36 Former Major Jewish Organization Leaders reprimand current leadership for being "far too silent" in Open Letter in NYT.
by Diane Joy Schmidt May 18, 2025
In an open letter that ran as an ad in the New York Times on May 8, 2025 criticizing Trump's crackdown on universities and protestors in the name of fighting antisemitism, former directors and chairs of the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, Hillel International, AIPAC and 10 major federations, including two former chairs of the JFNA, rebuked current Jewish leadership for being “far too silent about the stunning assault on democratic norms.”
Shown here is a facsimile of the ad, "Open Letter from American Jewish Leaders: Stand up for Jewish Safety and Democracy." You can read Arno Rosenfeld's article in The Forward at "Jewish feud over Trump escalates with open letter in The New York Times."
Even more, a must-read is "Trump’s arrests of Israel critics sets the stage for a battle for the American Jewish soul," a scoop by veteran journalist Ron Kampeas, retired Jewish Telegraph Agency Washington D.C. bureau chief, which he first reported on April 20th in Ron's Substack. He details a letter that Eric Fingerhut, head of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), had privately sent out to Jewish federations not to sign on to letters spearheaded by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and which includes as endorsers the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements. Fingerhut's letter went out on the heels of the JCPA letter sent earlier the same day, April 15th.
Kampeas writes, "There are those like Fingerhut who would work with and accommodate President Donald Trump – the JFNA has already hosted a briefing with top Trump officials administering its campus actions."
Kampeas goes on to pen an illuminating insight,"And there are those who would resist him, echoing the divisions between the “Court Jew” and the “Rebel Jew” throughout Jewish history, in South Africa during the Apartheid era, but also in the parts of Europe under the Soviet yoke."
New Mexico was already responding a month earlier: As Ellen Marks reported here, "Those actions prompted 14 New Mexico rabbis to release an open letter recently, saying, “We object to the violation of anyone’s constitutional rights as a strategy for fighting antisemitism.”" The NM Rabbis' letter went out April 10th, prompted by T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. On March 28th, "And I didn't speak up," by NMJJ Editor Diane Joy Schmidt, was published here and then prominently reprinted by Congregation Albert Brotherhood's lively newsletter Brotherhood Insider, which has a new look. To get the Brotherhood Insider, write to brotherhood@congregationalbert.org.
If you want to understand a key piece of what lays behind all Trump's machinations, read this noteworthy article published by Texas Monthly, "All The President's Prophets", about the self-proclaimed prophets who have Donald Trump's ear.
To understand more: read this report from T'ruah about "Project Esther," the brainchild of the Heritage Foundation. There are many news articles that have finally now begun to appear about it, type 'Project Esther' into your search bar.
