“This is Our Fight.” Concerned Jewish Faculty and Staff Vows to Fight Trump Plan to Resegregate Higher Education
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 9, 2026
Contact: Concerned Jewish Faculty and Staff: concernedjfaculty@gmail.com
BOSTON, MA — Concerned Jewish Faculty and Staff (CJFS) joins pro-democracy organizations across the United States pledging to fight Trump’s latest attempt to re-segregate higher education. Since January 2025, we have witnessed federal officials routinely levy false allegations of antisemitism to undermine fundamental commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion. Those commitments are integral to higher education and vital to a democratic society oriented toward the common good.
On September 3, the Treasury Department announced a plan to strip the tax-exempt status of universities that take affirmative steps to cultivate diverse, equitable and inclusive campuses. The announcement traffics in all-too-familiar racist tropes designed to recast even modest inclusionary efforts as the real threat to civil rights.
As noted by Rachel Rosenbloom, Northeastern University Professor of Law: “This is an outrageous attempt to weaponize the IRS and to dismantle decades of efforts to promote access to higher education. We must forcefully resist the Trump Administration’s attacks on universities and on American democracy.”
Jonathan Feingold, a nationally recognized scholar on affirmative action, clarified what is really at stake. “Trump and allies like the Heritage Foundation view every gain of the Civil Rights Movement as a problem to solve, not progress to preserve. It is no surprise that they want the IRS to punish institutions that remain committed to integration. For everyone committed to a functioning multiracial democracy, this is our fight.”
Ariela Gross, Distinguished Professor of Law and History at UCLA School of Law highlights how the Trump administration is wielding civil rights laws to undermine civil rights: “The Trump Administration has already abandoned the Justice Department’s civil rights cases on behalf of workers and students who were suffering real discrimination on the basis of race, gender, disability, and more, and is now pretending that universities’ efforts to preserve higher education access for the 99%, in careful compliance with the Supreme Court’s recent cases, are actually violations of civil rights laws. It is in fact the Trump Administration that has abandoned civil rights law, and its effort to weaponize the IRS against universities is just one more step in that campaign to destroy both civil rights and higher education.”
David Oppenheimer, UC Berkeley Clinical Professor and author of The Diversity Principle: The Story of a Transformative Idea, outlines why the assault on diversity is an assault on higher education: “The United States built a system of higher education that was the envy of the world. Students and scholars from every continent wanted to study, teach, and conduct research in our universities. At the foundation of our success was our diversity. Striving for inclusion for all was our secret sauce; it was a big part of what made us the best. And now an American president wants to destroy one of America's great treasures."
In March 2025, over 3,400 Jewish academics said “Not in Our Name.” In that spirit, today CJFS joins the Emergency Campaign to Support Higher Education and partners around the country pledging to hold the line and fight this assault on the fabric of multiracial democracy.
We heed the words of dozens of legal scholars who called out Trump’s assault on diversity, equity and inclusion last year. “It is increasingly clear,” the scholars wrote, “that the Trump administration intends to dismantle our civil rights infrastructures and erode the autonomy and independence of institutions of higher education. We urge university leaders to respond confidently, with both law and moral principle on your side, and not to sacrifice essential and legally defensible DEI initiatives that help universities fulfill their most basic mission to pursue truth and knowledge for the common good.”
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Concerned Jewish Faculty and Staff is a membership organization of Jewish faculty and staff from colleges and universities throughout New England. We represent a range of backgrounds and hold diverse views, but we are united in opposing the invocation of Jews and Jewishness — and misguided or cynical claims of antisemitism — to penalize Palestine solidarity activism, to stifle academic freedom, or to otherwise attack inclusionary commitments.
CJFS is a member of the National Campus Jewish Alliance (NCJA), a national network of diverse groups of Jewish higher education workers united by our commitments to critical inquiry, freedom of expression, and multiracial democracy on our campuses and beyond. NCJA is a fiscally sponsored project of JFREJ Community, Inc.