The electro- and photo-production of $J/\psi$ meson near the threshold from the proton is relevant to the search of hidden charm pentaquark candidates reported by the LHCb collaboration, and the study of the QCD trace anomaly's contribution to the proton mass. It is also expected to be sensitive to the QCD van der Waals interaction, that is mediated by multi-gluon exchanges and expected to dominate the interaction between two hadrons with no common valence quarks. Subthreshold production of $J/\psi$ from a nuclear target is expected to enhance such attractive interaction, and also allows for a direct probe of short range correlations inside a nucleus. With the high luminosity capability of the 12-GeV CEBAF facility at Jefferson Lab, high-precision data on $J/\psi$ meson production from the proton is becoming available, providing also a reference for subthreshold $J/\psi$ production from the deuteron. Data from the deuteron will establish the baseline for subthreshold $J/\psi$ production from other nuclear targets. In this paper, we present our findings from a feasibility study of subthreshold $J/\psi$ production from the deuteron using the proposed Solenoidal Large Intensity Device (SoLID), and discuss the potential physics impact of such data.
