Then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer appointed Ariela Dubler, the wife of U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman, to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on December 23, 2024—just weeks before President Joe Biden’s term ended. Judge Furman, who serves on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, recently ruled against a Trump administration order to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian foreign national.
Senate Democrats, including members of the powerful Judiciary Committee, have publicly backed Khalil, a recent graduate student detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In a statement posted to the committee’s official social media account, Senate Judiciary Democrats decried the detention as an act of “straight-up authoritarianism,” alleging it was retaliation for Khalil exercising his First Amendment rights in a manner that displeased former President Donald Trump. The Trump administration, however, framed Khalil’s deportation as a national security measure aimed at protecting American college students from foreign nationals with alleged jihadist ties—a claim Senate Democrats have fiercely contested.
Judge Furman, nominated by President Barack Obama in 2011 and confirmed by the Senate in 2012, has drawn scrutiny due to his wife’s high-profile appointment and her own professional background. Ariela Dubler serves as the head of The Abraham Joshua Heschel School, a Jewish day school in New York City, where she earns over $650,000 annually, according to the institution’s publicly available Form 990. The school, which charges tuition upwards of $43,000 per year, made national headlines in 2021 when several parents withdrew their children over concerns about its curriculum.
Critics, including parent Harvey Goldman, who relocated his daughter to Florida, accused the school under Dubler’s leadership of promoting progressive ideologies. Goldman specifically cited lessons on “white privilege,” the death of George Floyd, and the Black Lives Matter movement, which he called “Marxist and destructive.” While Floyd’s death was widely reported as a police-related incident, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s official report listed fentanyl intoxication as a contributing factor. Interviews with dissatisfied parents aired on Fox News, including on Tucker Carlson Tonight, amplifying the controversy surrounding Dubler’s tenure.
Recent scrutiny has fallen not only on the wife of U.S. District Court Judge Jesse Furman but also on his brother-in-law, Josh Dubler, an associate professor of religion at the University of Rochester in New York. Dubler is a member of the university’s chapter of Faculty for Justice in Palestine, a group that has drawn attention for its stance on campus activism.
In November 2024, Dubler attended the arraignments of four University of Rochester students facing suspension for their alleged involvement in pro-Palestinian protests on campus. The demonstrations reportedly included actions that some Jewish students and faculty found threatening and intimidating. During the protests, hundreds of “wanted” posters featuring photographs of Jewish faculty members were distributed across the university, sparking outrage among the campus community. Dubler publicly called on the University of Rochester to drop the criminal charges against the students involved.
Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, according to its website, aims to “amplify the work of Students for Justice in Palestine along with other pro-Palestinian student groups and campus unions.” The organization has been linked to similar activism at universities nationwide.
Adding to the controversy, Mahmoud Khalil, a former student at Columbia University, was reportedly affiliated with Students for Justice in Palestine during his time there. Khalil is said to have collaborated with the group to organize pro-Palestinian demonstrations on Columbia’s campus
Ariela Dubler’s appointment to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, combined with her husband’s ruling in the Khalil case, has fueled debate about impartiality in the judiciary. Critics question whether Judge Furman’s family ties and his wife’s public positions could influence his ability to rule objectively on immigration-related cases, particularly those involving national security and First Amendment issues.
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