63 Fall 2026 We also take proactive measures to attempt to stop antisemitic legislation before it is actually enacted. On June 18, 2026, for example, together with our colleagues at the Anti- Defamation League, we wrote a letter to the Mayor and City Council of Somerville Massachusetts to reject a proposed ordinance that would require the city to boycott and divest from companies that do business with Israel. Our letter warns that the proposed ordinance is unconstitutional and legally unsustainable, and would deepen community divisions, expose taxpayers to costly litigation, harm local businesses, and further isolate Jewish and Israeli residents. Our position − which we have also made known through outreach to journalists − is that the proposed ordinance improperly attempts to regulate foreign affairs and international commerce, powers reserved exclusively to the federal government, and conflicts with federal laws supporting commercial relations with Israel. Conclusion This short article cannot exhaustively describe the legal tools we are deploying to combat antisemitism, nor does it address all of the contexts in which this battle must be fought. Although college campuses in 2026, for example, are no longer seeing many of the violent encampments with which they were plagued in 2024 and into 2025, Jewish students and faculty are still being subjected to an unremittingly hostile environment, all too frequently driven by faculty members, as a result of which many Jews feel forced to hide their identities. We have also seen multiple examples of violent protests in front of synagogues and other forms of violence − even murders − directed at Jews. Looking forward, the next steps, in my view, include the urgent need to rebuild alliances with other ethnic minorities in the United States that are also suffering from discrimination and animus. We also need to press forward to obtain more robust legislative protections for Jewish communities. For the foreseeable future, however, lawfare is going to be an indispensable tool in the arsenal we must deploy to combat antisemitism.n Completed August 2026. Richard A. Rosen is the Senior Vice President for Legal Advocacy at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights, a public interest law firm that is devoted to fighting antisemitism in the U. S. He was a partner in the Litigation Department of Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, where he was co-chair of the Securities Litigation and Enforcement practice group, from 1986 until his retirement at the end of 2022. He is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Law School, where he teaches a seminar in complex litigation. He has also been a visiting professor at leading law schools in Ukraine, Hungary and Lithuania. Richard is also a court-appointed mediator for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the First and Second Appellate Divisions of the courts of New York State.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgzNzA=