We are Jewish Cornell students, faculty and alumni. While we may hold differing views about Israel and Palestine, we vehemently reject the Trump administration’s allegation that Momodou Taal has ever created a “hostile environment” for Jewish students on campus. In revoking Taal’s student visa, surveilling his home and threatening his right to due process, the administration is once again enacting unconstitutional, anti-immigrant policies on the false pretense of protecting Jewish people, specifically Jewish Cornellians.
Taal’s statements expressing his deeply held personal political opinions are well within the confines of his First Amendment rights. While some members of the Cornell community may disagree with or feel challenged by his political views, to posit them as creating a “hostile environment” dangerously conflates feeling uncomfortable and being unsafe. The goals of a university education are to expose students to a range of diverse perspectives, to push boundaries and to encourage critical thinking. The desire to silence Taal’s speech through repressive state means is antithetical to this mission and should be seen as a chilling foreshadowing of what is to come if we fail to fight back against these blatant attacks on our rights and freedoms.
We recognize that such accusations of antisemitism are being used as fronts for xenophobia, and Jewish students are being used as pawns for the advancement of authoritarianism. The Trump administration is no ally to Jewish students. Rather, these attacks on Taal thinly veil a broader effort to silence dissent, undermine university autonomy, consolidate authoritarian power and uphold white Christian nationalism. We echo the over 2,800 concerned Jewish professors, staff members and students from universities across the United States who recently signed a letter denouncing the detainment of Mahmoud Kahlil and any attempt to harass, expel, arrest or deport members of our campus communities.
These days, we often hear Martin Niemöller’s adage “First they came for…” that describes the complicity of everyday people during the Nazi regime. When the Trump administration threatens any member of our community, we must stand up to them with the knowledge that further repression and violence will follow if we do not act and speak out now.
The full updated list of signatories found here.
Signed,
Alex van Biema, Ph.D. candidate in Africana Studies
Tamara Walsky, Ph.D candidate in Food Science
Eliza Salamon ’24, Information Science
Jacob Berman ’26, Anthropology
Dan Hirschman, Associate Professor of Sociology
Lea Esipov ’27, Plant Science
Anonymous ’24, Material Science and Engineering
Deborah Dinner, Dorothea S. Clarke Professor of Law, Law School
O.S. ’24, Architecture, Art and Planning
Neil Hertz, Professor Emeritus of Literatures in English
Sivan Gordon-Buxbaum ’24, Plant Science
Hannah Shvets ’27, ILR
Elliot Scheuer ’27, Environmental Engineering
Jean Kintisch ’92
Naomi Murray, PhD candidate in Entomology
Emma Teitelman, Assistant Professor of Global Labor and Work
Sydney Rosen ’24, Biological Sciences
Sam Poole ’28, Government and History
E.W. ’27, Agriculture and Life Science
Sarah Stephenson, Undergraduate Student, Classics and English
J.S., Brooks School of Public Policy
Noah Tamarkin, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Science & Technology Studies
Gabe Udell, PhD candidate in Mathematics
Cathy Caruth, Class of 1916 Professor of English, English and Comparative Literature
Hannah Devine-Rader ’25, Communications
Daniel Segal ’80, Anthropology
Anna Shechtman, Assistant Professor of Literatures in English
Erica Mildner ’15, Industrial Labor Relations
Risa Lieberwitz, Professor of Labor and Employment Law, ILR
Carol Chock ’72, MRP ’85, Retired staff of 23 years
Alex Eagan ’24, Mechanical Engineering
Eli Friedman, Professor of Global Labor and Work
Zahavah Rojer, PhD candidate in Microbiology
E.B. ’26, Environment and Sustainability
Joseph Margulies, Professor of Government
Anonymous ’22, CALS
Anna Barth, PhD candidate in Physics
E.C., Associate Professor of Literatures in English
Robyn Burger, ’25, Computer Science and Math
Rachel Goldberg, Clinical Professor of Law, Law School
Savanna Rostad ’26, ILR
Chloe Ahmann, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Noah Diamond ’25, ILR
Alice Roberts ’25, Comparative Literature
G.V., PhD candidate in Biological and Environmental Engineering
Jeff Melnick ’86, American Studies
Michael Margolin, Former employee and Ithaca community member
Jayne Port ’78, Anthropology
Anne Deane Berman, Parent
Max Tepermeister, PhD candidate in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
O.F., Undergraduate Student, Environment & Sustainability
Samuel Lupowitz, Media Manager, Language Resource Center
Lara Estroff, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Sara Pagliuco ’26, College of Engineering
Barbara Eden, Retiree, University Library
E.B. ’69, Math
Mallory Bernstein ’25, ILR
Jaiden Fisher-Dayn, Undergraduate Student, Brooks School of Public Policy
Anonymous ’26, Cognitive Science
D.K. ’25, Physics
Hope Rainbow ’11, History of Art
R.K. ’24
M.G. ’12, College Scholar Program, A&S
J.F., Student, Brooks School of Public Policy
Joseph Brandwen ’27, ILR
R.M., Undergraduate Student, ILR
Adrián Cardona Young ’26, Biological and Environmental Engineering
Anonymous ’25, Economics
A.A. ’27, ILR
Samuel Bischof ’22, CALS
Griffin Berlstein, PhD Candidate in Computer Science
Sylvie Froncek, Director of Cornell Team and Leadership Center, Cornell Outdoor Education
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