“My students grants on Alzheimer’s Disease were cancelled.” “I can only keep my lab open for a month or two without these funds.” These are the messages that I’ve been receiving from friends in New York and other US research locations. Recently the United States federal government cancelled $400 million dollars in grants to Columbia University, with $250 million coming from NIH funds to the biomedical sciences. There are now over a dozen other universities on a list of those to be targeted for these drastic cuts next, which are said to be in response to failures to address antisemitism across US college campuses. Accordingly, Columbia University received a list of items to address in order to “open a conversation” about “next steps,” and although there has been some back and forth between the university and the administration, those funds are currently still frozen. This letter was sent only after the grants were terminated, with no option to address concerns beforehand.

This is a deeply personal issue for me. I am an observant Jew and have close family living in Israel. Like most American Jews, October 7th was a horrific day that I will never shake from my memory. I strongly believe in Israel’s need to defend itself again Hamas and other terrorist groups, and

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