Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) offered a message of hope that peace in the Middle East is “as close as we have ever been,” in remarks before more than 2,000 people from 60 countries gathered in Midtown Manhattan on Monday for the second day of the American Jewish Committee Global Forum. 

Torres, who was honored with the group’s inaugural Nita M. Lowey Congressional Leadership Award, said that the “future of the Middle East does not belong to the Islamic Republic and its empire of terror.”

“The future of the Middle East belongs to Israel and the Abraham Accords. The future of the Middle East does not belong to hate. The future belongs to hope: hatikva,” Torres continued. “In the grand sweep of history, in the millennia-long Maccabean marathon that is the story of the Jewish people, we are as close as we have ever been to realizing the Abrahamic dream of a world where all the children of Abraham — Jews, Christians and Muslims — can coexist in peace and prosperity. A durable peace is possible, and we as Americans, in the greatest country on earth, have the power — indeed the responsibility — to make it so and make peace.”

Torres also denounced “academics, activists, politicians [and] journalists” who “downplay or even deny the genocidal ideology at the core of” the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel.

“You are not part of the solution,” the congressman said, addressing those he condemned. “You are part of the problem.” 

AJC has presented the Congressional Leadership Award at its global forums annually since 2001 to members of Congress who have demonstrated a commitment to Israel or the Jewish people. Past recipients include Sens. Joseph Lieberman, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, John Danforth and Richard Lugar as well as Rep. John Lewis.

Earlier this year, the group renamed the award to honor Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), who represented Westchester County for more than three decades. Lowey, who died in March at 87, was “a true friend” to AJC, according to its CEO, Ted Deutch.  

Other sessions on Monday included “Exposing Bias: The Truth Behind Media Coverage of Israel,” in which former Jerusalem-based Associated Press correspondent Matti Friedman explained that it’s unlikely mainstream media’s anti-Israel bias will change. In a panel on “The Role of the Jewish Community in Responding to Antisemitism on Campus,” University of Michigan Regent Jordan Acker, whose home in a heavily Jewish suburb of Detroit was targeted by anti-Israel vandals several times last year, said that the Trump administration’s federal funding cuts to universities that have not complied with government demands to crackdown on antisemitism risks putting “Jews as the victims.”  

The Trump administration’s moves to cut billions in federal funding from colleges and universities and detain and deport foreign students have sparked fierce debate in the Jewish community in recent months, and opened fault lines among some who see the actions as necessary to fight antisemitism and others who argue that they’re an overreach.

The American Jewish Committee is trying to take a more nuanced approach, the organization’s CEO Ted Deutch told Jewish Insider in an interview at AJC’s Washington office this week ahead of the group’s annual Global Forum conference, which starts this weekend.

Deutch emphasized that AJC is a “fiercely nonpartisan organization,” which means it must sometimes “hold competing thoughts” so that it can “speak with clarity about what we believe is in the best interests of the Jewish community” and represent “the vast middle of the Jewish community.”

He called that approach not only proper, but necessary.

“There are campuses [where] so many of the challenges should have been addressed by universities, and weren’t. We’ve been clear that it’s really important that the administration, that the president, is making this a priority,” Deutch said. “At the same time, as we’ve said, due process matters and obviously our democratic principles matter as well, we have to be able to both express appreciation and, when necessary, express concern.”

He said that AJC does not and has never taken an all-or-nothing approach to any administration — being either fully supportive or fully opposed to all actions it takes — and that it is continuing to hold fast to that principle: “We are working with the administration and giving them credit where due and we are offering our thoughtful criticism also, when necessary.”

Deutch cited examples from both the Reagan and Obama administrations that he said demonstrated this principle.

“We’re not willing to give up on the idea that, in advocating for the Jewish community, we can continue to leave partisanship out of it, focus on the concerns and needs of the Jewish community and work with an administration as closely as we can to help them succeed in ways that are beneficial to the entirety of the Jewish community,” he said.

In both the revocation of federal funding from universities and the deportation of alleged anti-Israel agitators, Deutch said that due process must be “front and center.” 

On federal funding, Deutch noted that there are provisions in federal law that allow for the revocation of funding and said that the prior administration also expressed willingness to slash funding, but that such moves have not actually occurred for decades.

“It’s really important that the funding cuts be done in a way that will have the most impact in addressing the challenges of antisemitism and that other issues not be conflated,” he said. 

He added that funding cuts should be used as a tool to ensure that schools make necessary changes to protect Jewish students, such as changes to their protest and student conduct policies, and that funds should be cut in the context of negotiations with universities if they fail to take action.

“When the hammer is dropped before those conversations take place, then people go to their corners,” Deutch said. “What we are advocating for is for every university to do everything that it can to help keep Jewish students safe … It’s how we get them to do it, and making sure that when they make a commitment to act, that they follow through on it — from our perspective, that’s always the focus.”

He also warned that funding cuts motivated by antisemitism could have significant effects in other ways, and potentially take away from discussions about antisemitism.

“When the hammer [of funding cuts] is dropped in a way which winds up cutting life-saving cancer research, that’s when we have concern, which we’ve expressed,” Deutch said. 

“When you announce unilaterally that you’re cutting all of the funding, including funding that can help find cures and treatments for disease and funding that has contributed to the global preeminence of American universities in scientific research, then, unfortunately, that becomes the conversation, instead of the necessary conversation that the administration rightfully wants to have about the university’s need to adequately protect Jewish students and all students.”

Deutch also noted that some in the Jewish community are worried that cuts to life-saving research may ultimately produce backlash against the Jewish community.

“It is a concern that can absolutely be ameliorated. This is exactly how we are trying to address this,” Deutch said. “AJC is not jumping in and declaring that we’re on one side or another.”

On the deportations issue, Deutch said, “If [foreign students’] behavior is illegal and they have due process, then they should be deported. But it’s not either-or. All of this matters as we’re tackling these really serious challenges.” He emphasized the need to protect First Amendment free speech rights.

“It’s not, ‘the administration should be as committed as it is to fighting antisemitism’ or ‘should also be committed to ensuring due process and adherence to the Constitution,’” Deutch said. “Both of those things can and have to happen together, and that’s why we’ve been working so hard to make sure that they are.”

The administration has repeatedly made clear that it is not alleging criminal conduct in high-profile deportation cases, instead citing authorities allowing deportations of those deemed to be damaging to U.S. foreign policy interests.

Pressed on that subject, Deutch emphasized that “due process [and] constitutional protections matter here,” and that every individual should have a fair hearing in court.

At the same time, he said that the rhetoric used by some of those facing deportation has been “horrific” and that universities themselves should have stepped in, but did not, “which is why we’re now at this point where the administration has stepped in, rightfully so.”

Deutch and AJC have previously called for additional funding and resources for the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which the Trump administration has instead slashed. Deutch said that the Trump administration seems to be pursuing a strategy of “fewer cases” being investigated nationwide while “going after universities for bigger remedies.”

AJC is also closely watching the Trump administration’s nuclear talks with Iran. Both AJC and Deutch, who was a Democratic member of Congress at the time, opposed the original 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and Deutch voted against it in the House.

Deutch said that he doesn’t want to make assumptions about what a new Iran deal might entail based on the varying public comments from members of the administration, but said that “the world must agree” on a basic premise Trump has expressed, that “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

As the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran continue, Deutch said AJC wants to make sure that there is a proper understanding of the current status of Iran’s nuclear program, which Deutch described as geared toward producing a nuclear weapon.

He added that the nuclear talks cannot be divorced from Iran’s support for terrorist proxies that continue to threaten the Jewish community worldwide.

“We’ve all said 1,000 times, but it just feels like it always needs repeating, [and] I know the administration understands this: When a country says that their goal is the destruction of another country … we have to take them at their word in the way that we approach this,” Deutch said. “That’s the message that we’re giving to those who are working on this issue.”

Sounding an alarm about the Trump administration’s federal funding cuts to elite colleges over inaction against antisemitism, the American Jewish Committee warned in a statement on Tuesday that the cuts “pose a profound threat to the survival of America’s leading universities.”

“AJC has repeatedly insisted that universities must take action to counter and prevent antisemitism on their campuses. However, the broad, sweeping, and devastating cuts in federal funding that a growing number of American research universities have been subjected to in recent weeks, under the auspices of combating antisemitism, will damage America’s standing as a center of innovation and research excellence,” the group wrote. 

The statement acknowledged that funding cuts or freezes “are essential tools of last resort when addressing discrimination in federally funded programs.” It called for such action to be taken only when it is “plainly understood, publicly transparent, and specifically targeted to address the problem, and must not curtail the autonomy and academic freedom of higher education institutions that allow them to pursue their essential work.”

“Overly broad, arbitrary cuts pose a profound threat to the survival of America’s leading universities,” the AJC said. 

The group went on to suggest steps that could be taken before funds are pulled. These include: “establishing clearer guardrails for faculty to bring teaching and supervision into line with standards of academic freedom and away from partisan activism, and creating frameworks for constructive dialogue that enable faculty, administrators, and students to sustain healthy conversations on a range of challenging topics across their campuses.” 

Columbia University was the first Ivy League to have its funding slashed by the Trump administration, which halted $400 million in federal funding over campus antisemitism on March 7. Columbia has since entered into a series of negotiations with the White House in an effort to restore the funds. Several elite universities have since faced a similar fate. Last week, a White House official told Brown University’s student newspaper that $510 million of federal funding to the university would be halted over alleged antisemitism on campus and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.  

Earlier this month, another major Jewish organization, the Anti-Defamation League, distanced itself from a different aspect of the Trump administration’s crackdown on campus antisemitism — arrests and deportations of foreign students who have led anti-Israel demonstrations or appear to support foreign terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a March 27 press conference that 300 student visas had been revoked.

“While we do not know all the facts in these cases, we do know that, in every one of these cases, due process is essential,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wrote in eJewishPhilanthropy. “But it hasn’t been even remotely clear that this has been the standard … everyone is entitled to due process. Our democracy rests on [the] rule of law.”

“And so, as even more detentions are taking place, critical questions must be answered,” Greenblatt said. “For instance, are these actions targeting constitutionally-protected speech or addressing genuine violations of law, like supporting a foreign terrorist organization? We don’t know the answer because we have not seen detailed explanations of the charges.” 

In a letter sent to key members of the Senate and House Appropriations Committees on Friday, a coalition of 23 Jewish groups, spanning a range of political and denominational positions, urged Congress to “provide the highest possible funding” in 2025 for the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.

The widespread support for funding for the office, known as OCR, is notable given political divisions over the issue on Capitol Hill. Democrats critical of Republicans’ approach to combating antisemitism on campuses have emphasized calls for increased funding for the office. Some Republicans, meanwhile, have downplayed the need for additional funding for the office, often arguing that it has the resources it needs but must better prioritize antisemitism cases.

But calls for increased funding span the political spectrum. In the 2024 funding process, a bipartisan group of 51 lawmakers urged Congress to provide funding in excess of the administration’s budget request for OCR.

House Republicans sought to cut funding to OCR, the office responsible for investigating complaints of antisemitism on campuses, for 2024. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has said the office’s staff are severely overstretched, with each staffer working 50 cases in light of a post-Oct. 7 surge in complaints.

OCR received $140 million for 2024, the same funding it received in 2023, falling $37.6 million below the administration’s request. The administration requested $162 million for OCR for 2025.

“It is Congress’s responsibility to ensure that OCR has the resources it needs to conduct immediate and robust investigations into these complaints. OCR cannot protect the rights, safety and wellbeing of students if it does not have adequate resources to appropriately investigate and respond to its increased caseload,” the letter reads.

The signatories include the Anti-Defamation League, Alpha Epsilon Phi Sorority, Alpha Epsilon Pi, American Jewish Committee, B’nai B’rith International, Combat Antisemitism Movement, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Hadassah, Hillel International, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Jewish Federations of North America, Jewish Grad Organization, Jewish on Campus, Olami, National Council of Jewish Women, Rabbinical Assembly, Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity, Sigma Delta Tau, StandWithUs, Union for Reform Judaism, Orthodox Union, Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity and Zionist Organization of America.

They include liberal, nonpartisan and conservative-leaning Jewish groups, as well as groups representing the Reform, Conservative and Orthodox denominations.

The groups, the letter states, “reflect the depth and breadth of American Jewish life [and] are united in asking your urgent support to combat growing antisemitism on university campuses.”

The letter highlights data showing that cases of antisemitism on college campuses have “skyrocketed” since Oct. 7, and that OCR is facing “a surge in reported cases” alongside a reported 10% reduction in full-time staff.