1. United States
2. N.Y.
3. Letter

Hi, I am a Jewish New Yorker and public school educator writing to you to urge you to vote against HR 6090. Forcing schools to punish students for speech criticizing Israel is wrong and sets a disturbing precedent. In my experience, I find that students learn the best when they feel free to engage in ideas, even if the ideas sound extreme to others. If this law is enforceable, it will have a chilling effect on important conversations that should be had within classrooms moderated by professors, and those conversations will be relegated to social media, where critical thinking goes to die. If this law is unenforceable, then the message the US government is merely sending a symbolic message that there is a double standard around speech on the topic of Israel as opposed to other countries that have a strong religious/ethnic identity. One of my favorite aspects of Jewish culture is that of reasoned argument — it’s been this way at least since the Talmud was written. HR6090 is antithetical to these values and hurts American Jews by tying their identity to the policies of a foreign government. I urge you to vote for free speech.