Trump allies target Jewish judge — and his wife — after ruling on Palestinian activist
Judge Jesse Furman halted the deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia graduate
Far-right commentator Laura Loomer, left, has attacked Judge Jesse Furman and his wife, Ariela Dubler. Photo by Jacob M. Langston for The Washington Post via Getty Images/YouTube/Courtesy
By Benyamin Cohen March 11, 2025
Judge Jesse Furman, a Jewish federal judge who blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to deport a Palestinian activist, is now facing a wave of online attacks from far-right figures with massive followings.
The attacks are being led by commentator Laura Loomer, 31, a self-described “feisty Jewess” and “proud Islamophobe.” Loomer, who has 1.5 million followers on X and close ties to Trump’s inner circle, accused Furman and his wife Ariela Dubler of being “leftist Jews” who are as dangerous as “Jihadists.”
Dubler, a former Columbia Law professor, heads a prominent pluralistic Jewish day school in Manhattan, and serves on the board of trustees of Yale’s Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life.
The attacks against the judge are also coming from Charlie Kirk, the founder of the pro-Trump, youth-focused Turning Point USA, who has 4.8 million followers on X, as well as another account with half a million followers.
On Monday, Furman halted the deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and recent Columbia graduate, who had been swept up in a new federal crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrators. The ruling was immediately met with outrage from Trump supporters, including Loomer, a far-right provocateur who has built a career on inflammatory rhetoric about Jews, Muslims and immigrants.
She also called Dubler’s leadership of the Abraham Joshua Heschel School evidence of a “woke” agenda in Jewish education, pointing to a 2021 controversy over race and privilege at the school.
Loomer accused Furman of having a “conflict of interest” because Dubler serves on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a bipartisan agency that monitors religious persecution around the globe. Senator Chuck Schumer appointed Dubler to the post in December, a move Loomer claimed proved that Democrats were working to protect pro-Palestinian activists like Khalil.
Khalil, who is Palestinian, is a legal U.S. resident and graduated in December.
Furman’s history with Trump
This is not the first time Furman has ruled against the Trump administration. In 2018, he blocked the administration’s effort to add a citizenship question to the U.S. Census, a case that eventually went to the Supreme Court, which sided with Furman.
Before becoming a judge, Furman worked as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, where he handled major cases, including those against associates of Bernie Madoff — who defrauded Jewish investors and institutions — and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks.
Earlier in his career, he took on a case involving the separation of church and state, writing a Supreme Court brief for the Anti-Defamation League in a lawsuit involving a student club that blurred the line between free speech and religious indoctrination in schools.
Furman, who is observant and ends Friday court proceedings early for Shabbat, is the latest Jewish judge to be attacked by Trump’s allies. In 2022, after a Florida magistrate judge, Bruce Reinhart, approved a search warrant for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in a classified documents case, Trump supporters launched a campaign against him that quickly turned antisemitic. Reinhart, an active member of his synagogue, faced threats, and his congregation was advised by police to cancel its planned beachside Shabbat service that weekend.
In both instances, after Jewish judges ruled against Trump, their faith and affiliations became a central line of attack. Trump himself has frequently accused liberal Jewish figures of being disloyal, and some of his supporters have embraced conspiracy theories about Jewish influence in politics and the courts.
Loomer, who was previously banned from multiple social media platforms for hate speech, has been called out by the Anti-Defamation League for associating with white supremacists and exploiting the Holocaust for political gain. The ADL includes her on its list of conspiracy theorists and extremists.
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