Statement in Support of Beerman Fellow Mohsen Mahdawi

The Leonard I. Beerman Foundation expresses its deep admiration and support for our 2025 Fellow, Mohsen Mahdawi. For the past fifteen months, Mohsen has been subjected to a campaign of persecution by the federal government, which is seeking to deport him because of his pro-Palestinian activism. Just this week, a federal appellate court overturned the ruling by a district court judge who maintained that the government’s efforts to expel Mohsen amounted to a form of McCarthy-like persecution.  

There could not be a more unlikely candidate for deportation than Mohsen Mahdawi.  A native of a refugee camp in the West Bank, Mohsen came to the U.S. in order to study.  He completed his B.A. at Columbia University, where he is now enrolled in a master’s program in international relations. At Columbia, he was an early leader of that university’s Palestine solidarity movement, as well as a frequent interlocutor with Jewish audiences.

Sadly, the federal government mistakes any form of support for Palestinians to be antisemitic. In the case of Mohsen Mahdawi, it has chosen as its target a true lover of peace, an advocate of non-violence, and a tireless builder of bridges between Jews and Palestinians.  Mohsen is unyielding in his support for his people—and in fact, for all people, based on his commitment to the principles of equality, justice, and love. 

Rather than seeking to deport him, the government should be holding up Mohsen Mahdawi as a brilliant and dedicated leader.  We at the Foundation recognize him as a genuine rodef shalom, a seeker of peace, who walks in the courageous path of Rabbi Leonard Beerman. And we call upon the federal government to abandon its unjustified efforts to deport this extraordinary human being.