17 Comments
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Ingrid Nyeboe's avatar

He is setting Jewish students and by extension all Jews in USA up for tremendous backlash.

Mandy sue's avatar

Right Wingers are happy to use Jews as they always have in their Rapture fantasies and will toss them aside at the first opportunity.

Ted Pourzal's avatar

I couldn't agree more, Ingrid. A thoughtful 1993 book titled "The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State" also agreed. Its Jewish American author documented centuries of Europe's Jewish elites cozying up to gentile centers of power (often corrupt tyrants) in a Faustian bargain that typically led to tragic backlash against Jews in general.

If nothing changes, that history could somehow repeat itself mid century in the US as well. I so hope I'm wrong. But let's keep in mind we're an empire in irreversible decline (no one understands that better than Make America Great Again voters) and the national thirst for scapegoats will not forever stop at immigrant bashing.

Jeff K's avatar

Well said, Ted. We are being sold out by the worst amongst us.

peter2's avatar

Isn't the idea of "centuries of Europe's Jewish elites cozying up to gentile centers of power (often corrupt tyrants)" an antisemitic trope?

Gimpel The Kochlöffel's avatar

All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others—George Orwell (Animal Farm)

Jeff K's avatar

A big part of the reason why this man is in office is the right's disdain for DEI, and yet he goes all-in on DEI for Jewish students. This kind of nonsense is why people like Nick Fuentes are catching fire. I pray you have the courage to speak out against this, silence is no longer an option.

LifeLongLearner's avatar

Of course this terribly divisive agreement will generate hostility towards Jewish students. Jewish leaders as well as Jewish student organizations are better off rejecting this agreement. It feels more like some kind of revenge.

Sam Bahour's avatar

Exactly! Trump is the circus 🎪 distraction. Long live the Heritage Foundation, NOT!

Julie Diamond's avatar

There is also an excellent letter from Columbia professor James Schamus (on Lit Hub, March 10, 2025) on this. Worth reading.

Protect the Vote's avatar

30%: The Magic Cutoff

Cheeto's 36-38% overall approval polling numbers are now skating on pretty thin ice Numbers like this approach the magic point of no return for political operatives, below which a president never recovers

Soooo if Cheeto and his Nazi regime post overall approval at 30 or lower the party and Cheeto specifically will not be able to make a comeback no matter what they do to cajole the electorate to vote for them Cheeto's absurd inane tariff. Immigrant, gun, military, and pardon policies along with his kiss ass billionaire approach prompt even lower numbers pushing him toward the magic 30

But the most important number in this 30 regard is the approval of the current Republican/Nazi Congress is 26% which bodes well for a landslide in the 2026 midterms Watch Tennessee 7th district special election

peter2's avatar

"What the Trump administration is really doing is creating a two-tier system in which it creates a kind of Jewish supremacy on college campuses because the rights of Jewish students are considered more important than the rights of other students."

Until this new administration shook things up, the above describes how a *lot* of Americans perceived initiatives known as Affirmative Action or Diversity-Equity-Inclusion, under which colleges and other institutions appeared to consider the rights of BIPOC and LGBT people to be more important than the rights of other people.

"This is, in a way, a kind of importing of the Israeli model of what makes Jews safe, as opposed to the traditional American model, which comes out of the American Jewish role in the Civil Rights Movement, which argues that the safety of American Jews comes from arguing for equality under the law and fighting against bigotry for all groups."

Interesting that you call it "the traditional American model", because the most prominent organization dedicated to making Jews safe in the United States is the ADL (whether you like it or not), and it was founded in 1913, long before the Civil Rights Movement. So what would you call the ADL's "model" in its first decades? Pre-traditional? What was its model back then, anyway? (Asking here out of ignorance.) I'm only familiar with its origin story as a response to the mistreatment of a prominent member of the Jewish community in Atlanta at the height of the era of legally enforced racial segregation.

But anyway, Jews only played a supporting role as allies in the Civil Rights Movement, which was specifically about civil rights for black Americans. Nowadays we have American Jews actively standing up in support of the rights of Jews, in this case the rights of Jews in the lands controlled by the state of Israel. Do these Zionist advocates talk in the language of "fighting against bigotry for all groups"? Certainly not. They exploit and even inflame non-Jewish Americans' bigotry against Palestinians and other Arabs as well as Muslims in general.

GoodEve Rising's avatar

Totally agree. Protection from bigotry should be the same for all. It isn’t good for jewish students, it blurs lines, creates animosity etc.

Gina Crandell's avatar

Acknowledge that "antisemitism" is not meaningful as anti-Jewish hate and historically and now means Zionism. Stop using it.

Erik's avatar

The mandatory antisemitism training is really anti-Zionism training. This is happening at the same time people are freaking out over the Heritage Foundation defending Tucker Carlson.

Gina Crandell's avatar

Or is it Zionism training?

Erik's avatar

Well yeah, it’s anti anti-Zionism training.