Representing one of the most heavily Jewish congressional districts in America — California’s 30th, which encompasses Hollywood, Burbank and Glendale — freshman House Democrat Laura Friedman has made the issue of antisemitism a priority in her political life. 

As a legislator in the California Statehouse, she and her fellow Jewish caucus members had supported establishing an ethnic studies program, and later fought back against efforts to include antisemitic material in it, working with other identity caucuses in the state Legislature. And she authored a bill, which passed, requiring Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs to include education on antisemitism and the Jewish experience.

Now, as Friedman confronts the issue from Washington, as a member of the minority party, she is taking a nuanced view. Noting the gravity of the issue, she told Jewish Insider in an interview last week, “I don’t think we can take the threats of rising antisemitism too seriously.” But while saying that the seriousness of the antisemitism problem in the United States can’t be overstated, she also argued that some of the Trump administration’s high-profile moves responding to campus antisemitism, especially at Columbia University, are not the right approach.

Friedman, who is Jewish, told JI that the Trump administration’s move to revoke hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of grant funding from Columbia University in response to its failure to address campus antisemitism is “the absolute wrong approach.”

“It’s not going to make antisemitism any better on campuses,” Friedman said. “In fact, it’s going to make Jews responsible for the defunding of programs to deal with cancer research, with science, [which] has nothing to do with antisemitism. I don’t believe that this is a serious attempt to combat antisemitism. I think it’s a way to punish schools that this administration thinks ideologically are not in lockstep with MAGA.”

Friedman said that if there are specific programs at issue, those could and should be evaluated, “but don’t take away money from medical researchers. Don’t take money away from scholarships to students that might be going to Jewish students. … That is counterproductive and it’s not going to help.”

In the immediate aftermath of the arrest of former Columbia student and green card holder Mahmoud Khalil over his involvement in anti-Israel and alleged pro-Hamas activities on Columbia’s campus — before the details of his arrest became clear — Friedman said that he deserves due process and that the high legal standards for revoking his residency must be met, adding that she was concerned about the way the arrest was conducted.

She said that expressing sympathy or support for Palestinians in Gaza is not sufficient ground to merit deportation.

As a general matter, Friedman said that laws around immigration and green cards should be applied fairly and consistently, and that it would set a “dangerous precedent” to specifically target students involved in certain types of activities if others violating similar laws under circumstances unrelated to anti-Israel protests aren’t also facing deportation.

“We need to be consistent across the board. We can’t cherry-pick certain types of protest that we don’t like,” Friedman said. “And believe me: I’m not on the side of the protesters in many of these cases, but we need to make sure that we’re applying whatever law it is around deportations equally.”

She said that attention must also be focused on the ways that antisemitism has emerged from conspiracy theories and extremist rhetoric, particularly on the political right.

“We’re seeing this, I believe, from this administration. And I don’t even believe that the motions they make toward Israel — it doesn’t mean that there’s not antisemitism there as well,” Friedman said. “I just don’t see a good-faith effort to really combat antisemitism.”

To her, a good-faith effort “means to stop using the Jews as the scapegoats,” Friedman said, to stop indulging conspiracy theories, to not platform or bring into the administration individuals who express antisemitic views and to publicly condemn antisemitic conspiracy theories.

“If you’re not outwardly saying that this is antisemitic and it’s wrong and it’s a conspiracy theory that has no basis in fact, then you’re tacitly encouraging it,” Friedman said, addressing the hiring of antisemitic commentator Kinglsey Wilson at the Pentagon and the platforming of Holocaust deniers and other antisemites in right-wing media spaces like the Joe Rogan podcast.

Asked about specific policy approaches for the federal government, Friedman highlighted the DEI legislation she passed in California requiring such programs to include education on antisemitism and the Jewish experience, which she said would make academics better aware of the issues and of what antisemitism is.

She also highlighted legislation that passed in California requiring students entering universities to sign a code of conduct affirming that they are aware of their schools’ rules and the punishments for violating them, so that they cannot later plead ignorance if they break them.

Friedman additionally emphasized the importance of educating people about the Holocaust, the founding of Israel and antisemitic tropes, so that they can identify when criticism of Israel crosses the line into antisemitism and understand the history of Jewish connections to Israel.

Looking toward the Middle East, before Israel had resumed military operations in Gaza, Friedman said that freeing as many hostages as possible must be the “paramount consideration” for Israel and the United States.

In the longer term, she said the U.S. and Israel should work with Arab partners to help stabilize Gaza and the region as a whole.

“I’m not an expert. I don’t live in Israel. I don’t want to be the American to tell Israel what to do and how to keep itself safe, but Israel has to think about its long-term stability and having normalized relationships with as many countries as possible, as it seemed like was happening,” Friedman said. 

She noted that Hamas was likely seeking to foil those peace efforts through its Oct. 7 attacks, and that further normalization and stabilization must be a central goal going forward “so that Israel doesn’t have this kind of situation happen over and over again.”

Friedman said that Hamas must be removed from power in Gaza and that a “regional solution” is likely going to be necessary to accomplish that goal and achieve further peace. “I don’t know that Israel can do this alone as much as I’d like for them to be able to.”

The path to peace, Friedman continued, will likely need to go beyond just a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, and will now require a “regional solution” where Israel commits to allowing self-governance for the Palestinians, and the Palestinians and other countries in the region also agree to support and guarantee Israeli security.

She added that she wants to avoid war with Iran, but “we need to keep Iran from having nuclear weapons,” calling it unquestionably “the most destabilizing and the most threatening outcome for the whole region, not just for Israel.”

The emergence of a new regime in Syria and the U.S.’ efforts to influence that government, Friedman argued, highlight why the Trump administration was wrong to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development. 

She said that USAID and other diplomatic tools provide the U.S. with powerful ways to incentivize other governments to have positive relationships with the U.S. and ensure outcomes friendly to it and its allies, like Israel.

Friedman emphasized that she’s been deeply involved in Jewish advocacy issues since the beginning of her political career, having been one of the first candidates endorsed by the then-nascent California Legislative Jewish Caucus. She said that, in office, she came to work closely with Jewish groups in California.

One particular issue of focus for her in California was the state’s controversial ethnic studies curriculum. She said the Jewish caucus had advocated for establishing an ethnic studies program, and later fought back against efforts to include antisemitic material in it, working with other identity caucuses in the state Legislature.

Friedman is now a member of the newly formed Congressional Jewish Caucus. From her experience in California, she said she envisions the group can be helping to provide a resource and advocacy for Jewish communities around the country that do not feel that they have a representative who is looking out for their needs or standing up against antisemitism.

She said that the group can also play an important role by being “very clear when things are being done by this administration in our name that don’t align with our values.” 

And she said the Jewish caucus can build relationships with other identity based caucuses to support shared issues as well as educate other groups about Jewish issues and values, so that they can call upon them to help fight antisemitism — such as when the Jewish Caucus in California enlisted the support of other ethnic caucuses to combat problematic material in the ethnic studies program.