We, scholars and educators of Religion, Religious Studies, and adjacent fields, write to express our support and solidarity with students, faculty, and staff peacefully protesting the Israeli government’s seven-month war on Gaza, which has resulted in the death of at least 34,568 Palestinians (including over 13,800 children), over 72,889 injuries, and the mass displacement of over 1.7 million individuals. More than 10,000 people are believed to be missing as a result of Israel’s assault, and the entire population of Gaza faces acute food insecurity, with 1.1 million Gazans estimated to be suffering from “catastrophic” food insecurity. The United Nations and various NGOs clearly state that the humanitarian crisis resulting from Israel’s “complete siege” and devastating offensive in Gaza is catastrophic, and includes domicide, ecocide, scholasticide, and the systematic destruction of medical infrastructure. According to U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, “there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide…has been met.” Campus protests are a legal and precedented means to hold universities accountable for their investment choices; our students call on their administrators to divest from Israeli-connected holdings as an act of conscience, and challenge them to live up to the social, political, and moral values that their institutions claim to represent. 

We also write to oppose the bill referred to as the “Antisemitism Awareness Act,” passed by the United States House of Representatives on May 1, 2024. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) already “prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance.”  Furthermore, the Antisemitism Awareness Act relies on a controversial definition of antisemitism put forth by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) that considers criticism of the state of Israel antisemitic. We, in line with organizations like the AAUP, ABA, ACLU, and MESA, denounce the claim that political criticism of the modern nation-state of Israel constitutes antisemitism, and contend that the objective of such legislation is the suppression and delegitimization of pro-Palestine sentiment, speech, and activism on university campuses. The Antisemitism Awareness Act infringes on rights protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, violates academic freedom, and punishes support for Palestine through the weaponization of antisemitism.

Moreover, it is our view that the Antisemitism Awareness Act is in and of itself antisemitic in its refusal to acknowledge the existence of anti-Zionist and non-Zionist Jews. To equate criticism of the modern nation-state of Israel with antisemitism is not only intellectually dishonest, but also completely erases the existence of anti-Zionist and non-Zionist Jews; national organizations like Jewish Voices for Peace and IfNotNow, as major but not singular examples and demonstrates that for some Jewish individuals and communities, critique of Israel is indeed rooted in their Jewish identities. Some Jewish students organized Passover seders at their university encampments, connecting ancient and sacred Jewish narratives about the deliverance of the ancient Israelites from slavery in Egypt, to the contemporary cause of Palestinian liberation. In the words of Yale student, Miriam Levine, “we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, not in spite of our Judaism, but because of it…we proclaim that our liberation is intertwined.” As scholars of Religion and Religious Studies, we acknowledge and emphasize the internal diversity of all religious communities, past and present. To conflate all of Judaism with the modern nation-state of Israel is to ignore the diversity, complexity, and richness of the Jewish tradition. Ultimately, the proposal of the Antisemitism Awareness Act violates the First Amendment of the Constitution, as it renders the U.S. government the arbiter of what constitutes “authentic,” “legitimate,” or “real” Jewishness by centering support of the modern nation-state of Israel as an essential and core tenet of Judaism.  

The academic discipline of Religious Studies rests on the assumption that religion, as an aspect of human culture and society, is messy and complicated; it is not and never has been a monolith. People have acted in the name of religion to promote both oppression and liberation, violence and peace, fascism and revolution. As scholars of religion, we often see people who commit violence in the name of their faith claim to speak on behalf of all members of that tradition, and seek to delegitimize or marginalize their co-religionists who do not share their views. We implore those in positions of power, particularly our elected officials, to acknowledge this complexity, and to refrain from enacting legislation that is reductive, dangerous, and unconstitutional. 

Furthermore, we would like to express our immense pride in our students, as well as the faculty and staff involved in the pro-Palestine and anti-genocide protests and encampments nationwide. They inspire us with their radical empathy and ability to connect injustices throughout the world; their bravery in the face of brutal and repressive responses enacted by their university administrators (in partnership with law enforcement); and their belief that a more just world is not only possible, but necessary. 

In closing, we, along with the majority of American voters, call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. We also call on our public officials and institutional administrators to speak in a more nuanced and responsible way about the subject of religion, consulting with scholars and experts in Religion and Religious Studies to avoid exacerbating domestic and global conflicts.

Finally, we call on professional guilds devoted to the academic study of religion and organizations which promote the public understanding of religion to:

   (1) Take on a leadership role in the current national conversation around antisemitism and Jewish diversity, in particular the  American Academy of Religion (AAR), as the largest and most prominent of these scholarly organizations,

   (2) Denounce the “Antisemitism Awareness Act,” as antisemitic, misleading, dangerous, and unconstitutional,

   (3) Acknowledge the importance of inter- and intra-religious diversity, especially, in this instance, Judaism; antisemitism thrives when few are aware of the rich and diverse history of Judaism and Jews. It is the distinctive responsibility of our guilds and professional organizations and their members to educate the public about religion, especially when public discourse is incorrect, biased, or misleading,

  (4) Condemn scholasticide and cultural genocide in Gaza; after months of warfare, there are zero universities left in Gaza. Additionally, Israel’s constant bombardment of Gaza has destroyed countless multi-religious, cultural and historical sites, including the 5th century Church of Saint Porphyrius and the 7th century Omari Mosque.

TO ADD YOUR SIGNATURE*, FILL OUT FORM BELOW [signatures will be updated periodically]

*Institutional affiliation listed for identification purposes only. Views expressed in this statement should not be attributed to any listed institution.

Signed,

• Shreena Niketa Gandhi, Michigan State University
• Megan Goodwin, The Crossroads Project
• Juliane Hammer, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Sajida Jalalzai, Trinity University
• Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst, University of Vermont
• Dheepa Sundaram, University of Denver
• Isaac Horwedel, Luther Seminary
• Laura McTighe, Florida State University
• Shana Sippy, Centre College
• John Brooks, Marianapolis Preparatory School & the Pod Only Knows podcast 
• Ananya Chakravarti, Georgetown University
• Kayla Renée Wheeler, Xavier University
• Shabana Mir, American Islamic College
• Rick Axtell, Centre College
• Tiffany Puett, Institute for Diversity and Civic Life
• Anand Venkatkrishnan, University of Chicago
• Michael Muhammad Knight, University of Central Florida
• Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Northwestern University
• Natalie Avalos, University of Colorado, Boulder
• Eden Consenstein, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Emmy Corey, Hendrix College
• Jeremy Menchik, Boston University 
• Atalia Omer, The University of Notre Dame
• Edward Curtis, Indiana University, Indianapolis
• W. Anne Joh, Garrett Theological Seminary
• Sheila Otieno, Elon University
• Marion Katz, New York University
• Jason Springs, The University of Notre Dame
• Prea Persaud Khanna, Swarthmore and Haverford Colleges
• Greg Johnson, University of California Santa Barbara
• Amy Allocco, Elon University
• Jennifer Ortegren, Middlebury College
• Diane L. Moore, Harvard Divinity School
• Shehnaz Haqqani, Mercer University
• Gwendolyn Simmons, University of Florida
• Mahan Mirza, The University of Notre Dame
• Ousmane Kane, Harvard University
• Nora Rubel, University of Rochester
• Tamir Moustafa, Simon Fraser University
• Vicki L. Brennan, University of Vermont
• Ebrahim Moosa, The University of Notre Dame
• Diana Eck, Harvard University
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• Amy Hollywood, Harvard Divinity School
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• Josh Shahryar, California State University at Sacramento
• Ashon Crawley, University of Virginia
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• Matthew J. Cressler, Independent Scholar
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• Daniel Boyarin, University of California, Berkeley (emeritus)
• Jennifer Hart, Curry College
• Hatem Bazian, University of California, Berkeley
• Peng Yin, Boston University
• Lynn Huber, Elon University
• Boyung Lee, Iliff School of Theology
• Justin Stearns, New York University, Abu Dhabi
• Francesca Chubb-Confer, Whitman College
• Jude Lal Fernando, Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College
• Sohaib Khan, Occidental College
• Anna Bigelow, Stanford University
• Jocelyn Hendrickson, University of Alberta
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• Hyemin Na, Wesley Theological Seminary
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• Alexiana Fry, University of Copenhagen
  
• Nelson Maldonado-Torres, University of Connecticut 
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• Dean Accardi, Connecticut College
• Hussein Rashid, Harvard Divinity School
• Christine J. Hong, Columbia Theological Seminary 
• Frances Garrett, University of Toronto 
• Sailaja Krishnamurti, Queen's University
• Judith Weisenfeld, Princeton University
• Gary Wallin, University of Texas, Austin
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• Jorge Juan Rodríguez V, Union Theological Seminary 
• Ali Altaf Mian, University of Florida
• Tomoe Moriya, Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture
• Kelly J. Baker, Independent Scholar
• Jonathan Peterson, Columbia University
• Jae Hee Han, Brown University
• Matthew Pierce, Centre College
• John Modern, Franklin & Marshall College
• Stephen Angell, Earlham School of Religion
• Jeannie Sellick, Bowdoin College
  
• Francis Stewart, University of Stirling
  
• Roni Gechtman, Mount Saint Vincent University
  
• Daniel C. Smith, Whitman College
• Patrick Burrows, Berea College
• Alexander Ryan Harrison, Bard College
• Lailatul Fitriyah, Claremont School of Theology
• Mohd Faizal Musa, Institute of the Malay World and Civilisation
• Cemil Aydin, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Yii-Jan Lin, Yale Divinity School
• Alexandra Zirkle, University at Buffalo, SUNY
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• Stephanie Shady, Washington University, St.Louis
• Matthew Gruchow, Iliff School of Theology/University of Denver
• Jin Young Choi, Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School
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• Lora Laird, University of Sufism
• Hanna Reichel, Princeton Theological Seminary
• Noah Salomon, University of Virginia
• K. Christine Pae, Denison University
  
• Alexander Thurston, University of Cincinnati
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• Iva Patel, Augsburg University
• Anupama Ranawana, University of St Andrews 
• salima maxine adelstein, University of Sufism
• Mark Lewis Taylor, Princeton Theological Seminary
• Raimundo C Barreto, Princeton Theological Seminary 
  
• Susanna Drake, Macalester College
• Mohammad Fadel, University of Toronto Faculty of Law
• Jeremy Paul Myers, Augsburg University 
• Meghan Hartman, Barnard College 
• Matthew J. Smith, Alma College
  
• Nermeen Mouftah, University of Illinois Chicago
• Tara Baldrick-Morrone, Brown University
• William Sherman, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
• Michelle C. Sanchez, Harvard Divinity School
• Santhosh Chandrashekar, University of Denver
• Rita Nakashima Brock, Independent Scholar/Nonprofit Administrator
• Gregory Given, Harvard University
• Lauren Osborne, Whitman College
• Najwa Mayer, Boston University
• Rebecca Ruth Gould, SOAS University of London
• David Delgado Shorter, UCLA
• Candace Lukasik, Mississippi State University
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• Erich Fox Tree, Wilfrid Laurier University
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• Chrissel Way, Bath Spa University/Harris Manchester Oxford 
• Moriah Reichert, Indiana University
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• Melissa M. Wilcox, University of California, Riverside
• David G. Robertson, The Open University
• Alireza Doostdar, The University of Chicago 
• Jacob W. Torbeck, Briar Cliff University
  
• Pasha M. Khan, McGill University
• Liane Feldman, Princeton University
• Shannon Trosper Schorey, Independent Scholar
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• Dr. Kimberly Young, University of Sufism
• Daniel Picus, Western Washington University
• David Kyuman Kim, University of California, Berkeley
• Jason Bartashius, Independent Researcher 
• Joel Bordeaux, Utrecht University
• Jennifer Wright Knust, Duke University 
• Liana Saif, University of Amsterdam
• Ruth Mas, Independent Scholar
• Juli L Gittinger, Georgia College
• George Gonzalez, City University of New York
  
• Kwok Pui Lan, Emory University
  
• Harshita Mruthinti Kamath, Emory University
• Shenila Khoja-Moolji, Georgetown University
• Kris Trujillo, University of Chicago
• Vernon James Schubel, Kenyon College
  
• Jeff Liss, City College of San Francisco
• Tara Nancy Doyle, Candler School of Theology, Emory University
• L. Edward Phillips, Emory University
• Daniella Hobbs, Emory University
  
• Roshan Iqbal, Agnes Scott College
• Jill Peterfeso, Guilford College
  
• Mark Justad, Guilford College
  
• Kimberly Wortmann, Wake Forest University
  
• Tanisha Ramachandran, Wake Forest University
  
• Leslie Martinez, Union Theological Seminary
  
• Junaid Quadri, University of Illinois Chicago
• C. Wess Daniels, Guilford College
• Todd Boerger, University of Sufism
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• Sam Houston, Stetson University
• Nancy Khalil, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• Samuel Ernest, Yale University
• Haruko Nawata Ward, Columbia Theological Seminary
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• Jessica Davenport, Colgate University
• Chloe Blackshear, Colgate University 
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• Elyssa Salinas-Lazarski, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary 
• KC Curry. Saint Paul School of Theology
• Jacob Harrell. Princeton Theological Seminary
• Cody J. Sanders. Luther Seminary 
• Harvey Stark, California State University, Sacramento
• abby mohaupt, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
• Morgan Burge, Columbia Theological Seminary 
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• Sylvia Chan-Malik, Rutgers-New Brunswick
• A K M Adam, University of Oxford
• SN Yeager, University of Michigan
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• Alejandro Escalante, University of Edinburgh
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• Jessica Patterson, University of Denver
• Eric Thurman, University of the South 
• Emily Gathergood, University of Nottingham, UK
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• AJ Juraska, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
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• Ata Anzali, Middlebury College 
• Daniel Andrew Birchok, University of Michigan-Flint
• Amany Shalaby, University of Sufism
• Marcus Mescher, Xavier University
• Ryan Newson, Campbell University
• Jennifer Garcia Bashaw, Campbell University
• Sho McClarence, University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology 
• Julian Nojaim Zumbach, Stanford University 
• Crystal Silva McCormick, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
• Oscar García-Johnson, Fuller Theological Seminary
• Aurangzeb Haneef, Lahore University of Management Sciences 
  
• Cláudio Carvalhaes, Union Theological Seminary in New York
• Tamura Lomax, Michigan State University
• Naomi Washington-Leapheart, Arcadia University
• Sara Moslener, Central Michigan University
• Thomas R. Gaulke, Carthage College
• Kate Ott, Garrett Theological Seminary
• Eddie A. Rosa Fuentes, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
• Susannah Crockford, University of Exeter
• Anna Piela, Northwestern University
• Evan Axel Andersson, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Evan Berry, Arizona State University
• Hatem Bazian, UC Berkeley
• Ben Schonthal, University of Otago
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• Zaid Adhami, Williams College
• David Maldonado Rivera, Kenyon College
• Marie-Therese Mäder, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München 
• Miguel A. De La Torre, Iliff School of Theology
• David C. Kemp, University of Denver
• Beck Henriksen, Rhodes College
• Shireen Hamza, Northwestern University 
• Paul Hamid Werder, University of Sufism
  
• Lynn Schofield Clark, University of Denver
• James Reich, Pace University
  
• Christopher M. The, Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada
• Kristina Lizardy-Hajbi, Iliff School of Theology
• Asma Afsaruddin, Indiana University
• Judith Norman, Trinity University
  
• Heike Peckruhn, Eastern Mennonite University
• Aaron Schneider, University of Denver
• Elia Trucks, University of Denver
• Andrea Stanton, University of Denver
• Micah Hughes, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Sarah Bloesch, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Max Thornton, Kean University
• Mohammed Tikly, Darul Uloom Zakariyya/University of Johannesburg
• Justin Friel, University of Denver | Iliff School of Theology
• Abdullah Muis, University of Qur'an Science College Jakarta, Indonesia