Jewish Organizations Are Fighting Back Against Khalil Deportation

Whereas many are gathering this weekend to carry seders on the primary nights of Passover, numerous Jewish organizations are inviting us again into the streets to take the message of liberation additional. On Monday, April 14, the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) will lead over a thousand Jews in a Passover seder instantly in entrance of the New York Metropolis headquarters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This “emergency seder” is a part of their now weeks lengthy marketing campaign, led in coalition with different Jewish leftist organizations, to confront Trump’s mass deportations and, particularly, the focusing on of former Columbia scholar Mahmoud Khalil.

“This yr, everywhere in the U.S., Jews are holding emergency Passover Seders calling for the discharge of Mahmoud Khalil and an finish to the criminalization of all these calling for an finish to the Israeli authorities’s genocide of the Palestinian folks,” JVP mentioned because it introduced the motion. This seder is a part of a protracted custom of utilizing Jewish rituals as a protest tactic, uniting the prophetic religious custom of Judaism with the sensible methods of bodily resistance and blockade. This motion, supplied with comparatively quick discover and promising to mobilize enormous numbers of Jews and allies, is the results of the relationships which have been constructed throughout Jewish organizations as they attempt to confront the repression coming in Trump’s second time period.

“We’re constructing a brand new coalition proper now. As a result of not all of us have been in the identical area collectively,” Lily Greenberg Name, a member of the New York Metropolis chapter of the Jewish anti-Occupation group IfNotNow, referred to as right into a megaphone on March 20. “However it’s extra necessary than ever now to succeed in for one another and unite for our communities and our neighbors who’re underneath assault,” she advised the thousand individuals who had flooded the streets of decrease Manhattan, the historic residence of the U.S. Jewish left. “Individuals on this metropolis have been kidnapped, separated from their households, thrown in detention camps, and threatened with deportation.”

Greenberg-Name first made headlines in Might of 2024 when she left her post as particular assistant to the chief of employees to President Joe Biden over his unwavering assist of Israel’s army assault on Gaza, which by that time had killed greater than 35,000 Palestinians.

Greenberg-Name was one in all many audio system on the Jewish Rally for Freedom and Democracy, an motion meant to spotlight Donald Trump’s assaults on free speech and the rights of immigrants, notably the arrest of authorized permanent U.S. resident Mahmoud Khalil. Khalil, a pacesetter of the Columbia scholar motion for Palestinian liberation, is now going through deportation proceedings regardless of having been charged with no crime (the federal government now claims he lied on his inexperienced card utility) and has turn into a flashpoint as the brand new Trump administration attacks universities, college students and immigrants, utilizing Jewish security as a pretense to unleash an unprecedented wave of repression.

The March 20 demonstration didn’t occur in isolation — it was solely the most recent in a sequence of associated mass protests organized by a coalition of Jewish progressive teams devoted to resisting Trump’s authoritarianism via collaboration and solidarity.

Constructing the Jewish Left

October 7 was one of many largest international political shifts since Trump’s first candidacy in 2016, particularly for the U.S. Jewish group. Mainstream Jewish organizations, which regularly monitor liberal, fractured as many purged their ranks of anti-Zionist voices vital of Israel. On the identical time, the ranks of long-established Jewish leftist organizations swelled, at the same time as a few of their established relationships with the mainstream Jewish world had been lower off. For instance, the Boston Jewish Community Relations Council, a group of mainstream Jewish organizations that coordinate on the regional degree, expelled the Boston Employees Circle, a progressive and secular Jewish group with a protracted historical past on the American Jewish left, for partnering with anti-Zionist organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

This realignment got here as many younger Jews appeared to outline their id with out accepting complicity in Israel’s violence in Gaza. Because the political floor shifted, many of those progressive Jewish organizations elevated their collaboration. This was evident as JVP and IfNotNow came together in joint actions across the country, together with a massive action on the National Mall followed by an occupation of the Capitol rotunda, demanding a ceasefire within the weeks after October 7. Teams like JVP (which was based within the San Francisco Bay Space in 1996 and broadened into a bunch with a nationwide grassroots base in 2002) and IfNotNow (which was based in 2014 in response to Israel’s invasion of Gaza that yr) have been pleasant with one another and coated comparable points for a few years, however in 2023 their shared urgency in response to Israel’s assaults on Gaza cemented a working relationship between many of those organizations at a scale that had not beforehand existed. These relationships solely expanded with teams just like the established New York Metropolis-based Jewish secular group Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), in addition to newer teams just like the Halachic Left, which hopes to vary the discourse on Israel-Palestine in Orthodox and observant Jewish communities. New organizations akin to Rabbis for Ceasefire additionally fashioned that always held organizational overlaps with present teams, additional broadening the coalition and cementing relationships.

With Trump promising that his second time period might be constructed on revenge and repression, these organizations leaned on the relationships they’d cultivated in order that they may meet the second shortly by relying on the established base every group had. This created a de facto coalition of teams that would collaborate in ways in which improve their responsiveness to the threats coming, permitting every to take care of their very own principal focus and likewise pivot with related assets and experience when the scenario referred to as for it. As a result of the Jewish left could also be break up up between numerous totally different organizations with totally different political positions, demographics and regional ties, the collaboration permits all of their constituencies to start transferring collectively on problems with such shared significance. With Trump’s threats escalating, and institution Jewish organizations placing up little by way of resistance, the commonalities between Jewish left teams are important as they push again on the assault on immigrants, universities, unions and activists.

“We kind of learn the writing on the wall over the past yr and a half now we have strengthened among the relationships… [and] actually invested in constructing these relationships and getting clear and aligned,” mentioned Sophie Ellman-Golan, the communications director of JFREJ.

This grew to become particularly necessary as arrests and crackdowns escalated after Trump took workplace, and as some established Jewish organizations supported and collaborated along with his administration’s assaults on primary rights. Teams throughout the Jewish left had been watching as Trump, Republicans and particularly the right-wing Heritage Basis leveraged Jewish worry to push via an agenda of stripping civil liberties. Project 2025’s “Project Esther” document, printed in 2024, outlined Trump’s present technique of treating universities as a struggle zone and focusing on immigrants, notably immigrant college students, underneath the guise of “defending” Jews from the alleged risks of campus antisemitism. The thought was to make use of claims of antisemitism as a means of attacking liberal and progressive establishments, akin to universities and non-profits, underneath the guise of combating antisemitism, thus aiming to drag in constituents who care about that subject whereas additionally mobilizing worry for Jewish security as a weapon towards their political enemies.

As Senior Analysis Analyst at Political Analysis Associates Ben Lorber advised Truthout, Mission Esther is critical as a result of it “attracts from pre-existing campaigns to suppress criticism of Israel and actually amplifies them” whereas taking on the methods and classes of earlier eras of state repression after which “synthesizes all of them right into a single program to suppress the motion for Palestinian rights.”

Lorber added: “It’s ironic, as many individuals identified that, you realize, it’s supposedly about defending Jews from antisemitism. However only a few Jewish teams had been concerned in creating the doc.” Furthermore, Lorber notes that the doc will get very primary details about American Jewish life incorrect. As a substitute, it invokes Jewish security as a pretext for its authors’ unrelated agenda, such because the defunding of elite universities. “We’ve seen numerous it earlier than. The correct has been calling to deport college students for some time now,” factors out Lorber, however now seeing it in a central doc that cites Jewishness because the prime trigger is critical.

Even because the far proper is the first perpetrator within the rise in antisemitic incidents, and at the same time as Trump’s administration has allowed antisemites and antisemitic rhetoric into his regime, the far proper has used Mission Esther in an effort to assert authority over the battle towards antisemitism. In doing so, it has shifted completely away from progressive treatments towards bigotry and has as an alternative stoked a pro-Israel political consensus that locates Palestinians and Palestine advocates as the best anti-Jewish menace within the nation.

Taking over the ADL

Within the first hours of Trump’s second administration, Elon Musk — the world’s richest man, identified for sharing antisemitic conspiracy theories — lifted his arm in what many understood as a Nazi salute. Instantly, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), probably the most influential U.S. organizations claiming to battle antisemitism, defended Musk and said that this was not a racist gesture. This adopted Musk’s personal assaults on the ADL, who he publicly went to struggle with after the ADL warned in regards to the improve of antisemitism on his social media platform X. Musk responded by threatening to sue and retweeting white nationalists who had been using the #BanTheADL hashtag and who recommend the ADL is an anti-white hate group.

The ADL has come under fire for years for pushing a conservative agenda that deliberately conflates anti-Zionism and antisemitism and attacks the left, resulting in what critics say are weaponized accusations of antisemitism towards advocates of Palestinian rights and Palestinian and Arab voices particularly. This led to the creation of the Drop The ADL marketing campaign in August of 2020, which featured numerous Jewish organizations as properly. Whereas the ADL had usually been portrayed as a largely centrist establishment with a liberal dedication to civil rights, critics now allege even that characterization has slipped because the ADL backed down from its criticism of Musk, going so far as to instantly defend his inauguration gesture, after which has collaborated with the Trump administration. The ADL went so far as to interrupt with practically all civil rights advocates within the U.S. when it supported Trump’s anti-immigrant measures under the guise of Jewish safety. In response, the de facto coalition of leftist Jewish teams got here along with a transparent message: the ADL doesn’t converse for Jews.

“The ADL needs to make itself the liberal face of Trumpism,” mentioned Rabbi Alissa Clever with Rabbis for Ceasefire, who co-organized a March 3 protest on the ADL’s annual By no means Is Now summit. “The entire thing is legitimately scary. You have got this main group … forgiving the Nazi salute, getting in mattress with Christian nationalists.” The purpose then could be to delegitimize the ADL as the only real voice on antisemitism and Jewish security, and maybe demand alternate options emerge that may assist communal wants.

Preventing Deportations

Within the days following the ADL protest, Trump’s subsequent goal grew to become clear with the arrest of Palestinian protest chief and up to date Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil. Khalil’s imprisonment shortly grew to become one of many largest political flashpoints within the nation as Trump concurrently stripped $400 million in funding from Columbia College in a profitable try and push the varsity to undertake unprecedented repressive measures underneath the pretext of combating antisemitism. The ADL roundly supported the arrest of Khalil, whom they baselessly suggested may have supplied “materials assist” for terrorism. Only recently, ADL CEO Jonathon Greenblatt, seeing the protests towards the ADL emerge, might have began to stroll this place again, saying in eJewishPhilanthropy that “if we sacrifice our constitutional freedoms within the pursuit of safety, we undermine the very basis of the various, pluralistic society we search to defend.”

Khalil’s arrest occurred on Saturday, March 8, and by Monday, March 10, a coalition of Jewish teams labored with AAUP to drag collectively a large press convention at Columbia the place college spoke out in regards to the situations of repression, highlighting the connection between the assaults on training, the rights of staff and college students and the protection of immigrants.

“The assault on Mahmoud Khalil is meant to make … all of us quake in our boots,” mentioned celebrated mathematician and Columbia Professor Michael Thaddeus. “Our message to Washington is that we aren’t silenced, we aren’t afraid, and we stand collectively, decided to defeat this ongoing assault on our basic rights.”

Subsequent got here a March 13 demonstration led by JVP’s New York Metropolis chapter at Trump Tower, the place a whole bunch of Jews flooded the foyer of the well-known Fifth Avenue constructing chanting “Deliver Mahmoud residence now!” The motion led to almost 100 arrests, and included members from throughout a number of totally different Jewish organizations, with JVP taking the lead on account of their established monitor report of turning out supporters for mass direct actions.

“It’s been a second when so many teams are recognizing the menace that the Trump administration poses and the necessity to withstand fascism,” mentioned Jonah Rubin, a New York Metropolis-based campus organizer with JVP. “I believe teams are actually prepared to throw down and assist one another and acknowledged the necessity to push again on the fascism that begins with focusing on susceptible folks like Mahmoud Khalil however doesn’t finish there.”

The Trump Tower motion was additionally a stepping stone to the March 20 rally in decrease Manhattan, when a thousand Jews and supporters got here out to boost their voices and maintain each Trump and complicit Jewish organizations accountable.

Bringing Individuals Into the Streets

A coalition features by permitting every group to do what they do greatest and work on their very own initiatives whereas coming collectively to amplify one another and share in a coordinated technique.

“We acknowledge that we’re totally different teams … [and while] we’re all supportive broadly of one another’s work, there’s causes now we have totally different organizations,” mentioned Rubin, mentioning that disagreements exist between among the organizations who’re collaborating, to not point out amongst particular person members. “We additionally acknowledge that we’re underneath a menace that, actually in my lifetime, doesn’t have priority, and that requires us to come back collectively to construct the ability we’d like to withstand it.” A few of these organizations, like JVP, take an explicitly anti-Zionist stance, whereas others, like JFREJ, don’t. The coalition then creates methods of bridging these variations to create working relationships the place contributors don’t must suppress their very own political convictions to collaborate.

Organizations like JFREJ have a long-standing constituency among the many metropolis’s progressive Jewish group and are combating to take care of the town’s sanctuary standing and towards Mayor Eric Adams’ anti-immigrant agenda. A coalition exists not by creating good alignment on each political query, however by finding shared values and customary threats and determining the best way to create bonds that may bridge the gap.

“In mild of what’s been taking place each with what we’ve been seeing in New York Metropolis but additionally nationally, with rising authoritarianism, we’ve been seeing a rising want for folks to come back collectively and for organizations to unite and construct energy.” Zoe Goldblum, from IfNotNow’s New York Metropolis chapter, advised Truthout. “And due to that we’ve been working collectively and constructing a robust coalition in order that we’re capable of develop our motion and that’s been actually profitable. Once we present up collectively, we’re stronger, and we all know that.”

And because the coalition began to confront Khalil’s arrest, a number of extra mainstream and liberal Zionist Jewish establishments additionally joined in denouncing the retaliatory deportation. Organizations like T’ruah, the Jewish Alliance for Legislation and Social Motion, J Street, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and New York Jewish Agenda all expressed public outrage, whereas a letter from New Jewish Narrative was signed by organizations like Reconstructing Judaism, Aleh, Habonim Dror North America and the New Israel Fund (even the Zionist group Zioness raised concerns whereas nonetheless condemning Khalil).

Whereas Khalil’s imprisonment is related to Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza, it will also be understood as a problem of each freedom of expression and the rights of immigrants, problems with long-held significance for U.S. Jews. This dedication to immigration justice is available in half from the legacy of Jewish immigrant experiences within the U.S., particularly when Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany and occupied Europe had been roundly denied entry to the U.S. within the lead as much as the Holocaust. The State Division is citing the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, a legislation used throughout the Chilly Struggle to stop immigration to the U.S. underneath the guise of nationwide safety, which blocked the immigration of many European Jews and was written by a known antisemite.

A part of what grew this coalition was the understanding that Khalil was not an remoted case however a sign of the rising menace Trump presents. “We’re not going to let folks take away our rights and we’re positively not going to let the Trump administration use Mahmoud Khalil as an authoritarian take a look at case and use Jews as a scapegoat in that occasion,” mentioned Goldblum, including that Jews are safer when they are in partnership with people like Khalil.

This evaluation has confirmed appropriate because the repression that began with Khalil shortly expanded: In latest weeks a Cornell College scholar protester was advised to “give up” to ICE, a South Korean scholar from Columbia may also face deportation, and a 3rd Columbia scholar fled to Canada after ICE got here after her for allegedly posting on social media about Palestine; these are just some instances of the handfuls or presumably hundreds who’ve been focused. All of that is occurring as a number of academic groups sue the Trump administration over its assaults on training.

However these assaults aren’t occurring with out pushback. On April 17, the sixth day of Passover — three days after Jewish Voice for Peace’s April 14 “emergency seder” in entrance of the New York Metropolis ICE headquarters — Jews for Racial and Financial Justice (JFREJ) might be main one other seder motion, this time confronting the assorted forces of repression in New York Metropolis and demanding a brand new future for the town they love. Alongside songs sung in Yiddish, Ladino and Hebrew, they’ll lead a march right into a “seven-foot-tall portal to the longer term” and into Central Park to carry the liberation seder. By bolstering relationships and constructing bonds they’re vying to domesticate the ability and group essential to not solely push again on assaults, however to battle for brand new prospects.

As Trump guarantees extra deportations and repression within the identify of combating antisemitism, the Jewish left in New York Metropolis and throughout the nation is charting another path ahead for Jewish security and a strong anti-Zionist motion, rooted in coalition with one another and solidarity with instantly focused communities.