Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
NY correspondent Luke Tress joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's Daily Briefing.
Columbia University has agreed to a series of changes demanded by the Trump Administration as a precondition for restoring $400 million in federal funding the government pulled this month over the school’s handling of antisemitism on campus amid pro-Palestinian protests against Israel. Tress has been covering the anti-Israel protests that have erupted since October 7, 2023, when Hamas slaughtered 1,200 in southern Israel. We speak about new measures that Columbia is taking — especially the restriction of face masks — and discuss whether they will change the intensity of the protests.
Relatedly, on Friday, detained Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil appeared briefly in immigration court at a remote Louisiana detention center as his lawyers fight in multiple venues to try to free him. We discuss the continued debate within the Jewish community over immigration rights and free speech, versus the safety of Jewish students on campus.
Finally, we speak about a trend among US Jews who are looking for increased self-protection through a variety of measures, including taking self-defense courses such as the Israeli martial art, Krav Maga, or, as in a piece we recently published, highly trained -- and highly expensive -- protection dogs.
Please see today's ongoing liveblog for more updates.
For further reading:
Columbia agrees to Trump administration’s demands to address campus antisemitism
Detained anti-Israel activist Khalil appears in Louisiana court as deportation looms
Columbia University expels anti-Israel students for last year’s building takeover
Another Columbia anti-Israel protester arrested, 3rd ‘self-deports’, US feds say
US-Israeli company sells $125k protection dogs to Jews worried about security
Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.
ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE: Protesters rally in support of detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil outside Columbia University in New York on March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)
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