Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Make a Passover gift and support Jewish journalism. DONATE NOW
Fast Forward

Is Yeshiva University Criticizing Trump’s Immigration Ban?

Yeshiva University, the flagship educational institution of Modern Orthodox Judaism, issued a statement Monday that appeared to criticize President Donald Trump’s executive order temporarily banning immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries.

“There is continuing turmoil regarding US immigration policy,” said YU president Richard Joel in the statement. “Yeshiva University is unwavering in its support of religious rights and societal values. Ensuring spiritual and personal freedoms are fundamental to the country, our community and our university.”

In a separate statement reportedly sent to students and faculty at YU’s Cardozo Law School, and posted online by the Cardozo chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, Joel said that the university would not release information about students to the government without a court order, and would seek to assist students impacted by any change to the Obama-era policy that allowed some immigrants brought to the nation as children to have work permits.

“The Administration has been following these unfolding events and takes their implications most seriously,” Joel said in that statement.

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.

This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.

We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.

This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.

With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.