A coalition of 39 Jewish organizations says the Trump administration’s $1 billion demand on UCLA over antisemitism claims would harm, not help, Jewish students.
A powerful coalition of California’s leading Jewish organizations has come out swinging against the Trump administration’s staggering $1 billion settlement demand from the University of California, Los Angeles, to resolve federal antisemitism allegations — warning the move could backfire and harm Jewish students.
The Jewish Public Affairs Committee (JPAC) of California, representing 39 groups across the ideological spectrum, including the Anti-Defamation League, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Hadassah, and the Holocaust Museum LA, issued a sharp rebuke on Tuesday.
“This does not make Jewish students safer,” JPAC declared, accusing the administration of weaponizing the issue. The group argued the unprecedented settlement would divert public funds from essential programs — including those fighting antisemitism — and risk pitting Jewish communities against other vulnerable groups.
The Trump administration is pressuring UCLA to accept the $1 billion deal in exchange for unfreezing more than $500 million in federal research funding. The figure dwarfs other recent university settlements — Columbia University agreed to pay $220 million, Brown University $50 million, while Harvard is reportedly resisting a $500 million demand.
UCLA had hoped a $6.13 million settlement reached last month with Jewish students — including $2.33 million earmarked for groups like Hillel and the ADL — would close the chapter on its antisemitism controversies. Instead, the federal government froze a half-billion in grants, leveraging the standoff to resolve other investigations into race-based hiring and transgender athlete policies.
California Governor Gavin Newsom blasted the demand as “extortion” and a “billion-dollar political shakedown from the pay-to-play president”, vowing the state will not pay. Trump and Newsom are already clashing in court this week over the president’s deployment of the National Guard to arrest undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles.
JPAC acknowledged UCLA has faced serious antisemitism incidents but credited the school for recent progress, including the hiring of incoming Jewish chancellor Julio Frenk, who has pledged stronger action against campus hate.
While JPAC’s statement notably avoided mentioning Trump by name, its stance is the clearest sign yet of a growing rift between Jewish advocacy groups and the president’s hardball tactics on campus antisemitism — an approach that has secured massive concessions from elite universities but stirred deep controversy.
