Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, said the Justice Department intends to pursue and ultimately shut down groups that have engaged in disruptive protests at synagogues and other antisemitic activities, as well as those supporting those groups.

“We are investigating, prosecuting, and we will bring these groups and these individuals to justice,” Dhillon said. “We intend to bring strong cases that dismantle these groups at their very root so that these unlawful attacks can be stopped once and for all.”

A synagogue in Montgomery County, Md., a suburb of Washington, was defaced with antisemitic graffiti on Tuesday. 

A swastika, the word “genocide” and the phrase “AZAB,” an acronym standing for “All Zionists Are Bastards,” were spray-painted on street signs and banners outside of Shaare Tefila, a Conservative congregation in Olney. The graffiti covered large signs outside of the synagogue that read “Hate Has No Home Here” in several languages below a heart shaped American flag and another that read “We Support Israel.” 

North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein is speaking out against the leader of the state Democratic Party’s Muslim Caucus, Elyas Mohammed, who recently described Zionists as “modern day Nazis” and as a “threat to humanity,” among other incendiary social media posts drawing criticism from the local Jewish community.

“Antisemitic comments and conspiracy theories have no place anywhere, including in the North Carolina Democratic Party,” the governor said in a statement shared exclusively with Jewish Insider. “We must fight against antisemitism and all other forms of hate whenever and wherever we see them. We live in difficult times in our nation. Now is the time to come together and deliver results that improve the lives of all North Carolinians.”

Columbia University is considering expanding and refocusing its Middle Eastern studies department’s instruction on Israel, the provost’s regional review committee announced in a set of recommendations this week, marking a pivot in a field and at a school that have come under immense scrutiny from the federal government and Jewish leaders following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks.  

Among its recommendations, the review committee urged the department to strengthen its relationship with the school’s Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies through visiting professorships. The IIJS will host a multiyear visiting appointment for a professor to teach about the history of modern Israel beginning this fall, the report said.

Nearly two-thirds of Jewish Americans say they feel less safe than a year ago, according to the American Jewish Committee’s newly released annual survey of Jewish public opinion, reflecting a heightened fear of antisemitism in the aftermath of several high-profile attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions. 

As notable: About one-third of American Jews reported being a target of antisemitism — whether it was physical or in a virtual space. Nearly one-fifth said they would consider leaving the country as a result of antisemitism, a number that’s been on the rise over the last several years (up from 6% in 2024). 

In a letter sent to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Monday, a group of Senate Democrats raised concerns about the Pentagon’s decision to use xAI’s Grok chatbot in Department of Defense networks.

The senators said that Grok’s record of producing antisemitic content — pointing in particular to an antisemitic tirade by the chatbot in 2025 — as well as its more recent history of generating non-consensual pornographic images of people, including children, raises concerns about the Defense Department’s use of the model.

Republicans lawmakers continued to dismiss this week the idea that a nuclear deal with Iran is achievable, despite comments by President Donald Trump over the weekend. 

Trump said that the talks with Iran, held in Oman last Friday, had been “very good,” that Tehran “wants to make a deal very badly” and that he is in “no rush” to move ahead. He also said that the Iranian demand that the talks be only focused on nuclear weapons “would be acceptable” — an apparent softening of the U.S. position that any potential agreement should also address Iran’s ballistic missile stockpiles and its support for regional terror proxies. The talks did not appear to touch on the Islamic Republic’s recent violent crackdown on nationwide protests.

The United Democracy Project, the AIPAC-linked super PAC, launched a $500,000 ad campaign on Monday supporting Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, who is running in one of a series of hotly contested Chicago-area congressional primaries.

In the 7th Congressional District Democratic primary, Conyears-Ervin faces, among others, Kina Collins, a Justice Democrats-backed, anti-Israel progressive candidate who ran for the seat twice before. Conyears-Ervin herself is a repeat candidate, having run against incumbent Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL), who is retiring in 2024. Conyears-Ervin maintained strong support for Israel during her previous campaign.