Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are set to call witnesses from a wide range of backgrounds for Wednesday’s hearing on antisemitism, two sources familiar with the witness list told Jewish Insider.

Republicans will be calling Adela Cojab, a former student activist and legal fellow at the National Jewish Advocacy Center; Alyza Lewin, the president of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law; and Asra Nomani, the editor of the Pearl Project.

Democrats will call Kevin Rachlin, the Washington director of the Nexus Leadership Project, and Meirav Solomon, a Jewish student at Tufts University and co-vice president of J Street U’s New England branch, as their witnesses.

Committee leaders did not respond to requests for comment.

Contentious topics at the hearing could include the use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, which some progressive critics say suppresses free speech, and the Trump administration’s recent moves to address campus antisemitism.

Cojab, an activist, author, podcaster and public speaker, sued New York University over campus antisemitism issues predating the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

Lewin, of the Brandeis Center, has a long career fighting antisemitism through the legal system.

Nomani is a former Wall Street Journal reporter who co-founded the Pearl Project, a nonprofit journalism initiative named for Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was murdered by Islamist militants in Pakistan. Some of her recent work has focused on the ties between Islamic extremists and U.S. activists and Hamas’ propaganda efforts. She also co-founded the Muslim Reform Movement and the Clarity Coalition, which oppose antisemitism.

Nomani told JI that she plans to “break the fourth wall to expose the anti-Semitic propagandists and professional protestors who will undoubtedly be sitting behind me in the audience” and “chronicle how they are part of a multi-million dollar network of ideologues from the far left to Islamists, who spread misinformation, manipulate narratives and incite hatred against Jews under the guise of ‘free speech’ and ‘academic freedom.’”

She said she will “pull back the curtain on these propaganda operations” by Hamas and its domestic supporters. “I plan to expose how these groups manipulate language, exploit emotional triggers and leverage media narratives to spread lies. I will confront, by name and fact, those who seek to distort reality, inflame division and avoid discussing the very real issue of anti-semitism.” 

Rachlin’s group, the Nexus Leadership Project, was founded last year to advocate on antisemitism policy. The group, linked to the Nexus Task Force’s definition of antisemitism, opposes the exclusive use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, citing free speech concerns regarding criticism of Israel.

Solomon, in a May 2024 op-ed, questioned prominent Republicans’ sincerity in their efforts to fight antisemitism, writing that they use their “vocabulary to demonize and censor legitimate pro-Palestinian voices and to advance their own political agendas.” She has said that schools have at times allowed antisemitic and Islamophobic speech to proliferate as well as overstepped into censorship of legitimate political speech.