Rabbi David Saperstein at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in 2015 upon his retirement following 30 years of leading the organization. Photo by Getty Images

By Arno Rosenfeld March 26, 2025

Rabbi David Saperstein assailed the detention and planned deportation of Mahmoud Khalil in prepared remarks to Congress, arguing that the actions “gravely damage fundamental due process rights that help make antiterrorism laws effective and viable.”

Saperstein, a major leader in the Reform movement and the former United States ambassador for international religious freedom, is scheduled to testify Thursday at a Senate hearing on campus antisemitism.

He said in a 16-page prepared statement that while he is “deeply opposed” to the views of Khalil, a leader of the pro-Palestinian student protests at Columbia, the Trump administration’s crackdown on protesters was weakening tenets of American democracy that benefit Jews.

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“The administration is rounding up people with no evidence of crimes or even of violating the standard of damage to foreign policy and national security they have cited,” Saperstein said. “Antisemitism — the hatred of Jews as Jews — thrives in authoritarian environments where civil liberties are curtailed, not in spaces of robust, protected democratic discourse.”

The remarks by Saperstein, who also led the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism for several decades, are some of the most forceful by any leader within the Reform movement, which is the largest Jewish denomination in North America.

The Union for Reform Judaism previously released a more tepid statement following Khalil’s arrest by federal agents earlier this month calling for due process while also assailing the Columbia protests for targeting Jews and praising the Trump administration for its “commitment to fighting antisemitism.”

Other major Jewish groups like the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee either praised Khalil’s arrest or said it might be justified depending on what evidence the government offers.

Khalil, a permanent U.S. resident, was arrested after pro-Israel campus watchdog groups called on the administration to deport him. It is not clear why officials decided to arrest Khalil, who became the first of now several foreign citizens detained for showing what the government considered support for Hamas. The government has offered shifting justifications for his removal. A judge has temporarily prohibited Khalil’s deportation.

The Thursday Senate hearing will also feature testimony from representatives of StandWithUs and the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, two pro-Israel groups, and from Kenneth Stern, author of a controversial definition of antisemitism that he has since declared has been used inappropriately to limit pro-Palestinian speech. Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Chabad’s representative in D.C., will also testify.

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