Open letter in response to federal funding cuts at Columbia

On March 7th, the Trump administration announced the immediate cancellation of approximately $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University. This includes funding from the Department of Justice, the Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Human Services, which suggests cuts to funding for scholarship and research in law, education, and healthcare. The university was told that these funds were being withheld because they had not done enough to suppress antisemitism, and the same rationale has been since used to propose further cuts to other universities and colleges across the U.S. In other words, the federal government claims it is taking these extraordinary measures in order to protect Jewish students from discrimination.

We are Jewish faculty, scholars, and students at U.S. universities — representative of the community that this administration purports to be protecting from antisemitism on campuses. Let us be clear: These actions do not protect us.

There are many issues on which we, as a group, disagree. We have diverse views on Israel and Gaza, on American politics, and on the Trump administration. We have diverse views on the administration of Columbia University, and on the way it has responded to protests. What unites us is that we refuse to let our Jewish identities be used as a pretext for destroying institutions that have long made America great – American universities and the research and knowledge they produce.

Together, we say: Not on our behalf. Harming U.S. Universities does not protect Jewish people. Cutting funding for research does not protect Jewish people. Punishing researchers and scholars does not protect Jewish people. These actions do, however, limit opportunities for students and scholars – within the Jewish community and beyond – to receive training, conduct research, and engage in free expression.

In fact, harming universities makes everyone less safe, including Jews. History teaches us that the loss of individual rights and freedoms for any group often begins with silencing scientists and scholars, people who devote their lives to the pursuit of knowledge — a pursuit that is core to Jewish culture. Moreover, destroying universities in the name of Jews risks making Jews in particular less safe by setting them up to be scapegoats. Once it becomes clear how much knowledge, and how much human potential, has been lost in the name of combating antisemitism, Jews may be blamed.

U.S. universities have partnered with the U.S. government since 1941, when university research began receiving federal funding and was integral to winning the Second World War. By expanding this partnership after the war, the U.S. has created the best research infrastructure in the world, which has, in turn, enabled the most scientific and technological progress in human history. Do not dismantle this partnership, especially not on the pretense of protecting Jewish people.
10 March 2025

A copy of the letter with the complete list of signatories can be found here.

POSTSCRIPT

Jewish students at Columbia across the ideological spectrum (Zionist, anti-Zionist, non-Zionist) issued a joint statement, Shema Koleinu, against the Trump assault on university life in the name of fighting anti-Semitism.

The concluding paragraphs read:

Jew-hatred and antisemitism are not issues of individuals but of ideology. The antidote to hatred is not sending people away, but bringing them together. We must address this volatile situation through education, not deportation. In keeping with the spirit of ancient rabbinic study-houses as well as modern-day university classrooms, we must normalize dialogue and prioritize critical scholarly debate instead of rushing to judgments.

Until steps are taken to safeguard the free expression of ideas—even those with which some of us disagree—anyone targeting individuals in the name of protecting Jewish students does not speak for us, but speaks over us.

Finally, we recognize that the heightened focus on campus activism distracts from the primary victims of this war. Many among us have cried out for 570 days as our people remain chained in captivity, facing starvation and torture beneath the streets of Gaza while, above, more innocent civilians suffer as they search for the remains of their loved ones in the rubble of war-torn neighborhoods. We commend the thousands of Palestinians and Israelis who have taken to the streets—from Gaza to Tel Aviv—to implore their leaders to end this cycle of bloodshed. We call on our leaders to do the same. We pray for a day when “nation will not lift sword against nation and they will never again study war.” (Yeshayahu 2:4).