Connect with us

RSS

Rachel Goldberg doesn’t know if what she’s doing will bring her son Hersh home. But she won’t stop trying.

(JTA) — Several months ago, before she met with the pope and Elon Musk, before her adopted home was thrust into war by a brutal attack, before she became one of the most prominent faces of a hostage crisis, Rachel Goldberg was desperately looking for luggage.

It was March and hundreds of people had flown to Israel for a study program on which Goldberg, who moved with her family from the United States 15 years ago and lives in Jerusalem. was assisting. People were upset: Suitcases weren’t showing up where they were supposed to.

“Rachel was really on it: making phone calls, calling the hotels, calling the buses, connecting with the people, just comforting them, saying, ‘I’m going to find it, we’re on it,’” recalled Rachel Kaufman, a Jewish educator from Los Angeles who was part of the trip. “I witnessed her crying over people being reunited with their luggage.”

Kaufman thought about that experience when she learned that Goldberg’s son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, had been taken hostage on Oct. 7 from the music festival he had been attending with a friend. If Goldberg could be so sensitive to the pain of others over something as inconsequential as luggage, how much more deeply must she be feeling her son’s absence?

Goldberg has answered that question every day, sometimes more than a dozen times, since Oct. 7, as she has become one of the most visible advocates, particularly in English, for Israel’s hostages in Gaza. Every morning, she tapes a number to her shirt signifying the number of days since Oct. 7 — Friday was 70 — and then, with a mixture of warmth and sadness and steely determination, spends the rest of her time telling the world about Hersh.

In the New York Times, five days after he was taken, she described Hersh as “gentle and kind and always finding creative ways to improve things and connect with other human beings.” She spoke to CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who was the first to show her video showing that Hersh’s arm had been blown off, but that he was alive when he was loaded onto a Hamas pickup truck and taken to Gaza. She and her husband Jon Polin were featured on the cover of Time magazine.

Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin posed with pictures of their son Hersh on the cover of Time Magazine in November 2023. (Screenshot)

Since Oct. 7, she has addressed hundreds of thousands of U.S. Jews at a march in Washington, D.C.; the pope, whom she visited at the Vatican; and countless others on social media and at rallies in the United States, Israel and beyond.

And yet even as the quest to save her son has fully occupied her for more than two months, Goldberg remembers that moment with the luggage. She recalled in an interview this week that the missing suitcase contained an irreplaceable item, a set of family tefillin. The reunion with its owner came after Goldberg and others gave tzedakah, charity, in the name of a second-century Jewish sage.

“You can ask Rabbi Meir Baal Haness to return anything that is lost and your plea will never go unanswered,” Goldberg said. Tradition holds that the power is especially assured on the first day of the Jewish month of Tevet, which began this week.

“We did that tradition on Rosh Chodesh Tevet for the return of our lost object named Hersh ben Perel Hana veYonatan Shimshon; we gave tzedakah in his name,” Goldberg said, using her son’s traditional Hebrew name.  “I am waiting for the return of my beautiful lost object named Hersh.”

Goldberg spoke to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Thursday, as Israel tamped down hopes about a truce deal that could allow the release of additional hostages and as news emerged about the deaths of three hostages in captivity. It was one day before Israel killed three hostages in Gaza after mistaking them for Hamas terrorists.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. 

It’s been 69 days since Hersh was captured. How are you and your family doing now?

It’s not describable how any of us are doing to people who haven’t been through it. Thank God not many people have been through what we, the hostage families, are going through. We get up every morning and we have to pretend to be people. Because in order to save them we have to function. And in order to function, you have to pretend to be a person. So that’s what we do. But for me, I feel like 69 days ago, someone tore my heart out and took it away. I’m walking through this life in this very artificial way. Just trying to do the best that I can so that I can function enough to be able to be productive in trying to save my son’s life.

Rachel Goldberg speaks during the “March For Israel” at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Nov. 14, 2023. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)

You’ve become this huge inspiration for people all over the world, especially for women. How does that sit with you?

I think that a lot of people try very hard to empathize or sympathize with us. And that’s what speaks to them. This story is very universal, people right away can say, what if that was my son, my daughter, my mother, my husband, and people right away, connect with the suffering that we’re going through. And we appreciate it. We appreciate that people from all over the world have reached out to us people from all different religions and all different backgrounds. And it is helpful during this time when, when it’s sometimes a struggle to get through the next hour, sometimes it’s a struggle to get through the next 15 minutes and sometimes there’s just like a moment where it’s unbearable. So all of that support — we feel it and we appreciate it.

Can you speak a little more about those moments of struggle? Where does your mind go? What happens? How do you get out of it?

From the very first day, it’s been a slow-motion terror. You know sometimes you get a fright when you come around a corner and you didn’t know someone was there and you have that moment where you jump back and you’re like, oh my gosh, and your heart is pumping in your chest. I didn’t know it was sustainable. But it has been endless.

Rachel Goldberg, the mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, who was kidnapped to Gaza, speaks at a rally for the return of the hostages in Jerusalem, Nov. 4, 2023.(Yahel Gazit/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

People who hug me — and I don’t really like that, necessarily, at this time — everybody comments, “Oh my god, your heart is beating out of your chest.” Everyone who comes chest to chest with me can feel it. It’s a constant. Before this, I used to be very active. I used to exercise every day except Shabbat. Now, I haven’t done a thing in 69 days, but my heart is racing like a rabbit at all times. So it’s being in a state of constant fear. Which is hard to manage. And that’s just what all of us are going through.

And I think what really made it much worse was last Tuesday when the war cabinet had a session where they had hostage families. Hearing the testimony from the released hostages made it so that everyone went into anguished panic on overdrive of hearing about the torture, the starvation, the conditions, the trauma that the hostages are going through that, when we think about that, it’s almost truly unendurable. All of this has been unendurable so it’s like another level of excruciation.

Do you know anything about the conditions he’s in?

To be honest, I try not to think about how he’s being held. It’s not helpful to me and it’s not helpful to him. Because if I’m devastated, if I’m terrified, I can’t be as high-functioning and as effective as I am. I’m praying for him all day long. And in my quiet moments, I’m always talking to him and I’m always saying the mantra, I love you, stay strong, survive. I love you, stay strong, survive. I’m always singing the different songs that we would sing. That helps me get through.

A protester holds a poster with a photo of 23-year-old U.S.-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin as people gather with signs calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas since Oct. 7, during a rally in Tel Aviv, October 28, 2023. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)

It’s Hanukkah now. If you had to paint an ideal picture of next Hanukkah, how would that look?

Oh, gosh, well, I would love for him to come home really soon and have the time to recover in every way, to get the treatment he would need in every way, not just a new arm but all the trauma, emotional and psychological and spiritual trauma, that all of these hostages have been going through. I’d love for him to get every single thing he needs and I would love for him to be on his trip next Hanukkah. He has a ticket in a couple of weeks on December 27 for India and he was going to be traveling for one to two years around the world, which he’s been planning and dreaming of since he was in first grade with detailed maps and detailed plans, by himself. So I certainly hope that he’ll be able to take that trip and you know what, you don’t need two arms to travel the world.

What would you like Israel to be doing right now?

I thought that what happened two weeks ago with the pause was an excellent framework to return to. The people in Gaza are suffering horribly. The Gazan civilians are suffering horribly, in every way. I thought having humanitarian aid let in for them was crucial. Getting some of our hostages out was crucial. And even though those negotiations were held together by a very thin, fragile thread, they were successful. They showed us that we have the ability to do that — everyone at that table had the ability to execute that, and all sides benefited. I would love to see that happen again.

How did you react to the reports that the war cabinet stopped the head of the Mossad David Barnea from traveling to Qatar to negotiate another hostage deal?

We were devastated. We’re feeling such despair. Despair that, to be honest, I don’t know that anyone in the war cabinet can really picture because I don’t think that anybody who hasn’t been in our shoes can really truly feel the agony that we are experiencing.

We have to be open to just hearing what’s out there. We have to be open to just sitting at the table. That’s why we elect leaders so that they could be our representatives — in good and bad. We know that our loved ones are being held in brutal conditions. We now have heard from the hostages who were released that there’s torture, starvation and there’s bombing going on. Time is completely not on our side. So to hear that our cabinet didn’t want to just even entertain hearing an option is, for all of us who think that each hour is another hour that maybe our loved one is actually dying, is devastating. It is terrifying for all of us.

There have been reports that Egypt has been approached to possibly broker a hostage negotiation. What are your thoughts on that?

I would love for something like that to happen. I think Egyptians have always been right there trying to help and are very reliable partners, actually. So I would love to see Egypt be more involved. Qatar has been obviously a really helpful partner during this time. At the end of the day, I’m not a politician. I’m not a military strategist. I am a mom of a civilian who was taken in a very aggressive way from a very neutral place from a music festival. And I want him back.

In your quest, you’ve met and spoken with some of the most influential people: the pope, Elon Musk and President Biden. What has that been like?

I felt very lucky and privileged to get to meet the pope. He’s such a meaningful, influential figure in the world, not just to Catholics. I’ve been feeling this really painful approach to humanity since October 7, this feeling that humans had failed. We have this cognitive dissonance between who we think humans are and who we really are and I was really losing my hope in humanity. He was the one who actually said to me, ‘What you have all been through is true terrorism, and terrorism is the lack of humanity.’ And all of a sudden, it was like I had this switch where I realized, Oh, OK, so what we’ve experienced was the lack of humanity. It wasn’t that humans aren’t good. It’s that this was a moment where humanity wasn’t present.

I found him to be very comforting and I thought he was also very fair that when we left 15 minutes later, he had a group of Palestinians come in, and I think that that’s important.

President Biden and [U.S. Secretary of State] Anthony Blinken have both been from the very first week in touch with us and been not just sympathetic and not just empathetic, but very much anguished and motivated to try their best. We feel that.

With Elon Musk, first of all, you have to understand that I haven’t watched news in 69 days. I respect that he took the time to come here. He said, I want to understand what is happening. Because he was seeing one side. I understand that the world sees all these horrible images coming out of Gaza. They are horrible. I also feel tremendous pain and anguish seeing those images of innocent children in rubble. When he was here, Elon Musk saw the 47-minute reel [that Israel produced of Oct. 7 footage]. Most of those images were taken by Hamas themselves. It was very powerful for him.

I showed him that video of Hersh with his arm blown off getting loaded onto that truck at gunpoint. He seemed very moved and very concerned and listened to everyone’s stories.

I’m asked to speak in different places where I would never have been speaking before and I just wonder if it’s helping, if it’s doing anything in the world. If it’s helping the hostages, if it’s helping Hersh. I have no idea.

On that point, you’ve said in an interview that you go to bed at night and think this is like the myth of Sisyphus. Is there a point where you say, well, I’m not going to push this rock up the hill anymore?

It hasn’t happened yet. And I do wonder to myself is there going to be a day where I wake up and say, forget it. I don’t think so. Because I think this is such a finely motivated instinct of saving my child. So much of this is like an animalistic, primal, innate response to danger of my offspring. I do wake up each morning and I say this prayer that is traditional to say before you get out of bed. And I say, ‘OK, Hersh, stay strong, survive, I’m going to get you.’ And I get out of bed and do it all again. Often I’ll say to myself, stay strong, survive, because I need to have the strength to keep fighting. It’s like a marathon that never ends, but it’s a marathon. Actually, Ruby [Chen], one of the other hostages’ dad, said it’s a marathon you have to sprint through. It’s like the worst of both types of endurance test.

How do you draw strength from your faith? Do you have moments of total despair? I’ve witnessed some of the family members of other hostages screaming at God.

Oh yes. But that’s part of a relationship with God. So I actually think it’s really healthy. When I’m screaming at God, it shows I believe in this idea of God. If I didn’t, then I wouldn’t be screaming. I pray every day. I’ve been doing this for years, that predates October 7. I definitely am calling out when I’m praying, I’m praying like this [gestures skyward]. My hands are up in the air. I am in dialogue. I am definitely shouting and I think that that is a sign of a relationship. I say Psalms all day and some of them are just so relevant in terms of saying, ‘Stop turning your face away from me. I want you to answer me now.’ It’s real desperation. And that’s relevant.

There’s the Psalm about the joy that we’re going to experience when the captives return to Zion, which is just beautiful and relevant and so spot on. And there’s ones where David is calling out from inside the darkness of the cave, saying, get me out of here. And when I say that, I say I’m saying it in the name of my son, and I say it for him as if it’s him calling up from the darkness of the cave. I draw tremendous strength from that.

I think it’d be much harder if I didn’t have my faith as a crutch to help me through this.

What have you learned about yourself, and about your husband Jon and your daughters during all this, and also about Hersh?

About Jon, I thank God he’s my partner. He’s just an unbelievable fighter. smart, creative, sharp. Relentless. I don’t know what other partner I could get through this with. And we’re so respectful of each other through this time of excruciating tribulation. I actually have been impressed with the [girls’] resilience.

Jonathan Polin, 53, from left, Rachel Goldberg, 53, recount their last interactions with their missing son Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, who went missing after Hamas launched a surprise attack and breached Israeli borders, taking hostages, while family members and friends show up to support them at their home in Jerusalem, Oct. 10, 2023. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

About myself: I never would have thought I could have endured what I’ve been enduring. Never. I’m not a particularly strong person pre-October 7, and I’m a really emotional person. I was the one who would cry during the Kodak commercial. Of course I have a lot of emotional times now, but I’m walking one foot in front of the other and trying to do what I need to do so that you can save them before it’s too late.

About Hersh — what’s so interesting to me, and I think about it a lot, is that my love for him has continued to grow and develop in his absence. Which makes sense, but it’s not something I was ever aware of before, when he traveled or when he went to camp or whatever it is. I was never cognizant of that before. Now, I’m so much more aware when I wake up. It’s like, I love him more than I did yesterday. And the relationship that I have with him is still developing. I’m aware of that and maybe part of that is because I’m talking to him a lot more because I talk to him all day long.

When I was in Rome, after meeting the pope, I was sitting in a room and they don’t really speak a lot of English there. So there was a room filled with a lot of Italian and I was sitting there and someone said, ‘you seem so calm, like you’ve been sitting here for 20 minutes, you haven’t moved,’ and I thought, I’ve been talking to Hersh this whole time.

Is there something that you feel that you need from the world right now? And American Jews specifically?

We have felt tremendous support from the American Jewish population. The truth is, we felt that from the Jewish community all over the world.

I think that calling every single day to the White House is still critical, critical, critical. And people can also call their local elected officials if that’s what they prefer. We have this website One Min A Day which makes it super easy, you can just click in your zip code, and it will show you your local elected officials. If you prefer to send a text you can. I think calling is more important. We do have a text for people to use if they’re not comfortable winging it, but it’s a 20-second message: “Hi, it’s day 69. We still have eight Americans in Gaza. Unacceptable. And 122 others.” I do think that everyone can call every single day. First of all, you can feel when you go through the day that you have done something and I think in helpless situations in life, to know that even if it’s just one minute, but you’ve done something, and it’s a minute and you did it and it’s doable, and it’s ritualized. Just do it when you first get up or whatever it is. So I think that’s really important.

I think that trying to universalize the message of the hostages is something we’re trying to really push. These are not just Israeli Jews being held. These are people from many different nations. The [hostage] who has diabetes and needs his meds — he may not even still be alive. He’s a Muslim Arab. That should be hanging outside of a synagogue, or a mosque or a church. It shouldn’t be a Jewish issue. This is a human issue, and we need to universalize the hostage situation in order to get that to stay on people’s minds.

But even the situation of the hostages became politicized, as you know, with posters being torn down. And now the international community’s attitude towards Israel is shifting as the numbers of deaths rise in Gaza. What are your reflections on that?

I understand that. I understand that when thousands of civilians are being killed, the world is not going to be comfortable with that. I’m not comfortable with that. I don’t think anyone here is comfortable with that. These are not intended outcomes. And this is what I talked about at the UN and in New York. The terrible thing about any war is that we know that the people who suffer the most are the innocent, are the civilians. I understand the frustration. I feel that, too.

In your speech to the United Nations this week, you mentioned a poem you wrote to a Gazan woman called “One Tiny Seed.” Can you tell us more about that?

I don’t sleep a lot anymore. In the middle of the night, I often write — I’ve never been a writer, and I’m not a great writer. But I find that I can kind of write poetry because it’s more forgiving. I don’t even know if that was a poem. It was a musing.

I think we’re just going to have to take a lot of risks if we want to have any sort of future in this world. Our weapons are so sophisticated, our danger level is so sophisticated, the anger is so ingrained. Pain is so deep. And we’re going to have to make a real choice to decide, do we want to figure out how we live together and it will be scary, and it will require giving up on things that we hold to be very dear to us in order to live, or are we going to say, OK, you know what, we’re not willing and this is the beginning of the end. I think we’re just really at a crossroads.

I know there must be a woman in Gaza, who’s just like me, who has a son just like mine, and I pray that she’s taking care of my son. And I know there are women in Gaza who are exactly my age and look just like me and have kids just like mine. And you know, I really was speaking to that woman saying, can we take bigger chances together, even though that tiny seed would be wrapped in so much pain and so much fear.

There was talk about some of the hostages in need of urgent medical care being released. Has anyone talked to you about that?

We totally agreed that women and children and babies should certainly have been released first so that was not an issue for us. We know that there were some families [of hostages] who felt very strongly that you don’t do “selectzia” [selection] and that people are people and it shouldn’t matter. We didn’t feel that for whatever reason. I’m not faulting them. We did say at some point we do think that the critically maimed, wounded should [be prioritized]. Hersh will be disabled for the rest of his life. He will, God willing, come home and he will live the rest of his life without an arm and it’s his dominant arm. I’m sure it is tremendously difficult for him because we don’t know what kind of treatment if any, he had, I don’t know what kind of antibiotics if any, he has, I’m sure he’s getting no pain medication. There’s no clean water. A lot of the hostages released said that in the 50 days of captivity, they never once took a shower. So you can imagine as a mother thinking of this child who has an explosive amputation of a limb, not having access to having it cleaned, is terrifying.

We definitely hope and pray that if there was any talk of releasing people who are in a humanitarian, critically wounded condition — irrespective of their age — we would like that as one huge category.

Thank you for speaking to me. I pray that we’ll see Hersh and the others home soon.

Please keep praying, we really believe in it. You know what, you can talk to him too. The more people that are talking to him, I think he’ll hear. Who knows which of us he can hear?


The post Rachel Goldberg doesn’t know if what she’s doing will bring her son Hersh home. But she won’t stop trying. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Continue Reading

RSS

NYC Mayor Eric Adams Calls Zohran Mamdani an ‘Antisemite’ Who Has Embraced Hamas, Says Jews ‘Should Be Concerned’

New York City Mayor Eric Adams attends an “October 7: One Year Later” commemoration to mark the anniversary of the Hamas-led attack in Israel at the Summer Stage in Central Park on October 7, 2024, in New York City. Photo: Ron Adar/ SOPA Images via Reuters Connect

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has accused mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani of spreading antisemitic views, citing Mamdani’s past remarks and anti-Israel activism as he starts his efforts to thwart the progressive insurgent.

Adams’s repudiation comes in the aftermath of a heated mayoral Democratic primary in which Mamdani, a 33‑year‑old democratic socialist, former rapper, and New York City Assembly member, achieved a stunning upset over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday. While Mamdani has denied being antisemitic, Adams argued that some of Mamdani’s rhetoric, including his defense of the phrase “globalize the intifada,” crosses the line into inflammatory territory and risks alienating Jewish New Yorkers.

In the Thursday interview with journalist Don Lemon, Adams slammed Mamdani for his “embracing of Hamas” in his public comments and rap lyrics. The mayor labeled Hamas a “murderous organization” that murders members of the LGBTQ+ community and uses “human beings as shields” when engaging in military conflict with Israel.

“You can’t embrace Hamas, and the mere fact that you embrace Hamas says a lot,” he said.

During his rap career, Mamdani released a song praising the “Holy Land Five,” a group of five men connected to the Hamas terrorist group. The men were accused of funneling millions in cash to Hamas through the Holy Land Foundation — a charity organization that was shut down by the federal government in 2001 for having links to terrorist groups.

The mayor added that the city’s Jewish community should be “concerned” with Mamdani’s comments.

Adams is battling to keep his political future alive amid mounting legal and political troubles. A federal bribery probe into foreign campaign donations cast a shadow over his administration until charges were unexpectedly dropped by a Trump-aligned Justice Department, sparking accusations of political favoritism. Since then, Adams has leaned into right-wing rhetoric on crime and immigration, forging relationships with allies of US President Donald Trump and refusing to rule out a party switch, moves that have alienated Democratic leaders and progressives alike and caused his approval ratings to spiral.

Adams, who is running for reelection as an independent, had reportedly hoped for Mamdani to emerge victorious in the Democratic primary, believing that a face-off against the progressive firebrand would create an opportunity to revive his near-moribund reelection campaign by highlighting the democratic socialist’s far-left views.

Mamdani, a progressive representative in the New York State Assembly, has also sparked outrage after engaging in a series of provocative actions, such as appearing on the podcast of anti-Israel, pro-Hamas influencer Hasan Piker and vowing to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York.

During an event hosted by the UJA-Federation of New York last month, Mamdani also declined to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

“I believe that Israel has a right to exist with equal rights for all,” Mamdani said in a carefully worded response when asked, sidestepping the issue of Israel’s existence specifically as a “Jewish state” and seemingly suggesting Israeli citizens do not enjoy equal rights.

Then during a New York City Democratic mayoral debate, he once again refused to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, sparking immediate backlash among the other candidates.

In 2023, while speaking at a Democratic Socialists of America convention in New York, Mamdani encouraged the audience to applaud for Palestinian American community activist Khader El-Yateem, saying, “If you don’t clap for El-Yateem, you’re a Zionist.”

High-profile Democratic leaders in New York such as Sen. Chuck Schumer, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries have congratulated and complemented Mamdani but have not yet issued an explicit endorsement. Each lawmaker has expressed interest in meeting with Mamdani prior to making a decision on a formal endorsement, indicating discomfort within Democratic circles regarding the presumptive Democratic mayoral nominee’s meteoric rise over the past few months.

The post NYC Mayor Eric Adams Calls Zohran Mamdani an ‘Antisemite’ Who Has Embraced Hamas, Says Jews ‘Should Be Concerned’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Continue Reading

RSS

Civil Rights Nonprofit Slams Pro-Hamas Briefs Defending Harvard Lawsuit Against Trump

April 20, 2025, Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard University and Harvard Square scenes with students and pedestrians. Photo: Kenneth Martin/ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect.

A new amicus brief filed in the lawsuit that Harvard University brought in April to stop the Trump administration’s confiscation of some $3 billion of its federal research grants and contracts offered a blistering response to previous briefs which maligned the institution’s decision to incorporate the world’s leading definition of antisemitism into its non-discrimination policies.

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, legal briefs weighing in on Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College v. United States Department of Health and Human Services, et al. have been pouring in from across the country, with dozens of experts, think tanks, and student groups seeking to sway the court in what has become a historic confrontation between elite higher education and the federal government — as well as a showdown between Middle American populists and coastal elites.

Harvard’s case has rallied a team of defenders, including some who are responsible for drawing scrutiny of alleged antisemitism and far-left extremism on campus.

Earlier this month, the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) — which blamed Israel for Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel mere hours after images and videos of the terrorist organization’s brutality spread online — filed a brief which compared Zionists to segregationists who defended white supremacy during Jim Crow, while arguing that Harvard’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism — used by hundreds of governing institutions and widely accepted across the political spectrum — is an instrument of conspiracy and racist oppression.

“Adopting the IHRA definition, granting special status to Zionism, and penalizing pro-Palestinian student groups risks violating the Title VI rights of Palestinians on campus,” the filing said. “There is ample evidence that adoption of IHRA and other policies which limit speech supporting Palestinian rights are motivated by an intent to selectively silence Palestinians and students who advocate on behalf of Palestinians. Such action cannot be required by, and indeed appear to violate, Title VI [of the Civil Rights Act].”

The document added, “Though the main text of the definition is relatively benign, the illustrative examples — seven of the eleven which pertain to criticism of Israel — make clear that they are aimed at preventing Palestinians from speaking about their oppression.”

Similar arguments were put forth in other briefs submitted by groups which have cheered Hamas and spread blood libels about Israel’s conduct in Gaza, including the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and other anti-Zionist groups.

“Harvard’s incorporation of IHRA was an overdue and necessary response to the virulent and unchecked antisemitic discrimination and harassment on its campus,” the Brandeis Center said in its response to the arguments, noting that Harvard itself has determined that embracing the definition is consistent with its obligations under Title VI, which have been reiterated and stressed by the US Office for Civil Rights (OCR) guidance and two executive orders issued by President Donald Trump.

“Misunderstandings about what antisemitism means — and the form it takes — have long plagued efforts to address antisemitic conduct. Modern versions of antisemitism draw not only on ancient tropes, but also coded attacks on Zionism and the Jewish state, which often stand in for the Jewish people in modern antisemitic parlance,” the organization continued. “Sadly, this is nothing new: Soviet propagandists for decades used the term ‘Zionist’ or ‘Zio’ in this coded way. This practice has become commonplace among antisemites in academia who seek to avoid being labeled as racists.”

The Brandeis Center also argued that IHRA does not “punish or chill speech” but “provides greater transparency and clarity as to the meaning of antisemitism while honoring the university’s rules protecting free speech and expression.” The group stopped short of urging a decision either for or against Harvard, imploring the court to “disregard” the briefs submitted by PSC, JVP, and MESA.

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Harvard sued the Trump administration, arguing that it bypassed key procedural steps it must, by law, take before sequestering federal funds. It also said that the Trump administration does not aim, as it has publicly pledged, to combat campus antisemitism at Harvard but to impose “viewpoint-based conditions on Harvard’s funding.”

The Trump administration has proposed that Harvard reform in ways that conservatives have long argued will make higher education more meritocratic and less welcoming to anti-Zionists and far-left extremists. Its “demands,” contained in a letter the administration sent to interim Harvard president Alan Garber — who subsequently released it to the public — called for “viewpoint diversity in hiring and admissions,” the “discontinuation of [diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives],” and “reducing forms of governance bloat.” They also implored Harvard to begin “reforming programs with egregious records of antisemitism” and to recalibrate its approach to “student discipline.”

On Monday, the attorneys general of Iowa, Kansas, Georgia, Florida, and 12 other states said the Trump administration took appropriate action to quell what they described as Harvard University’s flagrant violation of civil rights laws concerning its handling of the campus antisemitism crisis as well as its past history of violating the Constitution’s equal protection clause by practicing racial preferences in admissions.

Harvard both admits that it has a problem with antisemitism and acknowledges that problem as the reason it needs a multi-agency Task Force to Combat Antisemitism. Yet when the federal government acted to rectify that acknowledged violation of federal law through a negotiated practice, Harvard cried retaliation,” the attorneys general said in their own brief. “Its characterization of its refusal to follow federal nondiscrimination law as First Amendment speech is sheer chutzpah.”

They continued, “There is strong evidence of Harvard’s discriminatory animus, and the First Amendment does not shield it from consequences. This court should deny summary judgement and allow the federal government to proceed with enforcing the law. Perhaps if Harvard faces consequences for violating federal antidiscrimination law, it will finally stop violating federal antidiscrimination law.”

Trump addressed a potential “deal” to settle the matter with Harvard last Friday, writing on his Truth Social platform, saying a “deal will be announced over the next week or so” while praising the university’s legal counsel for having “acted extremely appropriately during these negotiations, and appear to be committed to doing what is right.” He added, “If a settlement is made on the basis that is currently being discussed, it will be ‘mindbogglingly’ HISTORIC, and very good for our Country.”

To date, Harvard has held its own against the federal government, building a war chest with a massive bond sale and notching a recent legal victory in the form of an injunction granted by a federal job which halted the administration’s restrictions on its international students — a policy that is being contested in a separate lawsuit. Garber has reportedly confirmed that the administration and Trump are discussing an agreement that would be palatable to all parties.

According to a report published by The Harvard Crimson on Thursday, Garber held a phone call with major donors in which he “confirmed in response to a question from [Harvard Corporation Fellow David M. Rubenstein] that talks had resumed” but “declined to share specifics of how Harvard expected to settle with the White House.”

The Crimson added, “He also did not discuss how close a deal could be and said instead that Harvard had focused on laying on steps it was already taking to address issues that are common ground for the University and the Trump administration. Areas of shared concern that have been discussed with the White House included ‘viewpoint diversity’ and antisemitism.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Civil Rights Nonprofit Slams Pro-Hamas Briefs Defending Harvard Lawsuit Against Trump first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Continue Reading

RSS

University of Virginia President Resigns Amid DEI Controversy With Trump Administration

US President Donald Trump speaks to the media as US Attorney General Pam Bondi and US Attorney General Todd Blanche listen, on June 27, 2025. Photo: Reuters Connect

The University of Virginia (UVA) is without a president following the reported resignation of James Ryan, a move which the US Justice Department stipulated as a condition of settling a civil rights case brought against the institution over its practicing racial preferences in admissions and hiring, a policy it justified as fostering “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI).

As first reported by The New York Times, Ryan tendered his resignation in a letter to the university’s corporate board on Thursday, noting that he had originally intended to step down at the conclusion of the 2025-2026 academic year. Recent events hastened the decision, the Times added, including several board members’ insisting that Ryan leave to prevent the institution’s losing “hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding” that the Trump administration would have impounded had he remained in office.

Ryan drew the scrutiny of the Justice Department, having allegedly defied a landmark Supreme Court ruling which outlawed establishing racial identity as the determinant factor for admission to the university as well as a series of executive orders US President Donald Trump issued to shutter DEI initiatives being operated in the public and private sectors. Such programs have been accused of fostering a new “anti-white” bigotry which penalizes individual merit and undermines the spirit of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement by, for example, excluding white males from jobs and prestigious academic positions for which they are qualified.

Another DEI-adjacent practice was identified at UVA in 2024, when the Equal Protection Project, a Rhode Island based nonprofit, filed a civil rights complaint against the university which argued that its holding a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) Alumni-Student Mentoring Program is discriminatory, claiming no public official would think it appropriate to sanction a mentoring program for which the sole membership criterion is being white. UVA later changed the description of the program, claiming that it is open to “all races, ethnicities, and national origins” even as it stressed that it was “created with BIPOC students in mind.”

The university’s tactics were allegedly employed to hide other DEI programs from lawmakers and taxpayers, with Ryan reportedly moving and concealing them behind new names. He quickly exhausted the patience of the Trump Justice Department, which assumed office only months after the BIPOC program was reported to federal authorities.

“This is further demonstration that the Trump administration is brutally serious about enforcement of civil rights laws. This will send shock waves throughout higher education, and it should,” Kenneth Marcus, chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, told The Algemeiner on Friday, commenting on the news. “It is a clear message that university leaders will be held accountable, personally and professionally, if they fail to ensure their institutions’ compliance.”

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, the Trump administration is leading a campaign against colleges and universities it has deemed as soft on campus antisemitism or excessively “woke.” Over the past several months, the administration has imposed catastrophic financial sanctions on elite universities including Harvard and Columbia, rattling a higher education establishment against which conservatives have lodged a slew of criticisms for decades. The actions coincide with a precipitous drop in public support for academia caused by an explosion of pro-Hamas demonstrations on campuses and the promotion of views which many Americans perceive as anti-meritocratic, anti-Western, and racist.

Since January, the administration has impounded $3 billion in Harvard’s federal funds over the institution’s refusal to agree to a wishlist of policy reforms that Republican lawmakers have long argued will make higher education more meritocratic and less welcoming to anti-Zionists and far-left extremists. Contained in a letter the administration sent to Harvard interim president Alan Garber — who subsequently released it to the public — the policies called for “viewpoint diversity in hiring and admissions,” the “discontinuation of [diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives],” and “reducing forms of governance bloat.” They also implore Harvard to begin “reforming programs with egregious records of antisemitism” and to recalibrate its approach to “student discipline.”

Columbia University has announced that it acceded to similar demands put forth by the Trump administration as prerequisites for the restoration of its federal funds — including a review of undergraduate admissions practices that allegedly discriminate against qualified Jewish applicants, the enforcement of an “anti-mask” policy that protesters have violated to avoid being identified by law enforcement, and enhancements to the university’s security protocols that would facilitate the restoration of order when the campus is disturbed by unauthorized demonstrations.

Harvard is reportedly prepared to strike a deal with Trump as well, according to a Thursday report by The Harvard Crimson.

Garber, the paper said, held a phone call with major donors in which he “confirmed in response to a question from [Harvard Corporation Fellow David M. Rubenstein] that talks had resumed” but “declined to share specifics of how Harvard expected to settle with the White House.”

The Crimson added, “He also did not discuss how close a deal could be and said instead that Harvard had focused on laying on steps it was already taking to address issues that are common ground for the university and the Trump administration. Areas of shared concern that have been discussed with the White House included ‘viewpoint diversity’ and antisemitism.”

Meanwhile, others continue to argue that Trump’s reforms of higher education threaten to mire the university in politics while describing Ryan’s resignation as a setback for academic freedom.

“It is a sign that major public research universities are substantially controlled by a political party whose primary goal is to further its partisan agenda and will stop at nothing to bring the independence of higher education to heel,” Michigan State University professor Brendan Cantwell told Inside Higher Ed on Friday. “It undercuts both the integrity of academic communities as self-governing based on the judgement of expert professionals and the traditional accountability that public universities have to their states via formal and established governance mechanisms.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post University of Virginia President Resigns Amid DEI Controversy With Trump Administration first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Continue Reading

Copyright © 2017 - 2023 Jewish Post & News