WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Today: Dept. of Education warns 60 schools about campus antisemitism • Iranian Jewish refugees plead with Trump for asylum • Kanye West calls his new album antisemitic • And much more.

ON CAMPUS

Judge Jesse Furman, pictured in 2018, ruled that pro-Palestinian protestor Mahmoud Khalil should not be deported by ICE. (YouTube)

⚖️  Jewish judge halts deportation of Columbia pro-Palestinian activist

A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration’s deportation order for pro-Palestinian protestor Mahmoud Khalil, a legal U.S. resident and recent Columbia grad, currently held in a Louisiana detention facility.

• The ruling came from Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York, an observant Jew who adjourns court early on Friday before Shabbat. His wife, Ariela Dubler, is a former Columbia Law professor and now leads Manhattan’s Abraham Joshua Heschel School.

  
  

• As a young attorney, Furman wrote a Supreme Court brief for the Anti-Defamation League, challenging a Christian student club that blurred the line between free speech and religious indoctrination in schools.

📸  Jewish groups targeted Khalil — then ICE arrested him

How did Khalil become the first protestor targeted for deportation? He showed up at a demonstration last week without a mask. “The guy was making it too easy for us,” a pro-Israel activist who has been compiling a protester database told our Arno Rosenfeld.

• Driving the news: Clips of Khalil at the Barnard library protest circulated online last week and groups like Documenting Jew Hatred on Campus quickly singled him out and called on Secretary of State Marco Rubio to deport him.

  
  

• The big picture: Some Jewish activists celebrated Khalil’s arrest, but others warned the tactic could backfire. “If Trump can deport anti-Zionists,” wrote Columbia student Eliana Goldin on X, “he can deport Zionists too.”

Thousands of protestors marched through the streets of lower Manhattan on Monday, decrying the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate. (Getty)

🚨 More fallout

• The White House posted a “Shalom Mahmoud” graphic to social media, the third time this month it’s used the Hebrew phrase. It echoes Trump’s signature “You’re fired.” (Forward)

  
  

• The arrest has sparked debate within American Jewry, as many grapple with balancing their strong support for Israel and their longstanding commitment to civil liberties. (New York Times)

  
  

• A growing number of Jewish groups are condemning the arrest. “We must defend the U.S. Constitution,” the Zioness Movement said in a statement, “without defending Khalil’s vile, antisemitic, anti-American ideology.” (JTA)

  
  

• New York City’s mayoral candidates weighed in on the arrest, with Brad Lander, who is Jewish, referencing a famous poem about the Holocaust.

Opinion | Trump’s Columbia attacks won’t stop antisemitism, so why are Jewish leaders applauding? Rabbi Jill Jacobs asks: “Will we allow our community to be used as a wedge to dismantle democratic norms and civil society institutions?” Read her essay ►

🏫  Elsewhere on campus

• The Department of Education warned 60 colleges and universities — including Columbia, Harvard and Johns Hopkins — on Monday that they could face consequences if they fail to protect Jewish students on campus. (CNN)

  
  

• Harvard is imposing a hiring freeze as potential funding is threatened. Last week, the Trump administration pulled $400 million in federal contracts and grants to Columbia over antisemitism on campus. (New York Times)

  
  

• UCLA launched on Monday a campuswide initiative to tackle antisemitism, with Chancellor Julio Frenk calling this moment an “inflection point” and urging the university to “end hate however it manifests itself.” (L.A. Times)

  
  

• Jewish leaders are outraged after discovering that mandatory student fees at the University of Sydney helped fund pro-Palestinian activism. It’s “perverted,” said Australian Jewish Association CEO Robert Gregory, calling it unfair that Jewish students are forced to bankroll “extremist events” on campus. (Sky News)

ON POLITICS

President Donald Trump speaks Sunday to journalists aboard Air Force One. (Getty)

The latest…

• A mayor in Michigan helped Trump win Arab American voters. Now the president has nominated him to be U.S. ambassador to Kuwait. (Forward)

  
  

• Trump pledged to protect Jews and defend religious freedom — yet his refugee ban is preventing 700 persecuted Iranian Jews from finding safety in the U.S. Their families are urging Trump to make an exception. (JTA)

Opinion | French President Emmanuel Macron urged Europe to stand against rising authoritarianism, warning that leaders like Trump and Putin can endanger democracy. When that happens, writes historian Robert Zaretsky, Jewish communities often suffer first. Read his essay ►

ON CULTURE

Hayim Katsman, left, was an Israeli peace activist killed by Hamas on Oct. 7. Despite online rumors, he had nothing to do with the Oscar-winning team of No Other Land, at right. (Getty)

Fame and fallout

After No Other Land won the Oscar for best documentary last weekend, some critics said the filmmakers forgot to thank a crucial player in the film’s production — Israeli Hayim Katsman, a peace activist who was killed on Oct. 7. The problem with their complaints? He didn’t work on the film, his mom told our Samuel Eli Shepherd. Read the story ►

Ina Garten’s new memoir reveals how a Jewish girl from Brooklyn went from nuclear policy analyst to culinary queen. Turns out, the secret ingredient to success isn’t just butter — it’s chutzpah. She opened a gourmet deli, became Food Network royalty and is now a balabusta who’s friends with Mel Brooks and Taylor Swift. Go deeper ►

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Kanye West at the Grammy Awards last month in Los Angeles. (Getty)

🤦  Kanye West posted a swastika flag to social media this morning. This comes days after he posted an image of a KKK robe declaring it his “outfit of the day,” and also writing that his “next album got that antisemitic sound.” (Washington Times, X)

🗳️  Voting has opened for the World Zionist Congress election, where any Jew who supports Zionist principles can help shape policies on Israeli immigration, land use and religious freedom. (JTA)

🇦🇺  A trailer filled with explosives, which Australian leaders initially called an antisemitic terror plot and a thwarted mass attack, was actually part of an elaborate hoax by criminals and was never meant to explode, police said Monday. (AP)

🇨🇦  A Canadian journalist has created a database listing 85 Canadians who have served in the Israeli military, and has invited the public to send tips about more. Critics are calling the “Jew list” dangerous. (Haaretz)

🖼️  The Supreme Court revived a quest by the family of a Holocaust survivor seeking to reclaim a valuable Impressionist painting, stolen by the Nazis just before World War II. (Washington Post)

🙏  Pope Francis continues to recover from pneumonia and doctors say the 88-year-old pontiff is no longer in imminent danger. (Religion News Service)

🎬  Netflix’s popular interfaith romcom, Nobody Wants This, is adding a new clergy member to the mix, with a character called Big Noah, an overly confident rabbi at the synagogue. (Deadline)

What else we’re reading ► At a historic Williamsburg synagogue on valuable land, dueling groups fight for control (Gothamist) … The hit reality show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives returns to Hulu for a second season in May (Vulture) … Why has kosher salt replaced table salt in American pantries? (The Atlantic)

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Watch: New international guidelines may help Jewish families reclaim artwork they believe was sold under duress as the Nazis swept across Europe. CBS Sunday Morning explored the challenges of proving the provenance of Nazi-looted art, speaking with experts on authentication and families for whom restitution is a long-overdue form of justice.

Today’s newsletter made me:

🤓 Confident I understand issues impacting American Jews.

💡Curious to learn about something I read.

🤷🏽‍♀️ No different.

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