As scholars of Jewish Studies, we write to express our opposition to the Executive Order signed by President Trump entitled “Combating Anti-Semitism.” We are deeply concerned about antisemitism today. However, we see the president’s order as a step in the wrong direction. Significantly, the order does not offer new protections against antisemitism. According to the U.S. Department of Education, Jewish students are already protected from harassment that targets them qua Jews by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

What is new about the order--and what troubles us as scholars of Jewish Studies--is that it urges government agencies involved in Title VI anti-discrimination efforts to “consider” the “working definition” of antisemitism written by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). However, the IHRA definition is both lacking and inapplicable. The core deficit of the definition is its equation of anti-Zionism to antisemitism in ambiguous and problematic ways. We perceive grave danger in a definition that codifies all “targeting” of Israel as antisemitic. Kenneth Stern, who was the lead drafter of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, publicly decried deploying such definitions as a matter of U.S. policy. Stern is clear: “This order is an attack on academic freedom and free speech, and will harm not only pro-Palestinian advocates, but also Jewish students and faculty, and the academy itself.”

As scholars, we have a fundamental commitment to protecting academic freedom. It lies at the foundation of education. Whether or not the IHRA definition is even applied, the very suggestion that the Department of Education consider its full terms has an intimidating and silencing effect and, thus, serves as a direct attack on academic freedom.

The president of the United States has a responsibility to work to combat antisemitism and all other forms of prejudice and racism. We see the president acting in bad faith. As he enacts an order that offers no new protections and endangers the rights of students and scholars to engage in free inquiry, the president simultaneously calls upon antisemitic tropes that depict all Jews as singularly loyal to an imagined set of ethno-national interests. Indeed, this brand of antisemitism has recurred throughout this president’s administration evident in his characterization of the Prime Minister of Israel as American Jews’ leader and the disloyalty of American Jews who do not support Israel.

For its attack on academic freedom and its promulgation amidst the advancement of antisemitic tropes and acts questioning American Jews’ loyalties, we strongly oppose the Executive Order.

[Drafted by the JSAN Coordinating Committee]