27 US Jewish groups file support for detained anti-Israel Tufts student

Twenty-seven US Jewish groups back an anti-Israel student from Tufts University in Massachusetts who was detained by the government.

The student, Rumeysa Ozturk, was taken in by federal authorities last month as part of a broader crackdown on non-citizen activists by the Trump administration. The effort is being done in the name of antisemitism but has sparked concerns among Jewish groups.

Ozturk wrote an anti-Israel op-ed in her campus newspaper last year. Her detention was caught on video and caused alarm among many observers, including Jewish groups, due to concerns about legal protections, due process, and free speech.

The organizations backing Ozturk file an amicus brief in her legal case in federal court. An amicus brief is a legal document filed by outside parties to a case who have an interest in its proceedings, often to offer arguments to the court.

The groups include the progressive organizations J Street, Bend the Arc, Keshet, New Israel Fund, New York Jewish Agenda, T’ruah, and the Workers Circle. The New York synagogues B’nai Jeshurun and Beth Elohim and Congregation Dorshei Tzedek in Massachusetts also signed on.

“Arresting, detaining, and potentially deporting Ozturk does not assist in eradicating antisemitism. Nor was that the government’s apparent purpose,” the brief says. “The government instead appears to be exploiting Jewish Americans’ legitimate concerns about antisemitism as pretext for undermining core pillars of American democracy, the rule of law, and the fundamental rights of free speech and academic debate on which this nation was built.”