Over 100 members of Georgetown University’s Jewish community signed a public statement condemning the weaponization of Jewish identity and fears of antisemitism to deport visa holders from the United States.
As of April 9, 46 faculty members added their names to the statement, which calls on Georgetown and its Jewish community to speak out against anti-immigrant rhetoric and advocate for free speech protections. The statement highlights federal immigration agents’ March 17 detention of Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral researcher at Georgetown, to display the impact of deportations on academic freedom.
Daniel Silbert (COL ’18), the former president of the Georgetown Israel Alliance (GIA), said he signed the letter because of his commitment to American values of democracy and freedom of speech.
“I think the letter makes clear this is not about Israel,” Silbert told The Hoya. “This is about America and what kind of country we want to live in.”
“When armed men, not in uniform, show up outside your home in the middle of the night, tear you away from your family, whisk you away to some remote detention center without charges because of what you said, a viewpoint you expressed and who you are, frankly, you are not in a democracy,” he added.
Lois Wessel (GRD ’96), a nursing and family medicine professor who signed the statement, said attempting to deport U.S. visa holders like Khan Suri does not address accusations of antisemitism.
“We don’t want the use of antisemitism or the excuse of antisemitism to be what is being used to validate the attempted deportation and disappearance of people like Dr. Suri, who was one of ours at Georgetown,” Wessel told The Hoya.
Wessel, whose grandfather was suddenly detained by the Nazis in Germany, said her personal background and professional experiences in family medical care inform her perspective on deportation efforts in the United States.
“I keep coming back to Dr. Suri’s three small children,” Wessel said. “I come back to that, because my mother grew up as a Jew in Nazi Germany, and one day, the Nazis came and took her father away.”
Judy Feder, a professor of public policy and former McCourt School of Public Policy dean, said her Jewish heritage inspired her to sign onto the statement.
“My own interpretation of Jewish values is to stand up for myself and others when I see wrong and to resist wrongdoing, ideally as part of a community,” Feder told The Hoya. “I think that’s what this letter represents.”
The public statement referenced values of Jewish courage found in the ancient story of Esther, a Jewish queen who revealed her identity to prevent her people’s genocide. In October 2024, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, published Project Esther, a plan to combat antisemitism through targeting academics for allegedly supporting Hamas.
Feder said such efforts undermine genuine attempts to combat antisemitism and center the Jewish community in a movement that does not reflect its values.
“What I see as weaponization is the hypocritical claim that depriving others of their rights in the name of fighting antisemitism is a positive thing to do,” Feder said. “It really is putting antisemitism and Jews front and center in a movement that reflects hate, not humanity, and that is not good for Jews.”
Wessel said she signed the letter to make it clear that members of Georgetown’s Jewish community oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza and the Trump administration’s deportation efforts.
“I worked on writing it and signing it because I think it’s really important for people to know that there is a large contingent of Jews at Georgetown and beyond Georgetown who are both opposed to the way Israel has treated the Palestinians and also opposed to these deportations and visas being revoked, supposedly in the name of protecting Jews,” Wessel told The Hoya.
In the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, the Israel Defense Forces invasion of the Gaza Strip has displaced over 90% of Palestinians living there as its troops have killed upwards of 50,000 Palestinians.
Silbert, who has practiced immigration law pro bono, said he feels subverting democratic institutions to silence free speech will not effectively combat antisemitism in the United States.
“If history has taught us anything, where the rule of law and democracy collapses, the world doesn’t become a safer place for the Jewish people,” Silbert said.
“They’re trying to stifle academic freedom, trample free speech and create fear among targeted ideologies,” he added. “I don’t know these professors, these students. I might not believe in their ideas or what they’re doing, but I do believe in democracy, and this just isn’t.”