550 US rabbis sign letter condemning Trump's antisemitism policy

“The letter comes after a poll found that most American Jews oppose the way President Donald Trump is handling antisemitism.” - RNS

Discussion

This means very little. Reformed Judaism is so liberal, it can barely be called Judaism.

It should be noted that what's at hand here is simply that those who signed object to how Trump is ending student visas for many students involved in anti-Israel protests--and there is some reality here that a lot of students, not just anti-semitic ones, are having student visas terminated, and my take is that they ought to at least have a hearing before being expelled.

So David is going to laugh at me, and should, because I am apparently on the side of the (stereotypically) bacon-eating branch of Judiasm.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

I agree that all of the individuals should have a hearing before being expelled. I don't like the anti-semitism that is growing on college campuses, but I also don't think rights should be trampled on without due process.

I'm kind of torn on the due process question. On one hand, I don't think people should be punished without due process.

On the other hand, I'm not sure I agree that having your visa revoked and sent home is a punishment. We're not talking about imprisoning anyone for speaking. They lose the privilege of living and studying here. They go home.

If one doubts that ending of a student visa is a loss, all one must do is compare the reputations of U.S. universities, especially those in the Ivy League, with the colleges of many universities around the world. So the person losing his student visa is almost guaranteed to be a loss that usually warrants some kind of due process--at least a hearing.

We also want to be careful that we don't expel people for trivial reasons--like the Russian grad student (and supporter of Ukraine) who is being expelled over undeclared frog embryos. If we do that, we're going to lose a lot of the best students who tend to decide to stay here--and become great citizens, very often.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.