- Sofia Wallace | Staff
- Mar 13, 2025 (DailyCal.org)
More than 100 Jewish UC Berkeley faculty and staff members signed a statement denouncing deportations of student protesters, called for by the Trump administration as a tactic to “combat anti-semitism” on university campuses.
The statement, released to The Daily Californian on March 8, was organized and primarily drafted by Ethan Katz, associate professor of history and faculty director for the center for Jewish Studies, where he co-founded the Antisemitism Education Initiative. Signers participated to express concern for the erosion of free speech rights and democratic norms, hoping to send a message of solidarity to individuals fearing deportation based on political views.
“(We) are deeply troubled to hear calls for the deportation of foreign-born university students, staff, and faculty who are deemed, without any clear criteria, supporters of terrorism or terrorist organizations,” the statement reads. “We are equally troubled by calls for members of our university community to assist in compiling lists of those to be targeted for deportation.”
The statement comes as the federal government has opened multiple investigations into UC Berkeley for alleged antisemitism in its handling of pro-Palestine expression on campus. Other universities have faced similar scrutiny: Earlier this week, federal immigration authorities detained a green card-holding activist at Columbia University.
Citing Jewish values that contradict deportations, the statement argues that the current Trump administration is operating in ways reminiscent of historical moments of authoritarianism.
“Political speech, even when it’s speech that we strongly disagree with, doesn’t in itself constitute a rationale for deportation,” Katz said. “It should not sunder the fundamental ties that we have to each other as members of a community and our obligations therefore to protect each other and care for each other in the most basic sense.”
Katz said the top seven names on the statement directly contributed to its language and helped draft it. These include Dean of UC Berkeley Law Erwin Chemerinsky and Director of the Lawrence Hall of Science Rena Dorph.
One signer, professor in the departments of Spanish and Portuguese Estelle Tarica, said she signed on because the current administration is using antisemitism to justify repressive policing on university campuses, citing Executive Order 14188: “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism.”
Katz emphasized that the statement had been in the process of drafting for weeks, and is not a reaction to any particular incident.
“Deporting members of our university community for their political views will not build a campus free from bigotry — it will create a campus where more of us are vulnerable to federal government surveillance and persecution,” Tarica said in an email.
Katz noted that one of the statement’s main concerns with the executive action is that it makes sweeping generalizations about “virtually anyone who participated in a protest last year.” He referenced language in a White House fact sheet, such as “pro-Hamas alien,” explaining how student protesters are generalized regardless of their beliefs and subjected to unjust punishment.
He also explained that the signatory contains a diversity of political views, highlighting the statement’s call to protect basic First Amendment rights.
“A lot of us disagree about major facets of the conflict in Israel and Palestine, but I think that everybody felt that this issue was simply fundamental,” Katz said. “These are basic values and freedoms.”
Though Katz said he does not claim to represent all Jewish staff, he mentioned that it was an explicit choice to speak out as members of the Jewish community. Goals of the statement branch off of this: to show solidarity and that Jewish values do not align with measures taken to deport students in the name of “combating antisemitism.”
Katz explained Jewish people have a “sense of what it means to be foreigners” and therefore have an obligation to adhere to the Jewish value of being kind to strangers.
Professor of economics, business and public policy Steve Tadelis was one of the initial signatories and drafters of the statement. He echoed the Jewish faculty’s rejection of deportation on the basis of political views, opposing the “compiling of lists” that has been used throughout history to target vulnerable individuals.
“I hope it conveys that as Jews, we take seriously the lessons of our own history, where targeting individuals, compiling lists and suppressing dissent have led to grave consequences,” Tadelis said in an email.
