Dear JCOGS Community,
As we emerge from Passover and carry its message of liberation into the days ahead, we share with you two powerful statements that speak to the urgent challenges facing us in this time. Earlier this month, our JCOGS board met with the Shalom Alliance (learn more about them here), whose work affirms that our story of freedom calls us not only to remember, but to act—with clarity, courage, and a commitment to justice for all. Shared below is their recent correspondence, as well as a joint message from ten of the major Jewish organizations of American Jewry.
FROM THE SHALOM ALLIANCE
Titled: Jews as Pawns: What Passover Teaches Us About Free Speech, Due Process, and Political Manipulation
Shalom Friends,
Passover teaches us to tell our story, not just of survival, but of moral clarity. We retell the journey from slavery to freedom so that we remember what justice requires of us: to speak truth to power, to protect the vulnerable, and to build a society grounded in fairness, law, and human dignity.
But too often, in today’s political climate, Jews are not treated as full participants in this moral struggle. We are used as pawns.
Both historically and today, political forces have invoked Jews, our trauma, our safety, our alleged power, not to protect us, but to serve agendas that have little to do with our actual well-being. Sometimes we are the scapegoat. Sometimes we are the shield. Either way, we are not in control of the narrative.
During this Trump administration, we see this playing out disturbingly. Federal agencies are detaining and surveilling activists, particularly those critical of U.S. foreign policy or aligned with Palestinian solidarity movements, under the banner of “fighting antisemitism.” Invoking Jewish safety is being used to justify the erosion of due process, the suppression of dissent, and in some cases, the detainment of individuals without fair legal recourse.
This is not a defense of Jews. It is an exploitation of us.
Weaponizing antisemitism in this way doesn’t make Jews safer. It makes real antisemitism harder to combat. It cheapens our suffering, delegitimizes our concerns, and turns our identity into a tool for silencing others. And ironically, it emboldens antisemites who point to these abuses to claim that Jews wield undue influence over public debate or foreign policy.
As Jews committed to justice, we must resist this manipulation from both the right and the left. Today, some leftist movements erase or deny antisemitism to avoid confronting hatred within their own ranks. But we must be equally honest about how the right has co-opted Jewish pain to undermine civil rights, stifle criticism, and erode democracy.
The Exodus story is not a story of convenience. It is a story of courage, of standing against power, of demanding liberation, and of choosing principle over comfort. When we say, “In every generation, each person must see themselves as if they personally came out of Egypt,” we are reminding ourselves that the struggle for justice is ours to carry, not as pawns, but as moral agents.
At Shalom Alliance, we stand firmly in that tradition. We work to protect Jewish students, educators, and communities from real antisemitism, and to do so without compromising the rights of others. We demand freedom of speech, due process, and moral consistency from every corner of the political spectrum.
This Passover, let us reject being used as pawns. Let us raise our voices not only for ourselves, but for the dignity of all who seek freedom. And let us remember: true liberation comes not from aligning with power, but from telling the truth, even when it’s inconvenient.
Chag Sameach
Shalom Alliance
BROAD COALITION OF MAINSTREAM JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS RELEASE STATEMENT REJECTING FALSE CHOICE BETWEEN JEWISH SAFETY & DEMOCRACY
Today, a coalition of ten organizations representing a broad swath of mainstream American Jewry – including three of the four denominations – issued a joint statement rejecting the false choice between confronting antisemitism and upholding democracy.
The organizations, which were brought together by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and include the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, National Council of Jewish Women, American Conference of Cantors, Central Conference of American Rabbis, HIAS, Rabbinical Assembly, Reconstructing Judaism, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, and the Union for Reform Judaism, released the following statement:
“The rule of law, freedom of inquiry, access to vibrant places of higher education, and strong democratic norms and institutions have allowed American Jewry to thrive for hundreds of years.
“There should be no doubt that antisemitism is rising—visible, chilling, and increasingly normalized in our public discourse, politics, and institutions. It requires urgent and consistent action by our nation’s political, academic, religious, and civic leaders. At the same time, we firmly reject the false choice between confronting antisemitism and upholding democracy. Our safety as Jews has always been tied to the rule of law, to the safety of others, to the strength of civil society, and to the protection of rights and liberties for all.
“At this moment, Jews are being targeted and held collectively accountable for the actions of a foreign government. Jews are being pushed out of certain movements, classrooms, and communities for expressing a connection to their heritage or to the Jewish homeland. And, horrifically, some voices in the public square are justifying or celebrating the murder of Jews. Dangerous antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories that over the past decade have already fueled a cycle of hate crimes and violence — including the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in U.S. history in Pittsburgh — have been mainstreamed by too many political leaders, civil society influencers, social media platforms, and others.
“In recent weeks, escalating federal actions have used the guise of fighting antisemitism to justify stripping students of due process rights when they face arrest and/or deportation, as well as to threaten billions in academic research and education funding. Students have been arrested at home and on the street with no transparency as to why they are being held or deported, and in certain cases with the implication that they are being punished for their constitutionally-protected speech. Universities have an obligation to protect Jewish students, and the federal government has an important role to play in that effort; however, sweeping draconian funding cuts will weaken the free academic inquiry that strengthens democracy and society, rather than productively counter antisemitism on campus.
“These actions do not make Jews—or any community—safer. Rather, they only make us less safe.
“We reject any policies or actions that foment or take advantage of antisemitism and pit communities against one another; and we unequivocally condemn the exploitation of our community’s real concerns about antisemitism to undermine democratic norms and rights, including the rule of law, the right of due process, and/or the freedoms of speech, press, and peaceful protest.
“It is both possible and necessary to fight antisemitism—on campus, in our communities, and across the country—without abandoning the democratic values that have allowed Jews, and so many other vulnerable minorities, to thrive.
“We appreciate the civil society, academic, and local, state, and national leaders who are committed to seriously and thoughtfully addressing the threat of antisemitism. We remain committed to working alongside university leadership and public officials at every level to ensure policies and practices that protect the Jewish community as well as other marginalized communities and uphold for all people the principles of justice, fairness, and equal protection under the law. That is the only path to true safety.”
