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The first letter came out on April 28. It was sponsored by J Street and T’ruah and boasts the signatures of 550 rabbis and cantors. It condemns the Trump administration’s battle against campus antisemitism. It opens with the insistence that the signers “are deeply committed to fighting the rising tide of antisemitism in the United States.” It continues with the allegation that the Trump administration’s tactics for fighting antisemitism are counter-productive and will not make Jewish students safer.

The letter warns of Trump’s authoritarianism. It stops just short of calling Trump Hitler and ends with a call to “stand firm in our values.” The thrust of the letter is that Trump is using antisemitism as an excuse to harass and deport anti-Israel students as a first step to mass deportations and increasing authoritarianism. Jews are the Trump administration’s “perfect political pawns” to justify the administration’s “authoritarian tactics.”

Then there is the May 8 “Letter from American Jewish Leaders: Stand Up for Jewish Safety and Democracy,” which warns,

“A range of actors are using a purported concern about Jewish safety as a cudgel to weaken higher education, due process, checks and balances, freedom of speech, and the press.” It also calls “on Jewish leaders and institutions . . . to resist the exploitation of Jewish fears . . .”

There is very little concern for Jews in these letters. The writers, instead, worry that campus Hamas supporters who harass and abuse Jewish students will be held to account.

Both letters decry antisemitism in the abstract but ignore concrete antisemitic realities. No mention is made of Jewish students being harassed in classes and on campus, of classes being disrupted by pro-Hamas protesters, of physical attacks against Jewish students, vandalism against Jewish campus facilities and organizations, Jewish students being denied entry to campus public areas and buildings and being forced to take shelter to avoid campus mobs, and the fact that university campuses are being made into hostile environments where Jews are not welcome. In short, democracy is not “being assaulted,” but Jewish students are.

Antisemitism at major American universities has been festering and growing for years, finally bursting into an almost pogrom-like ferocity on October 8, 2023, the day after Hamas’ attack against Israel.

Since that day, how have the leaders who wrote and signed these letters responded to the outpouring of jew-hatred? Have they made demands of Harvard, or Columbia, or UCLA, or any of the other schools where Jewish students are being victimized? Have they led protests against campus Hamas supporters? Did they make any demands of the previous administration to address this problem? Have any of them demanded consequences for the thugs who vandalize campus buildings and attack Jewish students? Or has this issue only raised their ire because the Trump administration stepped in? Do any of the writers or signers have any ideas on how to battle the current wave of Jew-hatred? Do they even have to will to join the battle? Or are they so focused on loathing Trump that they’re willing to ignore what Jewish students are being forced to confront at our top-tier universities? What exactly are the values in which they are standing firm?

It’s clear that it wasn’t concern for the safety of Jewish students that motivated these letters, but animosity for Trump. Surely our clergy can do better.

The recent murders of Sara Milgrom and Yaron Lischinsky should have shocked the letter writers and signers into discarding partisan politics and embracing Jewish survival. These terrible, cold-blooded murders should convince even the most dedicated Trump detractors to set aside their animus and face reality. These Jewish “leaders” and 550 clergy must forget Trump for a minute and focus on Jews. While their heads have been buried in I-hate-Trump fantasies, Jew hating fanatics have been out on our nation’s streets and university campuses globalizing the Intifada. And they’ve been doing it since October 7, 2023.

These letters must be repudiated and withdrawn. They are a bigger embarrassment now than when they were first posted. New letters should be written calling for Americans of all political stripes to join with the Jewish community in battling the Hamas-inspired campus Jew hatred that led directly to the murders of Milgrim and Lischinsky.

The important fact these Jewish communal leaders blinded themselves to is, no matter how much they publicly demonstrate their abhorrence for Trump, the “Free Palestine” Hamas supporters still hate them for being Jewish and would cheer their violent death. Trump or no Trump, Jews should be standing together with all Americans against the Hamas supporters who have been persecuting Jews on streets and university campuses, especially now as their new hero, Elias Rodriguez, has taken the next “intifada revolution,” free Palestine-inspired step.

Harry Onickel is a long time Israel advocate. Formerly a Detroit area resident, he is one of the small but necessary voices speaking up against modern day anti-Zionism/antisemitism. He began by writing letters to Detroit area newspapers in 2004, and has written hundreds of letters and articles since then challenging anti-Jewish bias.