Combating Antisemitism, Upholding Democracy, Protecting Free Speech

Following the release of the Nexus Project’s Shofar Report, JTA reported on the report’s impact as a major Jewish response to Heritage Foundation’s Project Esther. JTA summarized the report’s aims and purpose: “fighting antisemitism requires fighting for democratic institutions and embracing traditional liberal coalition-building. Universities, civil rights law, and immigration rights all must be protected in order to safeguard Jews within a liberal democracy, the authors argue.” Nexus Project National Director Jonathan Jacoby told JTA: “Each of these recommendations needs to be translated into more concrete and more specific ideas for action, and our hope is that they will be over the coming year, and actually over the coming years as the political landscape shifts.”

The Forward announced the release of the Nexus Project’s Shofar Report, highlighting its extensive recommendations for countering antisemitism and preserving democracy. Nexus Project National Director Jonathan Jacoby told The Forward about the critical intersection of protecting civil liberties and countering antisemitism: “People think that we need to fight antisemitism and then, as a separate matter, you need to fight the weaponization of antisemitism. And we’re saying fighting the weaponization of antisemitism is a strategy for fighting antisemitism.”

A newly released Impose poll conducted in collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Rochester, showed that 72% of Jewish Americans are concerned about antisemitism on campus and nearly 60% disapprove of the Trump administration's decision to withhold federal funding from Harvard and UCLA over allegations of antisemitism.

Professor David Myers, a Nexus Project Task Force member and professor of Jewish history at the University of California, Los Angeles, co-wrote an op-ed for the LA Times calling the Trump administration’s lawsuits around antisemitism on college campuses a “dangerous charade.” After the Trump administration announced it would suspend $584 million in federal research grants to UCLA, Myers wrote the suspension is a “shallow and disingenuous plot to destroy [UCLA] and the values of free inquiry and debate in the name of a dangerous, illiberal ideology that has been against higher education for years.” He warned against the university’s use of antisemitism as a pretext to advance its authoritarian agenda: “What this destructive path will not do is make the campus safer for Jews — or anyone else, for that matter.”

As a Boston court weighed the legality of the Trump administration’s efforts to deport foreign students involved in pro-Palestinian activism, Nexus Project National Director Jonathan Jacoby spoke with The New York Times about how the White House’s campus policies reflect Project Esther, a Heritage Foundation blueprint for silencing pro-Palestinian protestors under the guise of countering antisemitism. Jacoby said: “These are examples of the Trump administration weaponizing legitimate concerns about Jewish safety, capitalizing on or manipulating Jewish fear to suppress constitutionally protected speech. What you see happening in Boston right now is part of that script: They’re saying that pro-Palestinian demonstrations are an expression of support for Hamas.”

Nexus Washington Director Kevin Rachlin told The Washington Post, “since Trump came [into office, the Trump administration is] weaponizing Jewish fear to advance a very specific agenda.” Rachlin noted that the Trump administrations endanger Jewish Americans, questioning, “What will you do to protect us? Shutting down and defunding schools, deporting people? That doesn’t protect Jews.”