🚨EXCLUSIVE🚨 Internal Jewish Community Relations Memo Defends Trump, Alleges Due Process
Jewish Federations CEO to local leaders: JCPA statement opposing antisemitism, exploitation of our community, and the undermining of democratic norms is not "speaking for our whole community."
I don’t usually do this kind of thing. I’m not a journalist.
My job is not to report the news, but to read the news and tell you how it makes me think and feel. But I just sourced something that wasn’t on the public record, and it felt important enough to share with my subscribers. What drove me to do it?
On April 20 got my attention on Substack with a post titled “Trump’s arrests of Israel critics sets the stage for a battle for the American Jewish soul,” citing a letter “Eric Fingerhut, the Jewish Federations of North America CEO, sent last week to Jewish federation CEOs across the country [that] lays down a line in the sand: Objecting to the Trump administration’s plans to deport students for holding anti-Israel views and to defund and penalize universities is outside the Jewish consensus.”
The following day the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on the private communication among community leaders, with added context:
“Publicly, JFNA has engaged more closely than some other mainstream Jewish groups with the Trump administration. The group recently hosted officials from the Department of Education for a ‘campus briefing’ to ‘share insights on protecting students and ensuring civil rights compliance.’ And following Trump’s reelection in November, the group’s vice president of government relations joked at a conference that Jews could soon buy property in the West Bank and Gaza, angering many attendees and prompting Fingerhut to reiterate a commitment to nonpartisanship.”
Kampeas and JTA senior reporter Andrew Lapin provide a valuable public service with such reporting, yet the full text of the Fingerhut email remained under lock and key. Until now.
For those who—like me—saw the reporting and hungered to read the full intra-communal memo, the Fingerhut email is printed below. This text is verified from two independent sources, which is something I believe actual journalists try to do. 🤷♂️ Read it and judge for yourself.
From: Desk of Eric D. Fingerhut
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Subject: Sign-on Letter Circulating
Dear Colleagues:
I hope you had wonderful Seders and are enjoying the holiday.
In case you missed it, I wanted to call your attention to a letter that your CRC was invited to sign-on regarding the very challenging issues facing our community and country in the field of immigration enforcement and fighting antisemitism on campus.
I wanted to make sure you know that the Jewish Federations of North America was not invited to participate in the drafting of this letter. While we know that the issues discussed in the letter are very much on the minds of many people in each of our communities, the goal of all our work in Federation life is to bring our communities together and to build bridges across our differences so we can work together for the entire Jewish people. A robust dialogue to develop a letter that truly reflects mainstream opinion would reference the diverse views we hold, which this letter does not. Similarly, the letter cannot be said to be speaking for our whole community when the timing of it, during these days of chol hamoed, finds so many enjoying well-earned time away with family and friends between the twin Shabbat and holy days of Pesach.
Our community has never sought to restrict free speech rights on campus or elsewhere, but we have and will continue to seek action by universities and government against those who incite against Jewish students. Whether the cases that are currently before the courts are examples of such incitement will be determined in due course. Similarly, we do not support the curtailment of due process rights. While the current immigration cases in the country cover many topics and jurisdictions about which we are not experts, the students who are alleged to have engaged in incitement are receiving due process and are represented by able legal counsel. Though it is always hard to wait on the full hearing of a case before commenting, that is the best practice.
In the meantime, our public affairs teams continue to work together on the government relations and community relations fronts at the federal, state, and local levels to protect the Jewish community. JFNA also has a robust lay leadership structure led by Jason Wuliger (Cleveland), Chair of Public Affairs, who works with Dennis Bernard (Detroit), who leads our Government Relations efforts, and Ann Pava (Hartford), who leads our Community Relations efforts.
Wishing you a wonderful chol hamoed and end of Pesach, and am joining you in praying for the release of the hostages and the safety of our soldiers and brothers and sisters around the world.
Eric D. Fingerhut
President and CEO, Jewish Federations of North America
jewishfederations.org
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Former President Trump made Orwellian waves last week at an Israeli American Council event ostensibly organized around fighting antisemitism, exemplifying the modern Republican tendency to inflame Jew hatred under the guise of protecting Jewish and Israeli interests.
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Thank you for sharing the full text. That’s very helpful.
unsurprising but also shocking…is that a thing? 🫨 🙏🏻 for writing, about this, and generally ✌🏻