Brown U leaders praise Jewish life on campus as Trump expected to slash $500M
The school is the latest in the Ivy League to face penalties amid what the White House says is a bid to fight antisemitism

Pro-Palestinian students take down their encampment after reaching a deal with Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island on April 30, 2024. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)
(JTA) — The Trump administration plans to freeze more than $500 million in federal funding to Brown University, making the school the fifth to face a financial penalty amid a crackdown over what the White House says is antisemitism on campuses.
The freeze has not formally been announced and university officials say they have not been given a reason. But it comes as Trump tears through the Ivy League, issuing sanctions and making demands on schools that are considered among the country’s most elite. The administration instituted several of the funding freezes under its bid to combat antisemitism.
Amid the rumors, Jewish leaders at Brown along with members of the board that oversees the school issued a statement late Thursday praising Jewish life on campus and suggesting, without mentioning the Trump freeze, that criticizing the school based on the experience of Jewish students is inappropriate. The statement noted the recent construction of an eruv allowing observant Jews to carry items on Shabbat, the 2023 introduction of kosher dining and the existence of a daily prayer service.
“With all of the ongoing discussions about antisemitism on college campuses, one might easily suspect that these environments are disaster zones for Jewish life,” the group — which included the rabbis from both Hillel and Chabad, as well as students — said in a statement. “At Brown University, this is not the case.”
Like dozens of other schools, Brown was the site of a pro-Palestinian protest encampment in the spring of 2024. The school drew some criticism for making a deal with the protesters to end the encampment and, as part of the deal, to bring divestment from Israel to a vote by the Brown Corporation.
But the corporation roundly rejected the divestment request and the school later suspended the group Students for Justice in Palestine, leading to what one Jewish student wrote in the student newspaper was a return to “tranquility” on campus.
In recent weeks, as Trump took aim at schools with pro-Palestinian protests, saying that they included “Hamas sympathizers” who should be deported, Brown’s president publicly commented. Christina Paxson, who is Jewish, said a “troubling picture” was emerging that portended a major shift in the longtime relationship between the federal government and research universities — and said that Brown would hew to its values in the face of pressure.
Her statement came after Columbia University, the first school to be targeted and the epicenter of the encampment movement, neared a deadline to respond to the Trump administration’s decision to freeze $400 million of its funding. The next day, Columbia announced concessions in a bid to regain the funding.
Brown drew ire from some critics recently when it issued a statement prior to spring break urging international students not to travel abroad, given the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown that has included efforts to deport students who participated in the pro-Palestinian protests.
The school recently hired two lobbying firms, including one with deep ties to Trump’s Republican Party, to represent the school in Congress. It is the first time in more than two decades that Brown has retained such lobbyists, the Brown Daily Herald student newspaper reported.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 2
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 3
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 4
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture In a Haredi Jerusalem neighborhood, doctors’ visits are free, but the wait may cost you
-
Fast Forward Chicago mayor donned keffiyeh for Arab Heritage Month event, sparking outcry from Jewish groups
-
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
-
Fast Forward Latvia again closes case against ‘Butcher of Riga,’ tied to mass murder of Jews
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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.