Some Boston-area Jews worry Trump's university crackdowns weaponize antisemitism

The Trump administration is ramping up actions against universities, students and cities it claims have abided or supported antisemitism. Inside Boston's Jewish community, some welcome the punitive measures, while others see this as an excuse for Trump to defund institutions and restrain free speech.

The White House announced this week it would review nearly $9 billion in federal grants and funding awarded to Harvard University, to ensure the school is "in compliance with federal regulations, including its civil rights responsibilities."That followed earlier moves against Columbia University, and Princeton may be next.

Growing up in Israel, MIT postdoctoral student Yuval Jacobi thought antisemitism was a thing of the past. But his views changed last year, when protests over the war in Gaza erupted on campus in Cambridge.

Jacobi said he lost family and friends in Hamas' brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israeli citizens. At MIT, he felt some of the rhetoric from initial protests against Israel's response to the assault blamed victims, or even supported harm against Jewish people.

"I was scared to leave my office for a few months," he said. "It was a hard time being a Jew on campus —  being an Israeli on campus."

Still, Trump’s attempts to gut federal funding for universities are doing little to assuage Jacobi's concerns about antisemitism. He's now worried about losing his job.

"If you look at the bigger picture of, at least me as a Jewish scientist, this hurts me," he said. "Hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more, are being taken away from basic research, which I think is a shame and a bad move. And per usual — mark my words — in a few years, they'll blame us Jews for it."

The Harvard funding review follows high-profile arrests of student activists who have protested Israel's deadly military campaign in Gaza, and who the Trump administration claims — without evidence — have connections to Hamas.

Harvard and other Boston-area schools have changed policies around protests and placed a renewed focus on educating students about antisemitism. Some of the restrictions have been criticized by free speech advocates and pro-Palestinian protesters. Demonstrators have repeatedly rejected accusations of antisemitism and insisted their rallies focus on the plight of Palestinians.

For some, that hasn't been enough. At MIT, professor Mauricio Karchmer resigned in January, saying he could no longer “teach those who condemn my Jewish identity.”

And while some advocates have cheered the government's aggressive tactics, others believe President Trump is weaponizing the fight against antisemitism for his own ends.

Soon after he took office, Trump issued an executive order aimed at “vile anti-Semitic discrimination, vandalism, and violence.” The order suggested universities should monitor and report on "alien students and staff" for activities that could warrant investigations and removal from the country.

Then the Justice Department launched the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. Leo Terrell, a civil rights lawyer and Fox News regular, was picked as the leader.

Speaking on Fox News, he vowed to use "every resource, every tool" to stop antisemitism.

"We're going to deter this type of hatred towards Jews forever," he said. "We're going to eradicate it."

"If you look at the bigger picture of at least me as a Jewish scientist, this hurts me."

Yuval Jacobi

The task force started naming universities where it said antisemitic incidents had taken place. Then it identified the city of Boston — where members would seek to "engage" the mayor, the district attorney and law enforcement — alongside New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. No specific reasons were given, just a broad statement that schools in those cities “may have failed to protect Jewish students from discrimination.”

The White House and Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment.

Jeremy Burton, a member of the Massachusetts Special Commission to Combat Antisemitism, said the group has not been contacted by the federal task force.

“We know so little about what this is and why they're choosing to come to Boston,” Burton said. "I hope that the Department of Justice will sit down with the actual local Jewish community in the city of Boston before speaking on our behalf."

Burton said Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has always been accessible and responsive to the Jewish community.

And Wu hardly went easy on the pro-Palestinian protesters last year. Under her watch last April, Boston police cleared an encampment on city property at Emerson College. In all, 118 students and others were arrested and charged with trespassing and disturbing the peace. Critics condemned the police action as brutal and unnecessary.

"It was a peaceful protest and the police came out swinging," said Jeffrey Jacobson, a volunteer with the self-described anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace. And Wu "has really done nothing to support this very important human rights issue."

Wu's office issued a statement after the task force cited Boston, saying it “will determine the right way to participate as we learn more and discuss with our Jewish community leaders and partners.”

Some conservative Jewish activists praised Wu’s handling of the Emerson protest.

“She did the right thing," said Josh Katzen, a Newton businessman and longtime Trump supporter.  "But we haven't yet seen on the Boston campuses the kind of unrelenting hostility and buildings being taken over that we've seen at Columbia and Barnard [College].”

The feds' antisemitism claims against Boston come as the Trump administration assails city leaders over policies related to immigrants. In Boston, police are barred from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in noncriminal cases.

A week after Wu and other mayors testified before a congressional committee about immigration enforcement, they were called out by the antisemitism task force.

Katzen said if the White House is coming at Boston over both alleged antisemitism and its dealings with ICE, he’s fine with that.

“Cities that flaunt federal law are going to find themselves getting a lot of unwanted attention from the federal government,” he said.

Many Jews in Greater Boston bristle at what they see as a weaponizing of antisemitism.

“Is it antisemitic itself? Well, certainly it’s an instrumentalizing of antisemitism," said Rabbi Toba Spitzer of Congregation Dorshei Tzedek in West Newton. "And this is the way antisemitism functions — to divide, to conquer, to scapegoat.”

While some Jewish students have felt threatened during pro-Palestinian protests, Spitzer said, the White House is now threatening a much broader set of people, institutions and freedoms.

“Pro-Palestinian protesters on a campus don't actually wield any power," she said. "And the people who wield power are the people in government with the power to deport people or to overturn our laws — to overturn civil society. These laws protect Jews, just like they protect anyone.”

The might of the government is now being used against Tufts University in Medford, where last week a Turkish doctoral student was detained by ICE. Tufts is also one of 60 schools under investigation over claims of “antisemitic harassment and discrimination.”

“ Is it antisemitic itself? Well, certainly it’s an instrumentalizing of antisemitism."

Rabbi Toba Spitzer

The incident raised questions for Tufts undergrad Meirav Solomon, 22, a daughter of two rabbis. She was recently called to testify before a U.S. Senate hearing on antisemitism, where she accused the Trump administration of ignoring antisemitism from the right.

Solomon, who serves on the student board of the liberal Jewish group J Street, told senators antisemitism has actually increased since Trump returned to office.

"Do you see a causal connection there?" asked Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana.

"Yes," Solomon responded.

"Why?"

"Trump has highlighted and platformed neo-Nazis and white supremacists," she said.

"OK," Kennedy said.

Solomon told WBUR that Jewish students are being used as pawns, and that no one from the Trump administration has asked people like her how to address the problems they’re facing.

"They use our experiences in order to push forward their own political agendas, never mind that those political agendas may have no founding in Jewish values or the ways in which Jewish students would want to improve their lives," she said.

Still, Monday's announcement regarding federal funding for Harvard was welcomed by some.

Roni Brunn of the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance said she supports the "review" of billions of dollars in federal contracts with her alma mater. She takes issue with some classes taught at Harvard — and people invited to speak there — who she said have demonized Jews.

"Unfortunately, it's going to take something like the prospect of losing these crucial funds for Harvard to realign with its mission," she said.

Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker takes the opposite view. While Pinker has criticized the university’s handling of protests, he said it’s hard to fathom how decimating research funding will help anyone.

"It's certainly not, as our grandmothers would say, 'good for the Jews,' " he said, adding that government attacks on universities could undermine genuine efforts to counter antisemitism.

"If this is what fighting antisemitism amounts to," he said, "then, you know, let's not fight antisemitism."

Correction: This story has been updated to more accurately describe arrests at Emerson.

Editor's Note: The audio version of this story has been updated to include additional context to pro-Palestinian protests.