JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.

This week’s newsletter is one day late because I’m in North Carolina reporting on Jewish campus life, including some good news: I spent yesterday seeing how Duke has improved its climate, and ate dinner with Chabad at Elon University, tied for the “least antisemitic school” in the country, according to ADL. Keep an eye out for those stories and more.

UP FIRST

Rep. Mike Lawler, a New York Republican, at Columbia University with House Speaker Mike Johnson. Lawler has called for pulling all federal funding from Columbia. (Getty Images)

Some political leaders and pundits upset at what they see as an antisemitism crisis at Columbia University are skipping over practical suggestions and going straight to a punishment that could destroy the lives of many Jewish students: Cutting off the school’s federal funding.

Like many private intitutions of higher education, Columbia receives tens of millions of dollars in federal research grants. More than 20% of its students rely on federal student aid to pay tuition.

“Every last federal dollar should be taken away,,” Rep. Mike Lawler, a New York Republican, said outside campus earlier this week. “These students are not entitled to it.”

Keith Rabois, a conservative Silicon Valley investor, suggested an even more severe punishment: “Employers should immediately refuse to hire any Columbia graduates,” Rabois posted on X, where he has 300,000 followers.

In the name of fighting antisemitism, these men would strip Columbia’s estimated 5,000 Jewish students of their federal grants and make them unemployable, along with thousands of their peers who have not been involved in the protests.

They and other warriors against antisemitism also generally ignore the fact that there are many Jews among the anti-Zionist activists being accused of antisemitism — or, worse, deny their Jewishness.

What too many people ignore is that the type of extreme outside interventions into campus antisemitism like those proposed by Lawler and Rabois often frustrate even the pro-Israel Jewish student activists they’re trying to help.

Jacob Schmeltz is a senior at Columbia and the campus representative for Jewish On Campus, a group that fights antisemitism, including some criticism of Israel. Schmeltz, whose organization has partnered with the Anti Defamation League and World Jewish Congress, told me that he appreciates the national attention on Columbia.

But he also worries about student voices being drowned out.

“I hope every other outside group that comes in and wants to speak on behalf of Columbia Jewish students actually speaks to Columbia Jewish students and centers our experiences,” Schmeltz said. “Don’t weaponize whatever is going on at our university for your own gain.”

Why the left and right both want to expand Title VI

Indian members of the scheduled castes shout slogans during a protest in 2018. (Getty Images)

I wrote last month about how some Jewish organizations are lobbying the federal government to expand the definitions of “race” and “national origin” in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include an attachment to Israel. That drive has been led by Ken Marcus, a former Trump administration official who leads the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under the Law, and originates with the view that anti-Zionism is equivalent to antisemitism, something many on the left dispute.

So I was intrigued to hear a progressive case for an expansive reading of Title VI during a panel at the Religion News Association conference that I attended in Pittsburgh last week. Guha Krishnamurthi, a law professor at the University of Maryland, explained how he’s been promoting a legal theory that “race” and “national origin” should apply to caste, the system of social hierarchy prevalent across South Asia.

Krishnamurthi argued that the lawmakers who drafted civil rights legislation in the 1960s surely intended it to apply to inherited characteristics like caste. That’s a similar logic to those who say that the positive feelings many Jews feel toward Israel is essentially an immutable characteristic, rather than just a political viewpoint. Some conservative Hindu American advocates worry that focusing on the issue will promote “Hinduphobia.”

Both Marcus and Krishnamurthi say that trying to reinterpret the Civil Rights Act to include more categories is the only practical option, given that Congress seems incapable of passing major new legislation that could settle these questions. It makes me wonder what other categories religious interest groups might push to add next.

Could evangelical Christians claim that excluding them from a campus club because they oppose abortion is a violation of their civil rights, just as some Jewish students have complained about being shut out because they support Israel? Might a high school teacher challenge a policy prohibiting them from hanging a Palestinian flag in their classroom?

NEWS & VIEWS

This Passover, many Jews found themselves talking about antisemitism at Seder. (Getty Images)

🍽️ Somber seders: Antisemitism was a topic at many tables this year. “There is so much cynicism in the world, so much hopelessness,” said Rabbi Noah Farkas, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. “We need Passover now more than ever.” (Associated Press)

🪧 Biden condemns protests: President Joe Biden inveighed against “blatant antisemitism” in his Passover greeting to the Jewish community, a nod toward concern over alarming rhetoric and incidents at campus protests around the country. (Washington  Post)

⚖️ Delicate balance: With several universities calling in local police to break up campus demonstrations against Israel, debate is raging over their historic roles as havens of free expression.. “The idea of … suppressing speech in order to keep students safe, that's a false choice,” said Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors. “You can do both.” (PBS)

🗯️ Jewish dissent: While many Jewish students have described feeling unnerved or victimized by raucous campus demonstrations over Israel’s war in Gaza, Jewish participants in the protests say their perspective is being ignored. “Being uncomfortable is different than being unsafe,” said Soph Askanase, a Columbia student. (NBC)

🎥 Atlanta antisemitism: Ryan Millsap, an influential filmmaker in Georgia, sent racist and antisemitic texts that were released as part of a lawsuit. Millsap, who built close relationships with Black and Jewish colleagues, also referred to “F—-- Black People” and “nasty Jews” in private messages. He subsequently apologized. (ProPublica/Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

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