By themselves, wearing masks and keffiyehs, chanting "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," and accusing Israel of genocide or apartheid are not antisemitic. They might be inaccurate or offensive (to some), but unless accompanied by truly antisemitic rhetoric, they are not per se antisemitic.
The fear is real. The emotion is real. That does not make it antisemitic.
The test of antisemitism is not whether speech makes us uncomfortable. All of the above is sometimes accompanied by antisemitic speech or activity, but we cannot assume that where there is smoke there is always fire. We must understand the nexus between Israel and antisemitism.
The problem is that some Jewish students were never educated about Israel's history. Some were indoctrinated to believe in a fantasy version of Israel instead of being educated about Israel's complicated history. When they go to college, they are confronted with facts they are not prepared to address. We don't like to see our kids feeling uncomfortable, but instead of addressing the root cause of the problem, we label what we don't like as antisemitism so that we don't have to dignify legitimate questions with answers.
Jacob Miller, who served as Harvard Hillel president in 2023, writes that rather than getting locked into a semantic debate about whether something is antisemitic and characterizing speech as antisemitic to get it shut down, we should argue our case on the merits. Based on his article, Miller appears to be to the right of me on some of the issues, but this point is valid.
If we depend on Instagram influencers who mistake emotion for reason, we won't win any arguments. If we replace reading with movies whose specifics we cannot repeat or cite because we only remember our visceral emotional reaction, we are wasting our time.
Ask someone to provide detailed facts about what they saw in the movie October 8. Their response will be, "Just see it." When confronted with unpleasant facts about Israel or facts about campus protests that don't confirm their beliefs, they respond, "watch October 8," which is inadequate. They can't reason rationally, and it doesn't matter to them. They'd rather believe conspiracy theories and label any argument they can't refute as "antisemitic," thus obviating the need to win the argument on the merits.
That's not sustainable. We need to educate ourselves and our kids about Israel and wean ourselves off propaganda that is convincing only to the already-convinced. If we do, perhaps we can win these arguments on the merits. And if we can't win on the merits, which I suspect some of our right-wing friends are afraid of (hence the effort to silence those making the arguments by invoking antisemitism), then we should be prepared to change our minds.
How do we distinguish offensive and inaccurate speech from antisemitism, and what do we do about real antisemitism on college campuses? The Nexus Project produced an excellent guide to help university administrators and students make this distinction.
I know that in the Trump era it feels quaint and old-fashioned to take the Constitution seriously. Humor me. Hate speech, including antisemitism, is protected under the First Amendment. Private universities do not have to hold themselves to First Amendment standards; many do because they are committed to intellectual inquiry and open debate.
The answer is reasonable, uniformly applied, content-neutral time, place, and manner restrictions on campus speech. Either it is okay to protest by occupying a building or it's not--regardless of whether the protesters are wearing kippot or keffiyehs. Either heckling speakers is okay or it's not. Either encampments are allowed or they are not. Vandalism, physical intimidation, or direct bullying is never okay.
When these restrictions are violated, regardless of who violated them or for what reason, the punishments should be uniformly and consistently meted out. Maybe the university gives protesters one hour to leave a building. Maybe three hours. Maybe the police are called or maybe they are not. Maybe the penalties range from warnings to suspensions to expulsions. Whatever it is, everyone should know the policies in advance. There should be no exceptions. The rules should not be based on speech but on conduct.
It thus becomes unnecessary to label speech as antisemitic to keep students safe, although university administrators should condemn all forms of hate, including antisemitism, on campus. If the rules are followed, universities can fulfill their mission and all students can feel safe.
Before you reply (unless you are replying to convey your love and admiration for what I've written thus far), read Alex Gourevitch's must-read article for anyone concerned about this subject.
Corrections. I'm entitled to my own opinions but not to my own facts, so I appreciate it when readers bring errors to my attention. No one pointed out any substantive errors in last week's newsletter. There was one inconsequential typo.
In Case You Missed It:
1) Scott Forester writes that Trump's efforts to penalize universities are not about protecting Jews. "They are about using antisemitism as a political weapon to attack academic institutions, suppress free speech, and dismantle efforts toward diversity, equity and inclusion."
2) Rose Horowitch writes that the Trump administration "is no longer pretending that it is standing up for Jewish students. The project has been revealed for what it is: an effort to punish liberal institutions for the crime of being liberal." And yes, she has receipts.
3) American Jewish leaders urged major Jewish organizations "to forcefully and publicly reaffirm the historic and continuing commitment of the American Jewish community to academic freedom, to the rule of law, to ensure due process to anyone accused of breaking the law, to freedom of speech and the press. And we call on Jewish leaders and institutions – national and local – to resist the exploitation of Jewish fears and publicly join with other organizations that are battling to preserve the guardrails of democracy."
4) Last week, police arrested more than 70 pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University's main library. Congressional Jewish Caucus Chair Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) issued a statement in response. Emily Tamkin writes that the events at Columbia last week prove that Trump's approach to antisemitism is horribly ineffective.
5) Trump said he would not visit Israel on his trip to the region next week. Republicans were outraged when Obama's visit to the region did not include Israel. They've said nothing about Trump skipping Israel. On Friday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth canceled his trip to Israel. Ben Sales outlines the many ways Trump has sidelined Israel and Netanyahu.
6) Trump announced a U.S. truce with the Houthis that did not include Israel. Israel was not warned in advance. Biden twice defended Israel from Iranian missile attacks. Trump is leaving Israel to fend for itself against Houthi missile attacks. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee was unapologetic.
7) JDCA CEO Halie Soifer demonstrates that Trump's "America First" foreign policy puts Israel last.
8) Michael Koplow explains that Trump's Virgil Sollozzo approach to Israel is leading to Israeli strategic chaos that will adversely impact the U.S.
9) Two sets of House Democrats sent letters urging resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) led a letter to Trump urging him to call on Prime Minister Netanyahu to immediately restore the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Reps. Salud Carbajal (D-CA) and Ami Bera (D-CA) led a letter to Israel's ambassador to the U.S., Dr. Yechiel Leiter, calling for resumption of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
10) Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) led a letter urging Trump to take an active role in pressing for humanitarian aid and a return to ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas to ensure Israel’s security and end more than 15 months of devastating conflict in Gaza.
11) It hasn't gotten as much attention as the Antisemitism Awareness Act that I wrote about last Sunday, but the IGO Anti-Boycott Act (the updated version of the Israel Anti-Boycott Act that Congress never passed) ran into trouble in the House last week. We should oppose it if it ever comes up for a vote.
12) Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way, and Daniel Ziblatt explain how we'll know when we've lost our democracy (hint: We are on our way).
13) Great advice for Democrats from Rob Flaherty and David Litt.
14) Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) announced that after 26 years in Congress, she will not seek re-election. She is a principled leader who always stood with those in need and always spoke truth to power.
15) In a world that could use more kindness, our friend Edwin Eisendrath set an example by giving his coat to a man in need on the train.
Social Posts of the Week. UnXeptable (be sure to watch the 45-second video), Brian Tyler Cohen, and Louis Nelson.
Press Release of the Week. Governor JB Pritzker's announcement of Kristi Noem's visit to Illinois. Read all of it.
Video Clip of the Week. Great SNL sketch.
Vintage Music Clip of the Week. Sympathy for the Devil.
For those new to this newsletter. This is the newsletter even Republicans have to read and the original home of the viral and beloved Top Ten Signs You're At a Republican Seder (yes, I wrote it). If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, why not subscribe and get it in your inbox every Sunday? Just click here--it's free.
I periodically update my posts on the IHRA definition of antisemitism and on why Democrats are better than Republicans on Israel and antisemitism. My definition of "pro-Israel" is here (it's a work in progress, as am I).
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