The American Jewish community is facing an “elevated threat” following a surge of violent antisemitic attacks across the country in recent weeks, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned last week. 

In a joint statement, the FBI and DHS called for increased vigilance among Jewish communities, noting the possibility of copycat attacks after a shooting in Washington in which two Israeli Embassy employees were killed and an attack in Boulder, Colo., in which 15 people were injured in a firebombing targeting advocates calling for the release of hostages in Gaza. “The ongoing Israel-HAMAS conflict may motivate other violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators with similar grievances to conduct violence against Jewish and Israeli communities and their supporters. Foreign terrorist organizations also may try to exploit narratives related to the conflict to inspire attacks in the United States,” the agencies warned. 

Jewish organizations that track threats to the community are similarly concerned about online rhetoric following the attacks. 

The Anti-Defamation League highlighted that, one day after the incident in Boulder, videos allegedly recorded by the assailant shortly before the assault began circulated on a Telegram channel called Taufan al-Ummah, which translates to “Flood of the Ummah,” a reference to the Al-Aqsa Flood, Hamas’ name for its Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel. The circulated posts celebrated Soliman’s actions. 

The ADL also noted that extremists responded to the attack by spreading conspiracy theories which blamed Jews for the firebombing. Additionally, the Bronx Anti-War Coalition posted a threat shortly after the attack: “May all Zionists live in perpetual fear and paranoia until the day the criminal entity crumbles.” 

“The volume of alerts when our social media web scraping tools highlight postings that may be real threats is happening at a much higher run rate than before D.C. and Boulder,” Mitch Silber, director of the Community Security Initiative, which coordinates security for Jewish communities in the New York region, told Jewish Insider.

“I would say it’s unprecedented,” Silber said of the threat Jews are confronting.  

Silber also called it “unprecedented that American Jews are being targeted because of Israel’s actions,” referring to the Boulder attack, the killing of the two Israeli Embassy staffers, and an attempted arson attack on the home of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro during the holiday of Passover. The suspect in the Boulder attack told investigators he “wanted to kill all Zionist people” and had planned the attack for a year. The shooter in Washington yelled “Free Palestine” shortly after the attack and the arsonist cited Shapiro’s support for Israel as his motive.   

These attacks, according to Silber, are distinct from other antisemitic incidents that have occurred in recent years, such as the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh — which remains the deadliest attack on Jews on U.S. soil — and the 2022 hostage-taking at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas. 

“The key element that’s different here is the motivation of the attacks,” Silber said. The Tree of Life shooter was motivated by HIAS immigration actions and the Colleyville shooter was looking to get an al-Qaida fighter freed. “Of course, antisemitism is the broad brush,” he continued, “but if you look at recent attacks, they are really attacks against Jewish communities in the U.S. because American Jews are stand-ins for the Israelis that these attackers can’t reach.” 

CSI is responding in “a multitude of different ways,” Silber said. “It’s been a tsunami of requests from organizations.” 

“We’re encouraging any Jewish institution or organization to let us know if they are having an event and that way we can let local law enforcement know,” Silber continued, adding that the group’s new plans include subsidizing armed guards to complement law enforcement at outdoor events hosted by Jewish organizations, as well as expanding its team of analysts searching on social media, surface web and dark web for threats.  

“We have more hands on keyboards to give ourselves a better chance of detecting a Boulder or D.C. before it happens,” Silber said. 

Community Security Service, a group that provides self-defense and safety training to Jewish institutions, also told JI it is beefing up services in light of the recent attacks. 

“Both of the attacks within a two-week timespan have been accompanied by the same kind of slogans that we’ve been hearing on college campuses and yelled at synagogues,” said Richard Priem, CEO of CSS. “That is a new manifestation. Of course we are concerned.” 

Following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and ensuing war in Gaza, CSS saw a dramatic increase in Jewish communities requesting security support, which lasted for about a year, according to Priem. “But over the last two weeks, we’ve had dozens of inquiries from organizations,” he said. 

“We are making sure that more quarters of the community use the training that we have for them,” Priem said. “Not just by deploying volunteers for large- or small-scale events but also just giving them guidance and training on how to organize themselves in a way that makes them less vulnerable.”

“We will open some community-wide training sessions in the coming weeks that are open to anyone to give awareness to pre-attack indicators,” he continued. “We have to get out of this mindset that the only way we’re going to solve this is by outsourcing to more companies. We’re not going to get out of this situation unless we as a community start taking ownership and realize we have to do training. We have to pay attention. Whether there’s an increased threat or not, people should do preventative training now.” 

Marc Calcano, a former NYPD officer who runs a New York City-based private security firm with several high-profile Jewish clients, echoed that “the level of terror” American Jews face is “extremely high right now” and warned that the Boulder attack, in particular, could be easily replicated.

“I instruct individuals and large groups but I think it’s time for us to do this on a larger scale, which is creating an institution where many can come, here in New York and other states to learn how to physically defend yourself,” Calcano said.  

The Jewish community can use fear “to its advantage,” he continued. “We have to learn how to protect ourselves.”  

The House of Representatives is set to vote next week on two resolutions condemning antisemitism and the terrorist attack on a hostage march in Boulder, Colo. 

One resolution from Republicans, focused on Boulder, highlights immigration issues and denounces the slogan “Free Palestine,” while the other, which is bipartisan, links Sunday’s Colorado attack to a series of other recent violent antisemitic attacks. 

The first of the two resolutions is already attracting criticism from some Democrats. Led by Reps. Gabe Evans (R-CO), Jeff Crank (R-CO) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO), it includes a line that describes “Free Palestine” — a slogan shouted by both Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the Boulder attacker, and Elias Rodriguez, who killed two Israeli Embassy employees at the Capital Jewish Museum, during or shortly after their crimes — as “an antisemitic slogan that calls for the destruction of the state of Israel and the Jewish people.”

Evans’ resolution also notes that Soliman, an Egyptian national, violated U.S. immigration restrictions and states that the case “highlights the need to aggressively vet aliens who apply for visas to determine whether they endorse, espouse, promote, or support antisemitic terrorism or engage in other antisemitic or anti-American activity” and “demonstrates the dangers of not removing from the country aliens who fail to comply with the terms of their visas.”

It criticizes Colorado’s sanctuary state policies, stating that Colorado “hinders immigration enforcement” activities and prohibits law enforcement officials from providing information to federal immigration officials.

It also “affirms that free and open communication between State and local law enforcement and their federal counterparts remains the bedrock of public safety and is necessary in preventing terrorist attacks” and “expresses gratitude” to Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel and other law enforcement.

Given Democratic opposition to many of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, those provisions could prove controversial, and some on the left are also likely to oppose labeling “Free Palestine” as antisemitic. 

In statements about the legislation, the sponsors lambast Colorado’s sanctuary state policies, the Biden administration, Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and state lawmakers for their approach to immigration issues.

The resolution goes on to condemn Soliman and his “antisemitic terrorist attack on peaceful demonstrators supporting the release of the hostages” and prays for the victims of the attack.

The second resolution, led by Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ), has 53 bipartisan cosponsors, and condemns “the rise in ideologically motivated attacks on Jewish individuals in the United States,” including the Boulder attack, and expresses the House’s “commitment to combating antisemitism and politically motivated violence.”

The resolution describes the Colorado attack, as well as the D.C. shooting and the arson targeting Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence on the first night of Passover, as part of a “disturbing pattern of targeted aggression” and “politically and religiously motivated violence directed at Jewish individuals and institutions.”

It states that the three attacks “share a common pattern of targeting Jewish individuals or symbols of Jewish life and civic engagement” and calls antisemitism “fundamentally incompatible with the values of the United States,” saying it must be “condemned unequivocally.”

The Van Drew resolution calls on law enforcement to thoroughly investigate and prosecute the incident and on leaders to “speak out against antisemitism and politically motivated violence in all forms.”

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), a co-chair of the House Jewish caucus and a prominent progressive Jewish voice in the chamber, condemned Republicans for calling up the Evans-led resolution and urged colleagues not to support it.

“I am deeply disappointed in the Republican majority’s decision to put a blatantly partisan antisemitism resolution on the floor next week — especially since there is a bipartisan resolution that appropriately speaks to the horrible tragedy in Boulder that is already scheduled to come to the floor,” Nadler said in a statement to Jewish Insider. 

“Once again, Republicans are using Jewish safety and the rise of antisemitism in America for their own partisan gain and to perpetuate their bigoted immigration propaganda,” Nadler continued. “As a community full of families who fled to America in search of a better life, American Jews will not fall for this cynical tactic, and I urge my colleagues not to take the bait.”

The two resolutions are the latest in a series of resolutions on antisemitism introduced by House members in the weeks since the Washington attack, some of which point to the increasingly fractured and politicized discourse about the issue.

Following the D.C. attack, 73 House Republicans led by Rep. Addison McDowell (R-NC) introduced a resolution condemning the attack and antisemitism, which noted that “the murderer is a far-left activist and has been affiliated with the Party for Socialism and Liberation.” It also called for “the enforcement of existing laws that punish hate crimes, protect religious freedom, and ensure justice for victims of antisemitic violence and discrimination.”

Following the Boulder attack, another Republican-only resolution led by Reps. Randy Fine (R-FL) and August Pfluger (R-TX), co-sponsored by 23 other House Republicans, also noted that Soliman overstayed his visa, said he “should never have been permitted to remain in the country as long as he was” and called for Congress to “take immediate action to secure the border and deport migrants who overstay their visas.”

Separately, six members of Colorado’s House delegation — all but Evans and Boebert — introduced a bipartisan resolution condemning the attack and expressing support for the survivors, as well as calling for additional federal resources to counter antisemitism and hate crimes and protect targeted communities.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), in a blistering statement, accused the U.N.’s special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, of antisemitism and said that her activity has undermined the United Nations and eroded U.S. support for the U.N. and foreign aid in general and will contribute to deaths around the world.

The statement comes in response to a letter from Albanese, who has faced ongoing accusations of antisemitism from U.S. officials and lawmakers who have described her as unfit for her role, to Israel Bonds, accusing the group of involvement in crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.

“Only for a demonstrated antisemite like Ms. Albanese could stabilizing Israel’s economy after the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust be something negative,” Sherman said. “This is just the latest instance in Ms. Albanese’s long history of antisemitism – she has regularly used antisemitic terms like the ‘Jewish lobby’ and claims that Israel doesn’t have the right to defend itself or even to exist.”

He said that, “Albanese and her ilk have turned once-legitimate entities like the United Nations into kangaroo courts and clown shows, significantly undermining U.S. support for the funding of international institutions and foreign aid.”

Sherman argued that actions by officials like Albanese make it harder for U.S. supporters of foreign aid to fight the Trump administration’s cuts to U.S. foreign development assistance and to support funding to international organizations. He drew a connection between Albanese and the antisemitism at the U.N. and what he said were 3.3 million anticipated deaths as a result of cuts to U.S. foreign aid.

“There’s a substantial amount of blood on her hands – but her victims live in countries that she doesn’t care about,” Sherman continued. “In fact, it seems the only thing she cares about is justifying attacks on Israel and Jews worldwide.”

Sherman also argued that the goal of Albanese and others in the anti-Israel movement is to weaken Israel economically and militarily so that future terrorist attacks can successfully eliminate the Jewish state.

“Believe that the anti-Israel movement means it when they say they want to eradicate Israel and will use any means to do it,” Sherman said. “Ms. Albanese condemns, and seeks to prevent, every effort of the Israeli government to feed and house its poorest citizens and care for the disabled. Due to her blinding rage of antisemitism, she seeks to hurt the most vulnerable.”

Albanese, in her letter to Israel Bonds, formally known as the Development Corporation for Israel, alleged that the group is responsible for a host of crimes against humanity and human rights violations, and suggested it faces international criminal liability.

“The applicable legal framework and the gravity of the situation on the ground in the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly in Gaza, indicate that there are reasonable grounds to believe that DCI is contributing to gross human rights violations that require the immediate cessation of the concerned business activity, and the remedy of the harm done to Palestinians,” Albanese wrote in the letter, which was obtained by JI.

“The continued failure to act responsibly in line with international law risks implicating DCI in an economy of much more serious violations, and increasing the associated liability. Indeed, given the international crimes being considered by the [International Court of Justice] and the [International Criminal Court], DCI is now on notice of a serious risk of being implicated in international crimes, the disregard of which may give rise to criminal liability, both for DCI and its executives,” she continued.

Dani Naveh, the CEO of Israel Bonds, said in a statement, “We will not be deterred by our enemies driven by antisemitism. Hamas, which carried out the atrocities of October 7, and its supporters, will not prevail. Their efforts have failed time and time again, as evidenced by the billions of dollars Israel Bonds has raised globally since the horrific attacks of October 7, 2023,” and called on supporters of Israel to respond by buying more bonds.

A University of California, San Francisco, medical school professor whom Jewish colleagues allege has routinely posted antisemitic content on social media during the Gaza war has been fired by the university, more than a year after concerns about her behavior first surfaced. 

Dr. Rupa Marya worked at UCSF for 23 years, beginning as a resident before becoming a professor of internal medicine and a regular lecturer on social justice topics. With an active social media presence, Marya began posting about Israel’s war against Hamas soon after the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks. Her posts included attacks targeting Jewish and Israeli colleagues and students. 

In a federal lawsuit filed against UCSF this week, Marya alleged that the university violated her constitutional free speech protections by firing her in a retaliatory fashion over posts published on her personal account, which Marya claimed the university wilfully misconstrued. She asserted that “neither her views nor her posts are antisemitic.” 

In January 2024, Marya published a blog post attacking by name a Jewish colleague who had urged a hospital antiracism task force not to issue a statement calling for a ceasefire, saying it would empower Hamas. She had been criticizing him on social media for weeks. (Marya’s account on X, once a very active home for her commentary, has since been disabled.) 

Marya also published a thread on X arguing that Zionism should not be present in medicine, calling it a “structural impediment to health equity.” 

“There are so many Jewish doctors who don’t espouse an ideology of supremacism and justification of land theft, apartheid and genocide. They are not the issue here,” she wrote in January 2024. “The issue is Zionist doctors who will sit in an ‘antiracism task force’ meeting” — a clear reference to the doctor she later named in her blog — “and try to stop brown doctors who want to issue a Ceasefire statement by saying that a ceasefire would be a bad thing (read: let’s keep killing brown people in Gaza).” 

This post from Marya earned a rebuke by the university — UCSF posted on social media soon after about a “tired and familiar racist conspiracy theory … stating that ‘Zionist’ doctors are a threat to Arab, Palestinian, South Asian, Muslim and Black patients, as well as the U.S. health system.” The university called it a “sweeping, baseless and racist generalization” that “must be condemned,” and identified the trope as antisemitism. 

In September 2024, Marya announced that she had been suspended from her faculty position. The news came after she had raised concerns about an Israeli student attending the medical school. Students are “asking if he participated in the genocide of Palestinians in the IDF before matriculating into medical school in CA,” she wrote. “How do we address this in our professional ranks?” She was fired in May, nine months after her suspension. 

A UCSF spokesperson declined to comment.

A bipartisan group of 41 lawmakers wrote to the CEOs of Meta, TikTok and X on Friday urging them to take action in response to the spike in violent antisemitic content posted on their platforms following recent antisemitic attacks in Washington and Boulder, Colo.

“We write to express grave concern regarding disturbing and inflammatory content circulating on your platforms in support of violence and terrorism,” the lawmakers — the majority of whom are Democrats — wrote in the letter, highlighting the rise of rhetoric praising and justifying the two antisemitic attacks. “This content is effectively glorifying, justifying, and inciting future violence, mirroring the surge in hateful rhetoric and open calls to violence and support of terrorism observed after the October 7, 2023 [attacks], and the ensuing Israel-Hamas conflict.”

They urged the administration to take “decisive and transparent steps to curb these dangerous trends and protect all users from the effects of hate and incitement to violence online.”

There has been a “skyrocketing number of antisemitic conspiracy theories accusing the D.C. attack of being a ‘false flag’ operation” online as well as instances of users “glorifying” the D.C. shooter’s actions, the lawmakers said, arguing that this increases the chances of further violence.

“This is not merely a matter of policy enforcement but one of public safety and national security,” the letter reads. “We regard the unchecked spread of pro-terror content, extremist symbolism, and incitement to violence as a direct threat to U.S. national security and public safety … It is critical that social media companies do not allow coded praise of violence or hate speech to flourish unchecked, as this only encourages others to engage in similar acts.”

The letter draws a direct connection between “Failing to meaningfully curb hate speech, including antisemitic mis- and disinformation, and allowing antisemitic incitement to violence” and the attack in Washington.

The lawmakers asked the three platforms to provide clarity on how they plan to respond, including how they will address “coded language” promoting violence and terrorism, how they determine when content that has incited violence is allowed to remain on the platform, how they will be implementing their anti-terorrism policies and how they are addressing the spread of incitement to violence and terrorism in multiple languages.

The letter was led by Reps. Wesley Bell (D-MO) and Don Bacon (R-NE) and signed by Reps. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), Julia Brownley (D-CA), Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), Gil Cisneros (D-CA), Steve Cohen (D-KY), Jim Costa (D-CA), Danny Davis (D-IL), Don Davis (D-NC), Cleo Fields (D-LA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Laura Friedman (D-CA), Laura Gillen (D-NY), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Jonathan Jackson (D-IL), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Greg Landsman (D-OH), Seth Magaziner (D-RI), Grace Meng (D-NY), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Donald Norcross (D-NJ), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), Chris Pappas (D-NH), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Kim Schrier (D-WA), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Greg Stanton (D-AZ), Haley Stevens (D-MI), Marilyn Strickland (D-WA), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), Shri Thanedar (D-MI), Dina Titus (D-NV), Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Juan Vargas (D-CA), Marc Veasey (D-TX), Eugene Vindman (D-VA), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Nikema Williams (D-GA) and Frederica Wilson (D-FL).

Bacon and Fitzpatrick were the only Republican signatories. Krishnamoorthi, Pappas and Stevens are all mounting bids for the Senate in their respective states.

The Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee supported the letter.

The American Jewish Committee criticized President Donald Trump for his executive order barring travel into the United States for citizens of 12 countries as lacking “a clear connection to the underlying problem” of domestic antisemitism and potentially having “an adverse impact on other longstanding immigration and refugee policies.”

The administration framed the announcement as a response to the antisemitic terrorist attack in Boulder, Colo., carried out by an immigrant from Egypt who overstayed a work permit. The AJC’s response echoes the cautious, skeptical approach it and other major nonpartisan Jewish organizations have taken to other actions by the Trump administration to combat antisemitism, including revoking visas from international students and cutting funding from universities.

Trump signed the directive on Wednesday restricting travel from seven countries and outright banned travel from 12 others, arguing the move was necessary to prevent “foreign terrorists” and other national security threats from entering the U.S. The countries whose citizens are now banned from entering the U.S. are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

Some citizens of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela will be restricted from traveling to the U.S. Egypt is not covered under the order.

In a statement released on Thursday, the AJC expressed gratitude that the administration “is trying to mobilize as many levers as it can to counter” the surge in antisemitic attacks while noting its concern that the “broad” order will “prevent those in need of real refuge from entering the U.S. in line with the longstanding American tradition of welcoming those forced to leave their countries to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.”

“We fully agree with the administration that entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted and those who overstay visas can pose national security threats. Being able to enter and stay in the United States is a privilege, and thorough protocols to ensure entry of foreign nationals to the U.S. in a way that protects national security are vital,” the statement reads, calling for proper funding for the State Department to vet visa applicants.

The Trump administration is pushing for sweeping State Department funding cuts.

“Throughout AJC’s nearly 120-year history, we have supported fair and just immigration policies for people of all races, religions, and national origins, and advocated for an inclusive America that provides safe haven for those fleeing persecution and seeking to contribute to the United States. It remains our strong belief that it is possible to allow for just immigration and refugee policies while upholding the national security of the United States,” the statement continued. 

The organization went on to urge the Trump administration to lift its suspension of the U.S. Refugee Assistance Program (USRAP), arguing that the pause had left “many already vetted and cleared applicants for asylum with little hope.” It also called for a refugee admissions cap no lower than 75,000.

Several major Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, pushed in the first Trump administration to overturn its travel ban policy, which targeted seven majority-Muslim countries. ADL did not provide comment on the new announcement.

Many progressive-minded Jewish groups have condemned the new travel ban.

The White House is considering issuing a new executive order banning travel to the United States from certain countries, resurrecting a controversial policy from President Donald Trump’s first term, according to three people who attended a Wednesday White House meeting where the plan was discussed.

The planned executive order was mentioned in a meeting at the White House with Jewish leaders. The meeting, which had several dozen attendees, was organized in response to the deadly antisemitic attack in Washington last month that left two Israeli Embassy staffers dead outside the Capital Jewish Museum. The briefing took place three days after an antisemitic attack in Boulder, Colo., injured 15 people at a march to raise awareness about Israeli hostages in Gaza.

White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf told the group about the order but did not mention which countries would be included in the ban. Scharf said Trump could sign the order as soon as Wednesday. 

“They were just saying that an executive order regarding a travel ban is in the works,” one of the sources told Jewish Insider after the meeting. “Everyone was very careful about what they said and didn’t say.” 

Another source said the planned order was “not directly because of the events in Boulder,” but that the attack in Boulder was mentioned “as a rationale, as proof of why this executive order was so important.” 

The alleged perpetrator in the Boulder attack is an Egyptian national who is in the U.S. illegally, having overstayed his visa, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The suspect’s wife and five children were taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody on Tuesday and were set to be deported to Egypt, but a federal judge on Wednesday halted deportation proceedings against the family members. 

In 2017, days after taking office in his first term, Trump signed an executive order barring travel to the United States from seven Muslim-majority nations. Egypt was not one of them. 

Speakers at the meeting included Susie Wiles, White House chief of staff; Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Department of Justice; evangelical pastor Paula White and Jenny Korn from the White House Faith Office; Noah Pollak, senior advisor at the Education Department; Sebastian Gorka, senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council; Adam Boehler, U.S. special envoy for hostage response; Martin Marks, White House Jewish liaison; and Leo Terrell, chair of the federal antisemitism task force. Yehuda Kaploun, Trump’s nominee to serve as U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, was in the room. 

Attendees at the meeting included a wide range of Jewish communal leaders, with representatives from Chabad, Jewish Federations of North America, the Anti-Defamation League, the Orthodox Union, American Jewish Committee, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, AIPAC, Agudath Israel and several Brooklyn-based Orthodox institutions. 

A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The holiday of Shavuot is one of prayer and celebration, marked by all-night learning, indulging in cheesecake and communal events.

But across the U.S., this Shavuot was marked with a fear and unease that has become abnormally normal in recent months, following the Passover arson at the home of Gov. Josh Shapiro and the murders of two Israeli Embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum last month, and deepened further by the horrific attack in Boulder, Colo., on Sunday in which an Egyptian national threw homemade Molotov cocktails at marchers calling for the release of the remaining 58 hostages being held in Gaza. Twelve people, including a Holocaust survivor, were injured.

The reverberations from the attack are already being felt in Washington, where legislators are reviving a bill to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. 

Two days before the attack, JI reported on the Trump administration’s full FY 2026 budget request for Congress — which did not recommend an increase in funding to the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, instead holding it at its current level of $274.5 million. Fewer than half of the requests — which are submitted by organizations at elevated risk of being targeted in a terrorist attack — were fulfilled in 2024. 

The attack in Boulder is likely to garner additional calls from the Jewish community for increased funding for the program. In the wake of last month’s deadly attack at the Capital Jewish Museum, a coalition of leading Jewish groups called for the federal government to increase NSGP spending to $1 billion. “The rising level of anti-Jewish incitement, which inevitably leads to violent acts … requires governmental action commensurate with the level of danger,” the organizations said.

In the wake of Sunday’s attack, many legislators condemned the attacks, most denouncing the antisemitic nature of the firebombing. But three Squad members — Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Summer Lee (D-PA) — condemned the attacks without mentioning Israel or antisemitism. President Donald Trump, in his response, did not mention Israel or antisemitism either, choosing instead to rail against former President Joe “Biden’s ridiculous Open Border Policy, which has hurt our Country so badly.”

The identities of the victims of the attack and the perpetrators’ declared motivations are political inconveniences to legislators and activists on both sides of the political spectrum — and their decision to erase both perhaps reverberates the loudest.

Other lawmakers focused their comments on the shooter’s immigration status. Mohamed Sabry Soliman had come to the U.S. in 2022 and received a work visa, which expired earlier this year. That the attack was perpetrated by an individual who had been approved for a visa by the Biden administration and remained illegally under the Trump administration is expected to produce more calls for stricter immigration policies. Last night, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that Soliman’s wife and five children had been apprehended by immigration officials and faced potential deportation.

But while politicians debate the best approaches — from designating terror groups to calling for immigration crackdowns — Jewish communities remain on edge, feeling unsafe and unheard. 

Perhaps nothing underscores Jewish communal concerns at this moment better than an op-ed published in The New York Times on Tuesday by National Council for Jewish Women CEO Sheila Katz. 

“When antisemitism emerges within progressive spaces, cloaked in the language of justice, too often it is met with silence and discomfort, creating echo chambers where dangerous ideas are amplified rather than confronted,” Katz wrote. In response to sounding the alarm about antisemitism in left-wing circles, she said, “we have been gaslit, ignored and told that our fear is overblown, our outrage unjustified. Among many groups that have fought to secure and reclaim civil rights, voting rights and reproductive rights, we have seen antisemitism dismissed as not bad enough to matter, our grief met with cynicism, our safety treated as optional.”

Some Americans waking up to their morning news on Tuesday saw “Jews Are Afraid Right Now” as the Times headline accompanying Katz’s piece. But for the first several hours it was posted, the op-ed had a different headline: “American Jews Are Paying for the War in Gaza” — an approach to both the Israel-Hamas war and antisemitism in America that plays into the dual-loyalty tropes that American Jews have fought long before the Oct. 7 attacks.

The Times quietly changed the op-ed’s headline to the milquetoast “Jews Are Afraid Right Now” — which, while correct, missed Katz’s core point: “At rallies and on campuses, in coalition rooms and online spaces, slogans sometimes directly drawn from Hamas’s terrorist manifesto have been chanted and painted on placards, and shouted from stages and in the streets. ‘Globalize the intifada.’ ‘By any means necessary.’ ‘From the river to the sea.’ ‘Zionists out.’ These are not simply words; they can be interpreted as calls for violence.”

The Boulder attacker told investigators he wanted “to kill all Zionist people” — not dissimilar from comments made by the Capital Jewish Museum shooter, who declared, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” after gunning down Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. The arsonist who set the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion on fire said he committed the crime because of what Shapiro, one of the most prominent Jewish politicians in the country, “wants to do to the Palestinian people.”

From academia to activism to journalism, there is a reticence in left-wing circles to acknowledge that inciting language around the Israel-Hamas war can have a dangerous impact. 

A year and a half ago, Ivy League administrators were pressed on whether “From the river to the sea” was a genocidal chant. The response, given by the since-ousted presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, was that “it depends on the context.”

In this case, the context is the firebombing of elderly Jews calling for the release of hostages in Gaza. Last month, the context was the gunning down of a young couple outside a Jewish organization’s event focused on humanitarian aid in Gaza. In April, the context was the arson of the residence of a Jewish governor on the first night of Passover.

The recent attacks in Harrisburg, Washington and now Boulder are not surprising. They are what happens when ideology-driven activism trumps ethical journalism, when antisemitism becomes a political football and when the boundaries between free speech and calls for violence blur — creating a dangerous and deadly reality for American Jews.

Following Sunday’s antisemitic attack in Boulder, Colo., on a group marching to raise awareness about the hostages held in Gaza, a bipartisan push is growing on Capitol Hill to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the assailant, an Egyptian citizen who lived in Kuwait for 17 years prior to arriving in the United States, appears to have expressed support for the group and Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader who previously served as Egypt’s president.

Law enforcement officials have not announced any further links between Soliman and the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas is a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate, and the group is closely tied to Qatar.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said on Tuesday that he plans to reintroduce a “modernized version” of the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act he previously led, adding, “the Muslim Brotherhood used the Biden administration to consolidate and deepen their influence, but the Trump administration and Republican Congress can no longer afford to avoid the threat they pose to Americans and American national security.”

The Washington Free Beacon first reported on Cruz’s efforts.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) separately wrote to President Donald Trump on Tuesday urging him to “conduct a comprehensive investigation” into designating the group as a foreign terrorist organization, noting that multiple U.S. allies and partners including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Austria have already done so, and France is considering doing the same.

“It must be noted that such ideological influence not only fosters division but also encourages radicalization against the United States, our allies and the foundational principals that define our societies,” Moskowitz wrote. “Taking steps to investigate and designate the Muslim Brotherhood as an FTO would enhance the ability of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies to disrupt financial networks and recruitment activities connected to its affiliates.”

The Muslim Brotherhood Designation Act backed by Cruz was first introduced in 2014 by former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN). Cruz and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) subsequently picked up the torch, reintroducing the bill in the subsequent four congressional sessions.

At its high-water mark, in 2016, the legislation picked up additional 71 co-sponsors, most of them Republicans, in the House, and seven in the Senate, and was reported out of the House Judiciary Committee by a 17-10 vote. When it was last introduced, the legislation picked up just 14 co-sponsors in the House and two in the Senate.

The bill as of 2021 would have directed the administration, within 60 days of passage, to assess whether the Muslim Brotherhood meets the criteria for designation as a foreign terrorist organization and to provide a “detailed justification” if it determines it does not.

Near the end of his first term, Trump was expected to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group but that move never materialized.

Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), who on Monday told Jewish Insider that the Council on American-Islamic Relations should also be designated as a terrorist group, told JI on Tuesday that he had reached out to Cruz to offer to lead the Muslim Brotherhood legislation in the House.

“That’s really the nexus of all this,” Fine said, accusing the Muslim Brotherhood of funding CAIR, Students for Justice in Palestine and other anti-Israel groups. “None of what we’ve seen in America is organic … Look, if Saudi Arabia and the UAE don’t want them and Egypt doesn’t want them, maybe you ought to take a hint.”

He described CAIR as the “mouthpiece” of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States and said that designating the Muslim Brotherhood would inevitably wrap in CAIR and SJP. CAIR’s leader met with members of the Muslim Brotherhood as recently as 2022, and has been linked to other Brotherhood-affiliated groups. CAIR has praised the Muslim Brotherhood as a moderating force with which the U.S. should engage.

SJP and its parent group, American Muslims for Palestine, have also been accused of having grown out of Muslim Brotherhood networks in the U.S.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) told JI she hasn’t been contacted about the effort to designate the group yet, “but I can think of no reason why I wouldn’t support that.” She added, “I am surprised — how has that not already happened?”

In an unprecedented move, the Florida Board of Governors rejected the confirmation of Santa Ono, the former president of the University of Michigan, as the University of Florida’s next president.

During a three hour meeting on Tuesday, Ono was questioned by the board, which oversees the state’s 12 public universities, about an anti-Israel encampment last year that remained on the Michigan campus for a month, as well as his stance on antisemitism. 

Alan Levine, vice chair of the board, grilled Ono about what he described as an inadequate response to antisemitism at Michigan during Ono’s tenure to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel, The Gainesville Sun reported.

“What happened on Oct. 7 deeply affected the members of my community and me personally, and so at UF I would be consistently focused on making sure antisemitism does not rear its head again,” Ono responded. 

Ono also faced criticism from conservatives on the board for his longtime support of diversity, equity and inclusion programs while leading the Ann Arbor university, although Ono has said he would not bring DEI to the Gainesville school. In March, under pressure from the Trump administration, Ono eliminated centralized DEI offices at Michigan — which have come under intense scrutiny on campuses nationwide for failing to address rising anti-Jewish hate, and at times perpetuating it.  

Ono denounced antisemitism in an Inside Higher Ed op-ed last month. He wrote, “I’ve worked closely with Jewish students, faculty and community leaders to ensure that campuses are places of respect, safety and inclusion for all.”

Prominent conservatives who raised objections to Ono included Donald Trump Jr. and Florida Reps. Byron Donalds, Greg Steube and Jimmy Patronis. His confirmation was not publicly opposed by the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis.

The decision by the 17-member Florida Board of Governors comes a week after UF’s Board of Trustees had unanimously approved Ono as its president-elect. The vote to confirm Ono failed 10-6, the first time that the Board of Governors has ever voted down a university trustee board’s leadership selection.

Ono was seen as an ally of Michigan’s pro-Israel community who was quick to condemn acts of antisemitism — leading to pro-Palestinian vandals attacking his home on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. In November, he visited the Nova Music Festival Exhibition in Detroit alongside several students.

Under the leadership of Ben Sasse, a former Nebraska senator who served as UF president until stepping down last year, Ono wrote that the school has been a “national leader in this regard — setting a gold standard in standing firmly against antisemitism and hate.” Sasse was among the first university presidents to immediately condemn Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack — as other campus leaders seemed paralyzed over how to respond.  

“That standard will not change under my leadership,” Ono said last month. He pledged to “continue to ensure that UF is a place where Jewish students feel fully supported, and where all forms of hatred and discrimination are confronted clearly and without hesitation.” Nearly 20% of the university’s student body is Jewish. 

The search for University of Florida’s 14th president will now start over.

Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), the newest Jewish Republican member of Congress, argued on Monday, following an antisemitic attack on a group marching in support of the hostages in Gaza in Boulder, Colo., that the federal government should take aggressive action against groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations whose executive director said he was “happy to see” the Oct. 7 terror attack.

Fine added that the federal government also should be deporting all undocumented immigrants and take a strong hand toward college campuses in order to fight rising antisemitism..

“I’m angry that we’ve allowed this to get there, I’m angry that we’ve allowed Muslim terror to operate unfettered in this country,” Fine said in an interview with Jewish Insider on Monday. “Make no mistake, the Palestinian cause is fundamentally a broken, evil philosophy … It’s time to realize there is evil in this world and we have to fight it.”

He said that institutions tied to that ideology, including CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood and Students for Justice in Palestine, should not be allowed to operate in the United States, and should be designated as terrorist organizations, “because that’s what they are.” 

He noted that the executive director of CAIR had celebrated the Oct. 7 attack, and remains in his position. Nihad Awad had in November 2023 said he “was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land and walk free into their land that they were not allowed to walk in.”

Fine also said that the U.S. must deport “every illegal immigrant,” as well as closely examine individuals entering the country “from these places that hate us.” The Boulder attacker, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was an Egyptian immigrant who overstayed a tourist visa and was subsequently granted a work permit, which expired in March, according to Fox News.

Fine said that, while security funding is important, it’s impossible to provide individual security to every Jewish American, making it critical to go on the offensive.

“What we need to do is hunt bad guys,” Fine said. “And we can start by throwing out every illegal immigrant. And we can start by taking a hard look at people who are here on visas from Egypt.”

He said the U.S. must also move to stop countries such as Qatar and China “who are not our friends,” from “buying our universities and buying off our media outlets,” and take action to protect Jewish students.

He noted that he has introduced legislation that would explicitly make antisemitism and other forms of religious discrimination illegal on college campuses. Currently, based on guidance in executive orders, antisemitism is banned as a form of discrimination based on shared ancestry. Fine argued that his legislation would “create real legal courses of action” for Jewish students to protect themselves.

Though Elias Gonzalez — who killed two Israeli Embassy staffers outside of the Capital Jewish Museum last month — was not a student or an undocumented immigrant, Fine argued that campuses and immigrants are epicenters of antisemitic incitement and that addressing those would address larger trends.

“When these people hear that the nation’s best universities are saying that Israel is engaged in a genocide or 14,000 babies are going to die, they are radicalizing people through false information with the stamp of approval of universities,” Fine said. “So this guy [Gonzalez] was involved with organizations that are tied back to universities.”

“Also, he may not be an illegal immigrant, he may not be on a visa from another country, but I guarantee he was hanging around people who were and they’re going to rub off,” Fine continued.

Fine said he expects that antisemitic rhetoric and attacks will only get worse after Sunday’s attack in Boulder. He said he hadn’t slept the night after the attack because he was afraid of what might come next.

“What the Muslim terrorists will do is they’ll do what they did before — they double down, they get more aggressive with the rhetoric afterwards,” Fine said. “That’s part of the strategy. Punch and then punch harder … Muslim terrorists have declared open season on Jews. And I think that is a frightening thing. And I think the people who need to be hunted are the Muslim terrorists.”

Pressed on the fact that Rodriguez was not Muslim, Fine responded, “there are white supremacists who aren’t white … it is terrorism that is rooted in the Muslim faith.”

“They call it Christian nationalism, I don’t think every Christian is a bad person, I think very few of them are,” Fine continued.

Fine argued that surveys show a substantial portion of American Muslims are sympathetic to Hamas, that leading Muslim organizations like CAIR have supported Hamas and antisemitism, that there are few in Gaza who have stood up against Hamas and that many of those who participated in the Oct. 7 attack were not Hamas fighters.

“We are told, ‘No, no, no, it’s this tiny, tiny fringe.’ It is not a tiny fringe,” Fine said. “I don’t know whether it’s 30 or 40 or 70 or 90%, I don’t know. But I know it’s not 1% that are bad, and it’s time for us to stop pretending that it is.”

The House Education and Workforce Committee threatened on Monday to subpoena Bowdoin College, accusing the school of failing to comply with the committee’s requests for information regarding antisemitism on campus.

A letter from Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), the committee chair, and Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT), a subcommittee chair, states that the Maine liberal arts college failed to comply with the committee’s repeated requests for documentation regarding disciplinary action taken against those involved with an encampment on the school’s campus earlier this year, as well as all students disciplined for antisemitic incidents since Oct. 7, 2023.

The committee leaders provided a June 16 deadline for the documentation requested, and stated they would pursue subpoenas if the deadline is not met.

The letter states that “Bowdoin provided a narrative response that briefly summarized the administration’s conversations with the encampment participants, but it did not provide documents related to any disciplinary action, documents related to any understanding it reached to disband the encampment, or a list of student disciplinary or conduct cases relating to alleged antisemitic incidents or encampments.”

After being pressed further, the school provided a “a brief summary of Bowdoin’s actions addressing the encampment and noted that the College revoked the charter of Students for Justice in Palestine for the remainder of the 2024-2025 academic year and the next academic year.”

The school subsequently provided 225 pages of documents, including summaries of the school’s actions regarding the encampment, “a generalized summary of disciplinary measures taken against 66 students, and a summary of actions taken against Students for Justice in Palestine.”

According to the committee, the vast majority of the documents included were “publicly available policies and procedures, none of which are directly responsive to the Committee’s requests,” lacked the “individualized detail requested” or were public emails from administrators to the campus community about the encampment.

WASHINGTON — As visitors entered the Capital Jewish Museum on Thursday morning, open for the first time after an antisemitic attack killed two Israeli Embassy staffers steps from its doors last week, they walked past a makeshift memorial to Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky before security guards wanded them down and checked their bags. 

The museum might be reopening, but its staff — and the broader Washington Jewish community — now feel a heaviness that did not exist last week, when the museum was on the cusp of unveiling a major new exhibit about LGBTQ Jews ahead of the World Pride Festival next month. The presence of police officers and heightened security precautions in the newly reopened space were stark reminders of the violence perpetrated by a radicalized gunman who said he killed the two young people “for Gaza.” 

A brief ceremony marking the museum’s reopening began with a cantor leading the crowd in singing songs for peace. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser pledged to continue to support the Jewish community and called on all Washingtonians to do the same.

“It is not up to the Jewish community to say, ‘Support us.’ It is up to all of us to denounce antisemitism in all forms,” Bowser told the several dozen people at the event. 

Bowser, who was instrumental in the creation of the museum, which opened in 2023, urged people in the local community to visit.

“One of my messages to our community here in D.C. is for people of all faiths to keep showing up for the Jewish community and to keep showing up for the Capital Jewish Museum,” she continued. “Spaces like this that teach us history, that allow us to connect, inspire, reflect people coming together, of all backgrounds, faiths, ages, coming from different places in the world and different places in the city, can talk about important ideas and ways that we move together for a better collective future.”

A group of local faith leaders — a rabbi, an imam and two ministers — addressed the crowd, discussing their faiths’ teachings against violence and reflecting on the legacy of Lischinsky and Milgrim, who were killed as they left an American Jewish Committee event for young diplomats. Throughout the ceremony, speakers said the way to fight such hate is with understanding, built at institutions like the Capital Jewish Museum. 

“This reopening is exactly what our city, our country and our world needs. To keep telling our stories, who we are as a people, to have us be known, what our values are, what we are to the city, what we contribute and the intricacies of what make us who we are — not only so that we don’t shrink from fear, but also because it is the path to better understanding each other,” said Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt, senior rabbi at Washington’s Adas Israel Congregation. 

Imam Talib Shareef, president and imam of Masjid Muhammad, described the reopening of the museum as an “invitation to embrace our shared, original identity as fruits of the first human, Adam, from which came the many wonderful, beautiful, diverse expressions of human life that have contributed to the strength and unity of our nation.” 

To close the event, the museum’s executive director, Beatrice Gurwitz, took to the podium, visibly shaken. 

“Last week’s antisemitic attack cannot be our last chapter,” Gurwitz said. “So we reopen today, and we dedicate ourselves to honor Yaron and Sarah and their commitment to repairing the world and building bridges, and we take strength in all of you as we go forward in fulfilling that mission.” 

Attendees finished the event by milling about the museum, including its newest exhibit, “LGBTJews in the Federal City,” which tells the story of Washington’s queer Jewish community. Items on display reflected the community’s struggle for inclusion — within the broader Jewish community, and also within the federal government, where workers were penalized for being gay during much of the 20th century. 

One Washington Post newspaper clipping from 1979, displayed in the exhibit, reported on the formation of Bet Mishpachah, “a synagogue for homosexuals.” The synagogue’s decision to participate in the article was described as a risk — putting its leaders at personal and professional peril. 

More than four decades later, Joshua Maxey, executive director of Bet Mishpachah, delivered remarks to the crowd assembled at the museum on Thursday morning. He described Milgrim as a “passionate advocate” who “made it her mission to ensure that LGBTQ voices were heard and celebrated within our local Jewish community.”

“She made people feel seen, valued and embraced,” Maxey continued. “She approached her work not just as a job, but as a calling. She was a peace broker in the truest sense, someone who lived out our values, our Jewish values of tikkun olam, or repairing the world.”

Concerned with a “persistent and pernicious pattern of antisemitism” at the American Psychological Association, the preeminent professional organization for American psychologists, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) is urging the body’s leadership to investigate antisemitism within its ranks and better respond to the concerns of Jewish members.

“I have spoken directly with whistleblowers — many of them longtime APA members — who accuse the organization of enabling a hostile environment,” Torres wrote in a letter, obtained by Jewish Insider, that he sent to the APA’s president and president-elect on Wednesday. “These incidents collectively suggest that the APA has not only been dismissive of the legitimate grievances of Jewish psychologists but also permissive of content that traffics in malicious falsehoods against Zionism, Israel, and the Jewish community.”

Torres’ letter comes as the mental health field grapples with an antisemitism problem that has grown more acute after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. The Association of Jewish Psychologists said in 2023 that it was “deeply disappointed and terribly saddened” by the APA’s actions in the aftermath of Oct. 7. 

Torres reported that Jewish and pro-Israel psychologists have been harassed on APA-sponsored listservs, including one email with the phrase “kudos to Hamas,” according to conversations he had with APA members, and that divisions within the organization have “issued politicized and inflammatory statements” accusing Israel of genocide, while “suppressing dissenting academic voices.” 

Torres urged the APA to conduct an independent investigation into antisemitism across its affiliated divisions and listservs; to reform accreditation of continuing education programs “to ensure the APA is not lending institutional legitimacy to bigotry”; to enforce “clear standards for respectful discourse,” including “protections for Zionist Jews”; and to make sure that Jews are represented as the APA works to address antisemitism. 

“The APA’s legitimacy as a scientific and professional institution is at stake,” Torres wrote, if the body does not take action. 

A spokesperson for the APA confirmed that the organization received the letter and that they will reach out to Torres to discuss it.

“In the meantime, I can assure you that the American Psychological Association is categorically not an antisemitic organization,” Kim Mills, APA’s senior director for strategic external communications and public affairs, said.  

As Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) works to come from behind in the closing weeks of the New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial primary, the veteran congressman is counting on support from the state’s sizable Jewish community to launch him to victory in the June 10 election.

“It’s a key part, a critical part of the coalition,” Gottheimer told Jewish Insider on Monday. “These off-year primaries are — despite what we’re all working to do — it’s always a lower turnout in the off years. And I’d say the Jewish community is very engaged, and I think they play a really important role in the election.”

He argued that he has an extensive record both in office and before his time in Congress fighting antisemitism and supporting the U.S.-Israel relationship, and has forged deep bonds with the Jewish community, particularly at a time when it has been subjected to increased antisemitism.

“I think that [the Jewish] community around the state recognizes that,” Gottheimer said. “I think I’ve made a very strong case of why I’d be an excellent governor for the Jewish community, and for all communities.”

Gottheimer recently picked up the endorsement of the Lakewood Vaad, an influential group of rabbis in one of the state’s largest Orthodox Jewish communities, which urged both Democrats and unaffiliated voters to vote for Gottheimer in the Democratic primary. The endorsement came comparatively early for the Vaad, which in the past has endorsed candidates as late as on Election Day.

As of last week, Lakewood had more than 20,000 unaffiliated Orthodox Jewish voters, in addition to nearly 3,000 Orthodox voters registered as Democrats, according to Shlomo Schorr, the director of legislative affairs for Agudath Israel of America’s New Jersey office. In surrounding communities in Ocean County where the Vaad’s sphere of influence extends, there are 3,500 Orthodox Democrats and 2,250 unaffiliated Orthodox voters, Schorr said.

“It’s a three-part punch: it’s Lakewood coming out early, it’s Lakewood saying to the Democrats they should vote for Josh and it’s them saying [to] the unaffiliated who have the ability to show up that day and declare as a Democrat that they should as well show up for Josh,” a Gottheimer-backing New Jersey strategist said. 

Even as Gottheimer has lagged behind other opponents, such as Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), the establishment favorite in the race, in the limited public polling available, one Gottheimer advisor suggested that current polling could be missing the preferences of the Orthodox community. 

“Orthodox communities such as the Vaad are generally missed as a part of traditional polls because the community is not inclined to participate in traditional opinion polling,” the advisor told JI. “If you wanted to look for a hidden vote that wouldn’t be counted, there’d certainly be evidence that that is one.”

The New Jersey strategist predicted that the Lakewood endorsement would produce a “domino” effect: as the largest Jewish community in the state, Lakewood turning out for Gottheimer could drive turnout among other New Jersey Jewish communities, signaling “that Josh has a viable path to victory and to win.” Some other Jewish community leaders, including a Jersey Shore-based Sephardic Orthodox group, have also endorsed Gottheimer.

If those communities turn out in force for Gottheimer, it could total between 30,000 and 50,000 votes, the strategist said, which “is enough to — 100% — win that election.” They continued, “Josh’s path to victory is Bergen County turning out and the Jewish community turning out.”

Gottheimer also emphasized to JI that he’s been speaking to Jewish communities throughout the state for months, and has won endorsements from mayors and other local officials in areas with large Jewish communities statewide, both Orthodox and non-Orthodox.

“We have very big support — I’ve spent a lot of time — because I think the Jewish community wants somebody who’s going to stand up and fight antisemitism and hate, who’s going to make sure we teach children in K-12 about the Holocaust, about what happened on Oct. 7 [2023], actual facts, and who’s going to be a nationwide leader on these issues,” Gottheimer said. 

“A lot of Jewish voters feel abandoned, and they want someone who’s going to be a champion of them and of the community,” Gottheimer said.

Schorr said the Vaad is anticipating that it can convince not only Democrats but an even more significant number of unaffiliated voters in Lakewood and beyond to pull the lever for Gottheimer in a race that is expected to be fought on the margins.

Along with its endorsement, the Vaad is spending heavily on ads and get-out-the-vote efforts to help raise awareness around the primary, for which early voting begins next Tuesday and ends on Sunday.

Schorr, who clarified that he was not involved in the endorsement discussions and that his own group is not taking sides in the race, acknowledged that the Vaad’s endorsement could “heavily tilt” the election. But he said the late push may face some logistical hurdles with just weeks remaining until the primary.

“There’s not that much time,” he told JI on Tuesday. “Their struggle will be to get people to turn out for the Democratic candidate.”

Livingston, N.J. Mayor Ed Meinhardt, a former synagogue president who has endorsed Gottheimer, said he expects the Jewish community in his town and surrounding areas — including two large Orthodox congregations — to support Gottheimer, adding that Gottheimer’s “path to victory very much goes through the Jewish population of western Essex” County.

Sherrill represents Livingston and other areas of Essex, and local observers expect her to carry a significant share of the Jewish vote in her congressional district.

“I think what Congressman Gottheimer is doing is taking the vote away from Congresswoman Sherrill,” Meinhardt said. “I believe what Congressman Gottheimer is doing is actually splitting the vote and taking the vote away from her and putting it back into his camp … That’s why he’s spent so much time in this area.”

Another local source familiar with the race said that “given the way the numbers are looking, having the Jewish community come out and vote would appear to be a boon for [Gottheimer], and if the Jewish community doesn’t come out and vote for him, it’s going to hurt.”

The source said that the Jewish community in New Jersey — totaling more than 600,000, making it the largest non-Christian religious community in the state — could be enough to swing the race if Jewish voters show up in force and if Gottheimer is able to turn out and unify Jewish voters statewide, outside of his existing Bergen County constituency.

“There’s 120,000 people in Lakewood, so let’s say they could deliver 40,000 votes, give or take, maybe less … but there’s enough there that if the entire community came out and voted for one candidate, there’s a good chance that candidate’s going to win,” the source said.

David Bercovitch, the co-founder of a new political advocacy group called Safeguard Jewish South Jersey, which has endorsed Gottheimer, said the congressman “has garnered the support of so many in the Jewish community because he embodies the values of everyday New Jerseyans.”

“He is a strong advocate on the issues of concern for the Jewish community, as his track record in Congress shows,” Bercovitch told JI. “I believe many will be surprised by the results on June 10 in large part because of his tremendous advocacy for the Jewish community.”

In the GOP primary, the Vaad also endorsed Jack Ciattarelli, a former state assemblyman who won Lakewood in his previous bid for governor in 2021, even as Gov. Phil Murphy, a term-limited Democrat, had notched the coalition’s backing at the time.

Mike Sacks was taught as a child to fight antisemitism — literally — with left jabs and left hooks and right crosses.

His father, he said, taught him to box as an elementary schooler “because [my father] had to fight back against Jew hatred as a kid and as a young man,” having been subjected to antisemitic taunts.

Now, the former political journalist turned Democratic candidate in New York’s 17th Congressional District told Jewish Insider, rising antisemitism is a factor in his bid to unseat Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY). But he also accused Republicans of cynically weaponizing the issue with no intent to actually address the problem.

Sacks told JI in an interview earlier this month that local and nationwide antisemitism was a major reason he decided to run, saying “I’m running for my community, my congregation and my country.”

“As a Jewish father raising my kids in the Jewish faith, this is my community. It’s not a political issue for me. It’s personal,” Sacks said. “When I go to Congress, this is not an issue I’ll take on to score political points, but for the rights of my community and my faith.”

“I was raised with an understanding that what is good for the Jews is what’s also good for the community and for the country, and to seek out and vindicate those universal values from which this country is founded,” Sacks continued, “that has helped make it a haven for Jews since we first started arriving in this country.”

“Under the guise of addressing antisemitism, [President Donald] Trump is attacking American values and violating our Constitution in the Jewish people’s name,” Sacks said. “These are values — free speech, due process — that we’ve learned from history, when turned on other people will be turned on us too. It’s un-American, and that’s not how we overcome antisemitism.”

He said that his patriotism and his sense of civic pride is deeply entwined with his Jewish identity, and said he wants to ensure that everyone, regardless of background, can share that sense of pride.

Sacks called antisemitism on college campuses a real problem that must be addressed, but argued that the Trump administration’s policies stripping research funding from universities and rescinding visas from anti-Israel demonstrators are not serious efforts to combat antisemitism.

“Under the guise of addressing antisemitism, [President Donald] Trump is attacking American values and violating our Constitution in the Jewish people’s name,” Sacks said. “These are values — free speech, due process — that we’ve learned from history, when turned on other people will be turned on us too. It’s un-American, and that’s not how we overcome antisemitism.”

If elected, he said he’d speak out against antisemitism, work to facilitate dialogue and support Nonprofit Security Grant Funding. And he said he’d support any legislation to combat antisemitism that he believed was sincere and would be effective, and was not aimed at scoring “political points off our people’s plight and peril.”

He didn’t speak specifically on whether he would support Lawler’s Antisemitism Awareness Act, but accused Republicans of trying to protect those making antisemitic accusations that Jews killed Jesus in amendments to the legislation.

Sacks also accused Republicans of weaponizing antisemitism in the 17th District race, referring to an incident in which a National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson called out Sacks and the other 17th District candidates over the vandalism of an Albany GOP headquarters building with the word “Nazis.” The spokesperson demanded the candidates condemn the vandalism, which occurred more than 100 miles away, in another part of the state.

“What will guide my response to any threat to Israel is … where to find that solution that can lead us back to a path of peace and a path of coexistence where it all might seem bleak and dark and gone in those moments of greatest peril,” Sacks said.

Sacks called the move “cynical” and in “bad faith,” adding, “we need to confront these efforts to use our own identities against us head-on.”

He hinted toward his family’s Jewish background in his campaign launch video, which includes a shot of Sacks working on a Hebrew workbook with one of his sons at their dinner table, a scene that a campaign spokesperson described as a weekly occurrence.

Sacks described himself as a “proud Zionist guided by my belief in our need for a Jewish democratic state,” adding that he associates himself with “the 69% of Israelis who want to bring all the hostages home and have a ceasefire.”

He said he “stand[s] against those on the far left who deny the necessity of a Jewish state” as well as those on the far right who would “sacrifice Israel’s democracy to extend control over all the Palestinian territories.” Sacks said he would oppose any efforts to block weapons shipments to Israel.

Sacks associated himself with those protesting against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel and Yair Golan, the leader of a left-leaning opposition party in Israel. (This interview took place before recent comments by Golan sparked widespread backlash.)  He described Israeli figures like Yitzhak Rabin and author Amos Oz as his “heroes,” condemning the “racist extremism” of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and blasting Lawler for meeting with Ben-Gvir during his trip to the U.S. last month.

He said that a two-state solution is the best path to ensure Israel’s security and existence as a Jewish state, which he emphasized must include removing Hamas from leadership in Gaza and fighting for a pathway to Palestinian statehood. “I do not believe [the two-state solution] is dead. I do not believe that it can’t be resurrected if it is dead. I believe that is the only way forward,” he said.

“What will guide my response to any threat to Israel is … where to find that solution that can lead us back to a path of peace and a path of coexistence where it all might seem bleak and dark and gone in those moments of greatest peril,” Sacks said.

Sacks argued that new leadership is needed in the U.S. to help move back toward a two-state solution, arguing “the U.S. needs to be led by a government that does not sympathize with those in Israel who would follow in the footsteps of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin,” referring to Ben-Gvir.

Sacks traveled to Israel in December 2008, as Israel was launching Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. He said that his takeaway from those operations, after which attacks from Gaza on Israel resumed, is that “the answer is not whether to respond, but how. And the solution is political, not military.”

“What will guide my response to any threat to Israel is … where to find that solution that can lead us back to a path of peace and a path of coexistence where it all might seem bleak and dark and gone in those moments of greatest peril,” Sacks said.

Addressing the ongoing nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran, Sacks emphasized that Tehran has “never been weaker” and described the Islamic Republic as a decaying and “sclerotic” regime. He said the U.S.’ path forward should be calibrated to protect Israel from “any rash decision by a wounded Iranian regime looking to stay relevant in the region.”

He expressed skepticism that Trump would be able to achieve an effective deal that would ensure peace and security, pointing to the president’s decision to pull out of the original 2015 nuclear deal during his first term, adding that Trump now appears to be renegotiating something along the same lines.

Sacks said that the original nuclear deal was “a great deal for the time,” but said that the state of affairs now and when he would be in Congress would be very different, and his support for any potential deal would “depend on the details of the deal in context with that geopolitical moment and the security demands of our allies in the region.”

Addressing his candidacy more broadly, Sacks said that his prior career as a reporter gave him a “front row seat to the deterioration of our democracy and billionaires profiting at our expense” and the deep issues in U.S. politics. He said rising costs and the “tepid” response from Democrats to Republican policies were other contributing factors to his run.

He framed himself as fighting to restore American democracy against a “would-be king seizing power for himself from the people to enrich his billionaire best friends at our expense.”

Following the murder of two Israeli Embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), a New Jersey gubernatorial candidate, wrote to federal leaders to call for further action to protect the Jewish community and raised concerns about growing trends of antisemitic violence across the country.

Sherrill wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi to call on the government to provide additional resources and funding to allow houses of worship and nonprofits to protect themselves — including through the Nonprofit Security Grant Program — and ensure that law enforcement can properly investigate and prevent antisemitic violence.

In the letter, Sherrill described the shooting as unequivocally motivated by antisemitism and as  “an assault on the core values and ideals of our nation — particularly the right to religious expression and to practice one’s faith without fear of violence” and said “we must take every effort to prevent it from happening again.” She said the attack “highlight[s] the threat of violence against Jewish Americans and residents across the United States.”

“As antisemitic violence and threats have increased, I remain concerned that synagogues, Jewish faith-based organizations, and nonprofits are under-resourced for the heightened threats that they face,” Sherrill said. “I urge you to take whatever actions you can to ensure that the programs that support these organizations are properly resourced and staffed.”

In addition to NSGP funding, Sherrill expressed concerns that funding cuts will leave “initiatives within your departments meant to combat antisemitism and other hate crimes … unable to address the rising threat that we face today.” She pointed specifically to a range of programs to address and prevent hate crimes.

The administration has sought to cut funding from hate crime grant programs it claimed violate the First Amendment. Sherrill urged the administration to “maintain and expand funding for these programs.”

Sherrill linked the shooting to the April arson attack on the residence of Penn. Gov. Josh Shapiro, pointing to the arson as another example of the “ever-present risk of antisemitism and violence to all Jewish Americans,” given that the arsonist, who targeted the governor’s mansion on the first night of Passover, was allegedly motivated by Shapiro’s support for Israel. Sherrill also highlighted vandalism and firebombing incidents at synagogues in her district. 

“Our country faces a crisis of antisemitic violence and threats that show no signs of abating,” Sherrill wrote. “It is vital that the federal government take urgent action to protect Jewish communities, prosecute perpetrators of antisemitic hate crimes, and support community programs to counter antisemitism. Jewish Americans face the severe threat of antisemitic violence every day, and it is long past time that the U.S. federal government prioritizes their safety.”

Another gubernatorial candidate, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), publicly urged other candidates in the race to support state legislation to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism last week, in response to the shooting. Sherrill has said she supports that bill.

Some in the Jewish community have seen Sherrill’s record on Jewish issues as spotty at times compared to Gottheimer, but a pair of progressive candidates with more questionable records on such issues have become increasingly competitive against Sherrill, who leads in polling.

Kingsley Wilson, a deputy press secretary at the Department of Defense who has come under fire from Democratic and Republican lawmakers and Jewish communal organizations for promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories, has been promoted to serve as the department’s press secretary, the Pentagon announced on Friday. 

“Kingsley’s leadership has been integral to the DoD’s success & we look forward to her continued service to President [Donald] Trump,” Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesman and a senior advisor to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, posted on X on Friday. 

When Wilson was named deputy press secretary in March, she faced widespread condemnation for dozens of tweets viewed as antisemitic and racist. On two different occasions, she attacked the Anti-Defamation League for sharing its origin story — the organization was founded after the lynching of Leo Frank, an Atlanta Jew widely believed to have been wrongly convicted of raping and murdering a white child over a century ago. 

“Leo Frank raped and murdered a 13-year-old girl,” Wilson wrote in 2023 in response to a post from the ADL, and repeated the claim a year later. “He also tried to frame a black man for his crime. The ADL is despicable.” (The tweet has not been deleted.) 

Wilson has also called Confederate General Robert E. Lee “one of the greatest Americans to ever live” and regularly promoted the antisemitic “Great Replacement Theory.” 

Her appointment in March drew bipartisan criticism. “Obviously I don’t agree with her comments. I trust the Pentagon will address this,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) told Jewish Insider at the time. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called for her firing. 

Spokespeople for the Pentagon and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday. 

Pro-Israel leaders in the United States on Thursday connected the murder of two Israeli Embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington to the anti-Israel advocacy seen on the political extremes throughout the country since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, characterizing it as a culmination of such rhetoric and, in some cases, the failure of some politicians to denounce it.

The suspected shooter, Elias Rodriguez, shouted “free, free Palestine” and “I did it for Gaza” following the shooting, according to an eyewitness and video from the arrest. He reportedly published a manifesto railing against Israel.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said that the attack should be a signal to the left that it needs to rethink its rhetoric on Israel and Zionism. He compared the anti-Israel movement in the United States to a “cult” that has been stoked online and is using inherently violent slogans while its members “try to hide behind this idea that it’s free speech to intimidate and terrorize members of the Jewish community.”

He said that too many on the left have failed to call out antisemitism in the anti-Israel movement.

“Why can’t you just call it what it is, and then address and assert the pressure on the aggressor,” which is Hamas,” Fetterman said. “I can’t even imagine having to live with that ever-present antisemitism and what? Why can’t people just acknowledge and call that what it is?”

Fetterman predicted that the same elements of the left that have supported Luigi Mangione, the alleged assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, will also rally behind Rodriguez.

“What part of my party does this come from where it’s like, we try to defend or try to justify assassinating an executive in broad daylight or … somebody [who] guns down” two people at a Jewish event, Fetterman asked incredulously.

Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter connected the shooting to the anti-Israel protests seen on college campuses and elsewhere in the country.

“The point of the matter is that on campuses around this country, where ideas — these are the temples of ideas — where smart ideas, intelligent ideas, moral ideas, truthful ideas, are supposed to be taught, we have useful idiots running around in support of the destruction of Israel,” Leiter said at a press conference.

“This is done in the name of a political agenda to eradicate the State of Israel,” Leiter added. “The State of Israel is now fighting a war on seven fronts. This is the eighth front, a war to demonize, delegitimize, to eradicate the right of the State of Israel to exist.”

He also connected rising global antisemitism to countries like France that have spoken out against Israel and are moving to recognize a Palestinian state.

A coalition of 42 Jewish organizations, in a statement, described the murders as “the direct consequence of rising antisemitic incitement in places such as college campuses, city council meetings, and social media that has normalized hate and emboldened those who wish to do harm.”

William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said on X, “There is a direct line between demonizing Israel, tolerating antisemitic hate speech in the public square, and violent action.” 

“We are now witnessing the deadly consequences of months of relentless antisemitic incitement — amplified by international organizations and political leaders across the globe — since the horrors of October 7,” Daroff said. “This is not a debate over policy; it is the mainstreaming of hatred, and its consequences are measured in blood.”

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) said on X the attack was “the deadly consequence of normalizing Jew-hatred.”

“Since October 7, antisemitic attacks have surged — fueled by violent chants to ‘globalize the intifada’ and slurs like ‘dirty Zionist,’” Gottheimer said. 

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), highlighting a tweet from a local anti-Israel group that praised the attack, said that, “Violence is not a bug but a feature of virulent Anti-Zionism.”

Arizona state Rep. Alma Hernandez called out a series of progressive lawmakers, saying, “spare us the fake outrage.”

“Two Israeli diplomats were murdered in cold blood—and you dare act concerned? Y’all have spent years fueling the hate and antisemitism that’s now exploding across America. Don’t pretend to care,” Hernandez continued, in an X post. “You are constantly surrounded by keffiyehs and “Free Palestine” and have pushed rhetoric that’s radicalized Americans into thinking murdering Jews and harassing them in the streets will somehow “liberate” Palestine and end the so-called genocide. No thanks.”

“We don’t want prayers from politicians who support individuals and organizations that promote this hate and who are being actively supported by said individuals and organizations while they run for office,” Hernandez added.

“You can’t support chants of ‘Globalize the Intifada’ and then be ‘appalled’ when people act it out,” Georgia state Rep. Esther Panitch said on X in response to a statement on the attack from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) that did not acknowledge that the victims worked for the Israeli embassy and condemned “violence” broadly. Panitch also criticized other progressive Democrats who issued statements on the attack.

Panitch added, “Fascinating that those who campaigned against the Jewish community’s right to define their own experience of antisemitism are the ones who call ‘Globalizing the Intifada’ peaceful protests. The same ones who can’t say the word antisemitism in their posts.”

Jordan Acker, the University of Michigan regent who has been repeatedly targeted with antisemitic harassment and vandalism, drew a direct line between those incidents and demonstrations on the University of Michigan’s campus, and the Wednesday night murders.

“This isn’t protest. It’s a threat. This is what antisemitism looks like — and it’s escalating,” Acker said. “This is part of a terrifying trend: Jews in America being hunted, harassed, and attacked for being visibly Jewish — for existing in public. When we call it antisemitism, we’re told we’re overreacting. That our fear is political. That our pain is inconvenient. We’ve been gaslit for 18 months. Enough.”

He also called out progressives directly, saying “antisemitism isn’t any less dangerous when it comes wrapped in ‘progressive’ language.”

In response to the attack, some of the most prominent far-left critics of Israel on Capitol Hill have offered what many in the Jewish community have seen as half-hearted and inadequate responses.

“My heart breaks for the loved ones of the victims of last night’s attack in D.C. Nobody deserves such terrible violence. Everyone in our communities deserves to live in safety and in peace,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) said, linking to an article highlighting that the victims, Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, were Israeli Embassy workers, but not noting their backgrounds or the circumstances of the shooting in her own post.

Omar noted that the shooting took place at the Capital Jewish Museum but did not acknowledge the victims’ backgrounds and condemned violence broadly.

“I am appalled by the deadly shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum last night. Holding the victims, their families, and loved ones in my thoughts and prayers,” Omar said. “Violence should have no place in our country.”

A coalition of 46 Jewish organizations issued a joint statement on Thursday urging additional action from the federal government to address antisemitism in the United States following the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, and particularly expanding funding for a variety of programs to protect the Jewish community.

“The rising level of anti-Jewish incitement, which inevitably leads to violent acts like the one in Washington, DC yesterday, requires governmental action commensurate with the level of danger,” the letter reads.

The demands include a call to massively expand funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $1 billion, from its current level of $274.5 million, in addition to $200 million in supplemental funding also expected to be released soon. The new request is double the $500 million request from Jewish groups in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and the request recently submitted by a bipartisan coalition of House members.

The letter further said the NSGP process should be “made more flexible and accessible,” describing it currently as “cumbersome and lack[ing] transparency.”

The groups also called for additional funding for security at Jewish institutions, for the FBI to expand its intelligence operations and counter-domestic terrorism operations and for local law enforcement to be empowered to protect Jewish establishments.

“The demands on local and state law enforcement far outpace their capacity to meet the need, which disproportionately affects targeted communities like the American Jewish community,” the letter says, of the need for additional funding for state and local law enforcement.

The groups also urged the federal government to “aggressively prosecute antisemitic hate crimes and extremist violence in accordance with the law” and to hold online platforms including social media and gaming sites “accountable for amplification of antisemitic hate, glorification of terrorism, extremism, disinformation, and incitement.”

The letter describes the murders as “the direct consequence of rising antisemitic incitement in places such as college campuses, city council meetings, and social media that has normalized hate and emboldened those who wish to do harm.”

Signatories to the letter include major national Jewish organizations including the American Jewish Committee, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Jewish Federations of North America, Anti-Defamation League and AIPAC, as well as groups representing a wide political and religious cross section of the Jewish community.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) called on the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate the political organizations that Elias Rodriguez, the suspect in the fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum, claims to be an active member of. 

Cornyn made the call in a post on X on Thursday that federal authorities should investigate the organizations allegedly affiliated with Rodriguez and the funding networks that finance their operations. The Texas senator was responding to a post alleging Rodriguez has ties to groups including the Party for Socialism and Liberation, People’s Congress of Resistance and ANSWER Chicago. 

“Every single one of these groups and their funding should be investigated immediately. This attack goes beyond antisemitism. We must know if this is domestic terrorism,” Cornyn said, adding that he was confident Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel “will get to the bottom of this threat.”

Speaking to Newsmax on Thursday, Cornyn applauded the Trump administration for taking an aggressive approach to addressing the surge of domestic antisemitism since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. “There’s been a course correction since the election of President Trump,” he told the network.

“We have a new sheriff in town. We have a new attorney general, a new FBI director that can aggressively do investigations and prosecute individuals who violate the rights of our Jewish citizens, and I think that will go a long way to correcting the direction that we have been on for the last four years,” Cornyn said.

“A lot of the woke programs and policies of universities across this country were a big surprise to a lot of people — the blatant antisemitism in particular, the targeting of Jewish students. This is unacceptable,” he continued.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation quickly disavowed  affiliation with Rodriguez after the attack, saying he “is not a member” of the organization and only had “a brief association” with the group in 2017.

The ANSWER Coalition has organized a series of anti-Israel protests in the United States, including the rally during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s congressional speech in July 2024 that ended in numerous arrests and the vandalism of D.C.’s Union Station. Scripps News published archive footage from 2018 when the news service interviewed Rodriguez at a protest in Chicago, where he identified himself as a member of the group.

Both organizations have been linked to Neville Roy Singham, a financier who has been accused of funding groups to advance Chinese talking points as well as a network of anti-Israel protest groups, according to the Network Contagion Research Institute. 

Separately, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) urged authorities to investigate the murders as a hate crime and a domestic terrorist attack, which Interim U.S. Attorney in Washington Jeanine Pirro said is currently being explored.

“In light of this horrific attack, I respectfully request you immediately launch an investigation into this hate crime and act of domestic terrorism,” Moreno said. “The city of Washington D.C. must also conduct a full review of the security failures that allowed this terrorist attack to happen.”

Moreno also called for full funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program and that Department of Justice law enforcement grants be used to protect religious institutions. He asked local and federal officials to review how the shooting occurred.

Rodriguez was charged in Washington with two counts of first- degree murder, the murder of foreign officials, causing death with a firearm and discharging a firearm in a violent crime. He is eligible for the death penalty, according to Pirro.

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is urging colleagues to take steps to address antisemitism in the health care field in the 2026 appropriations process for the Department of Health and Human Services and related agencies.

In a letter sent Wednesday, the lawmakers called on the leaders of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies to demand reports from HHS on the rise of antisemitism in health care.

“Failure to confront this pernicious ideology harms not only Jewish medical professionals, students, and patients but threatens to destroy the very foundations of our healthcare system,” the letter reads. “Dangerous rhetoric from individuals in positions of influence raises fears among Jewish and Israeli students, families, and patients about whether they will receive equitable and compassionate care. Antisemitic hate and bigotry put Jewish patients at risk and undermine the ethical foundations of medicine, where commitment to the patient should be paramount.”

The lawmakers argued that there is growing evidence of a “dangerous erosion of the professional standards that define graduate medical training” and said that medical schools must enforce codes of conduct to prevent antisemitism.

The letter highlights that the vast majority of Jewish medical professionals experienced antisemitism in the year after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, and points to specific incidents which the lawmakers argue have “directly compromised patient care.” 

It also highlights issues in medical schools that they say constitute a “dangerous erosion of the professional standards that define graduate medical training” and issues in the mental health field including therapists promoting the view that Zionism is a mental illness and who have blacklisted Jewish patients and providers.

The letter urges the lawmakers, in their 2026 funding bill, to instruct HHS to provide a comprehensive report to Congress on antisemitism and civil rights violations in health care and medical schools, arguing that a lack of comprehensive data makes it difficult to tackle the problem.

It also requests a report on all civil rights complaints in health care and medical schools submitted to HHS in the past two years, including spelling out which cases included antisemitism, and how the complaints were addressed.

The letter was signed by Reps. Buddy Carter (R-GA), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Greg Landsman (D-OH), Troy Balderson (R-OH), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Tim Kennedy (D-NY), Haley Stevens (D-MI), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), Don Bacon (R-NE), Shelia Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), Sarah Elfreth (D-MD), Mike Carey (R-OH), Laura Friedman (D-CA) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL).

“Far too many Jewish health professionals and graduate students face pervasive antisemitism that often goes unaddressed by the very institutions entrusted with their safety and wellbeing,” Rachel Dembo, the senior manager of government relations and engagement for the Jewish Federations of North America said in a statement. 

“It’s alarming that today’s current and future providers are encountering environments where antisemitism is treated as acceptable — and where it can even distort or impact clinical care,” Dembo continued. “Compassion cannot coexist with discrimination and bigotry. Jewish Federations of North America are committed to ensuring clinical care is safe and fair for all — because bias can never be part of any patient’s treatment plan.”

Lauren Wolman, the director of government relations at the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement, “We commend bipartisan Members of Congress for sounding the alarm on this disturbing trend, and we urge the Appropriations Committee to act.”

“From hospitals to medical schools — the mission of medicine is to heal, not to harm. Antisemitic discrimination in clinical and educational environments violates that fundamental principle,” Wolman added. “Providers, students, and patients deserve an environment rooted in equity, dignity, and safety — free from antisemitism and hate.”

Antisemitic violence struck at the heart of the nation’s capital on Wednesday evening when an assailant shot and killed two Israeli embassy employees outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum for young diplomats and Jewish professionals hosted by the American Jewish Committee.

“Two staff members of the Israeli embassy were shot this evening at close range while attending a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC,” embassy spokesperson Tal Naim Cohen said in a statement. “We have full faith in law enforcement authorities on both the local and federal levels to apprehend the shooter and protect Israel’s representatives and Jewish communities throughout the United States.”

Officials said there was no ongoing threat to public safety and that a suspect had been arrested.

“American Jewish Committee (AJC) can confirm that we hosted an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. this evening,” AJC CEO Ted Deutch said in a statement. “We are devastated that an unspeakable act of violence took place outside the venue. At this moment, as we await more information from the police about exactly what transpired, our attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families.”

President Donald Trump said in a statement, “These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”

D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said that a man and woman were killed in the incident. Israeli Ambassador Michael Leiter said that the two victims were a young couple and embassy employees who were planning to get engaged next week in Jerusalem — the man purchased a ring earlier this week.

Eyewitness Paige Siegel, who was a guest at the event, told Jewish Insider that she heard two sets of multiple shots ring out, and then an individual, who police have since identified as suspected shooter Elias Rodriguez, entered the building appearing disoriented and panicked, seconds after the shooting ended. She said security allowed the man in, as well as two other women separately.

Siegel said she spoke to the man, asking him if he had been shot. He appeared panicked and was mumbling and repeatedly told bystanders to call the police. Siegel said that she felt the man was suspicious.

JoJo Drake Kalin, a member of AJC’s DC Young Professional Board and an organizer of the event, also told JI the man appeared disheveled and out of breath when he entered the building. Kalin assumed he had been a bystander to the shooting who needed assistance and she handed him a glass of water.

Siegel said that the man was sitting in the building in a state of distress for approximately 10 to 15 minutes, and she and a friend engaged him in conversation, informing him that he was in the Jewish museum.

After Siegel said that, she said the man started screaming, “I did it, I did it. Free Palestine. I did it for Gaza,” and opened a backpack, withdrawing a red Keffiyeh. She said that an officer, who had already arrived, detained the man and took him outside. She said that she subsequently saw security footage of Rodriguez shooting the female and identified the shooter as the same individual. Kalin said that some attendees stayed for several hours at the museum into the night to be debriefed by police.

A short video obtained by JI showed an individual in the lobby of the museum chanting “Free, free Palestine” being detained by police and removed from the building.

A video obtained by Jewish Insider shows the suspected shooter, identified by police as Elias Rodriguez, in the lobby of the Capital Jewish Museum chanting “free, free Palestine” as he is detained by police and removed from the building.

Full story: https://t.co/ZGZBj9agQx pic.twitter.com/zZUbTvovFm

— Jewish Insider (@J_Insider) May 22, 2025

Smith said in a press conference that the suspect, Rodriguez, a 30-year-old from Chicago, opened fire on a group of four outside the museum, and then entered the building and was detained by event security. Smith said that Rodriguez, once in custody, implied that he carried out the shooting and chanted “free, free Palestine.”

Smith said Rodriguez had been pacing outside the event before the altercation.

Leiter said that he had spoken to President Donald Trump, who vowed that the administration would do everything it can to fight antisemitism and demonization and delegitimization of Israel.

“We’ll stand together tall and firm and confront this moral depravity without fear,” Leiter said.

Smith said that police would coordinate with local Jewish organizations to ensure sufficient security. She said police had not received any intelligence warning of the attack.

Mayor Muriel Bowser said, “we will not tolerate antisemitism,” and said the city would continue to assist Jewish organizations with security grants.

FBI officials and Attorney General Pam Bondi and interim U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro joined the response alongside D.C. police.

“We are a resilient people. The people of Israel are a resilient people. The people of the United States of America are a resilient people. Together, we won’t be afraid. Together we will stand and overcome moral depravity of people who think they’re going to achieve political gains through murder,” Leiter said. 

According to an invitation to the event viewed by JI, the event planned to discuss efforts to respond to humanitarian crises in the Middle East and North Africa, including in Gaza.

Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, described the shooting as a “depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told JI, “I’ve been informed of the tragic shooting that occurred outside of the Capitol Jewish Museum tonight in Washington D.C. We are monitoring the situation as more details become known and lifting up the victim’s families in our prayers.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a post, “This sickening shooting seems to be another horrific instance of antisemitism which as we know is all too rampant in our society.”

Richard Priem, the CEO of the Community Security Service, told eJewishPhilanthropy that there are still “so many unknowns” about the shooting, namely if it was a sophisticated attack specifically targeting Israeli Embassy staff or an attack more generally against the Jewish event itself. In any case, the organization called for “increased situational awareness” at Jewish institutions going forward, particularly ahead of Shabbat.

“Anytime there’s an attack, certain people get activated and think, ’Now’s the time,’” Priem said. “But we don’t know yet if there might be a direct correlated threat.”

eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross contributed reporting

Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights, says he’s undeterred by critics of the Trump administration’s approach to combating antisemitism, arguing that those dissatisfied with its deportation strategy are “trying to justify, in my opinion, the antisemitic behavior” of those individuals. 

Terrell, who has a career spanning three decades as a civil rights attorney and a conservative media personality, sat down on Monday for his first interview with Jewish Insider since joining the Justice Department earlier this year — at a time when some mainstream Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, have expressed concern that the administration’s approach has violated the due process rights of the individuals being targeted. The Trump administration has argued that non-citizens do not have the same constitutional protections as U.S. citizens, though the Fourteenth Amendment grants due process rights to all people regardless of status. 

“That question is being asked quite often, and I think those people who are raising that issue are trying to justify, in my opinion, the antisemitic behavior,” Terrell said. “If you’re an American citizen, I have due process on a lot of different criminal issues if I’m arrested. I have due process. That term due process needs to be evaluated depending on the status of the individuals who assert it.”

“I will submit to you that individuals who are here on, let’s say, for example, a student visa, who are not American citizens, who are here as a privilege by this country, do not have the same due process rights, do not have the same access to the court system as I do as an American citizen,” he continued, adding, “Your rights depend on your status in this country. You won’t hear that because it’s the truth, it’s not a talking point.”

Terrell said he and Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights at the DOJ, remain confident they are following the law. He also said he wants injunctive relief for Jewish students from U.S. citizens and foreign nationals involved in antisemitic hate crimes. 

“How many times do we see individuals violating the rights of Jewish American students use the lying argument of freedom of speech, and it was adopted by a majority of the left-wing media, but these blue cities allow these individuals to be violent. They were arrested, and then they were released, and they were never prosecuted. They were never prosecuted. And that type of mentality existed not only on the local level, but on the federal level as well. That has stopped under the Trump administration,” Terrell explained.

“One of the first questions you mentioned is, and I’ve heard it the last couple of days, if you think the Trump administration is too hard or being too aggressive? They raise that question, and I’ve heard it in three different locations, but I say no, we’re not aggressive enough. If you’re comparing that there’s been some progress in relationship to the Biden administration, that’s not much of a standard, because they did nothing,” he added.

When asked about Columbia University, where new acting President Claire Shipman oversaw the suspension and arrests of some of the students involved in last week’s takeover of the school’s main library, Terrell said the university’s actions were insufficient because they did not deter future action from the protesters. 

“Some people have said, well, you know, some of these students have been suspended by the college president. Not good enough. There’s no deterrent mechanism. You need deterrence where it doesn’t happen again. And under the Trump administration, I can tell you right now, I’m using the tools of Title VI [of the Civil Rights Act]. I’m using the tools of filing hate crimes as a deterrent mechanism,” Terrell said, later noting, “Trump is dead set on eliminating antisemitism, and besides the litigation that we are contemplating … we’ve got some tools … that we’re going to be disclosing later on, that are going to definitely have a major factor.”

Terrell added that he stood by the decision to target the individuals the Trump administration had sought to deport as part of its antisemitism policy, including the case of Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts University doctoral student and Turkish national who was released from detention last week amid criticism from several leading Jewish groups as federal authorities continue pushing for her deportation. Some Jewish leaders and organizations had argued against Öztürk’s detention due to the lack of evidence against her the federal government has made public; currently, her only known anti-Israel activity is a critical op-ed she co-authored in her school newspaper.

“The Civil Rights team is more concerned with getting rid of the problem than making everybody comfortable while they do so. I believe the previous administration expressed commitment, both in speech and in certain actions, to fighting antisemitism, but then allowed antisemitism to get diluted to the point where the effort was regrettably no longer as effective. A wise man once said, when you get too well-rounded, you stop pointing anywhere. An effort to combat and eradicate antisemitism must do that,” Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad), told JI. 

Öztürk’s release on bail, Terrell explained, “has nothing to do with the merit as to whether or not she can be removed based on the evidence and the discretion of the secretary of state.” 

“Yes, she got released on bail. So the standard for bail is: Are you a flight risk? Are you a danger? Will you return? That has nothing to do with the merit of her status here. … The decision on the merits as to whether or not she will remain in this country has not been decided,” Terrell said, criticizing the news media’s portrayal of the latest developments in Öztürk’s case as inaccurate.

Asked if any universities had responded to campus antisemitism in ways that he found satisfactory, Terrell pointed to Dartmouth College. “I was very pleased when the president of Dartmouth College came by and spoke to us, and they got a very favorable grade from the ADL as far as battling antisemitism. If I was going to mention one school that is on the right track to combat antisemitism, that has addressed the issue, and not tried to dodge it or look for press coverage because they suspended some students, Dartmouth College would be probably number one on my list,” he said. 

Looking off campus, Terrell told JI he has reached out to the mayors of Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City to try to find ways to work together on campus antisemitism “because I felt those were major cities that had failed to protect Jewish American students, not only on campus, but Jewish Americans period, in the city.” 

Terrell said that he hasn’t heard back from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass or Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, but his message to them is that he’s “not going to run away from that. I’m going to meet it head on.”

“I’m going to do everything I can to get him [Johnson] and those [Chicago City] Council members to change their ways. The federal government has a lot of tools, and we’re going to use all of them. The one thing I can tell you is that I’ve had conversations with the president about this as late as last week, and he said basically in so many words, whatever you need on this subject just call me directly, just talk to me directly. Because I have approached him on certain issues involving resolving some of these issues in schools and he wants complete, 100% compliance,” Terrell said.

While he has some detractors, Terrell also has a number of Jewish leaders in his corner who argue his approach to his current role was bound to ruffle some feathers. 

Ambassador Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s envoy to the U.S., told JI in a statement, “Leo Terrell has hit the ground running … showing remarkable clarity and passion. From day one, he has demonstrated unwavering commitment to this crucial fight — through strong public statements, meaningful action, and a clear moral compass.”

“The Civil Rights team is more concerned with getting rid of the problem than making everybody comfortable while they do so. I believe the previous administration expressed commitment, both in speech and in certain actions, to fighting antisemitism, but then allowed antisemitism to get diluted to the point where the effort was regrettably no longer as effective. A wise man once said, when you get too well-rounded, you stop pointing anywhere. An effort to combat and eradicate antisemitism must do that,” Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad), told JI. 

“We cannot compromise our efforts to deal with the situation just so that everybody’s very comfortable with what we’re doing. Unconventional and illegal are not the same thing, and people facing existential threats cannot be expected to make everybody comfortable while they fight for their survival,” Shemtov continued, later adding: “Any energetic effort might test some limits here or there.” 

Ambassador Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s envoy to the U.S., told JI in a statement, “Leo Terrell has hit the ground running … showing remarkable clarity and passion. From day one, he has demonstrated unwavering commitment to this crucial fight — through strong public statements, meaningful action, and a clear moral compass.”

“We deeply value our partnership with him and appreciate his willingness to listen, engage, and stand up against hatred in all its forms. His leadership is both encouraging and inspiring at a time when it’s needed most,” Leiter added.

Terrell spent more than two decades amassing a large following on the talk radio circuit and on cable news, serving as a Fox News contributor on legal issues for much of the last decade. He made headlines in 2020 when debuting “Leo 2.0,” his revamped persona, while announcing his move from the Democratic Party to the GOP. 

In his new job, he frequently starts his morning tweeting on X about the rise in antisemitism to his 2.5 million followers.

“The Jewish American community and I have had a love affair for the last 35 years. One of my first jobs as a lawyer, I worked in a Jewish law firm, and I was befriended not only by the Jewish lawyer who helped me get started, but by the community at large. So my relationship with the Jewish American community has been in place for the last 35 plus years,” Terrell said, noting his time leading the California Commission Against Hate Crimes, “where we looked at all hate crimes against Blacks, Browns, Jews, Catholics.”

While Terrell warned in media appearances about the rise of antisemitism in recent years, he was not directly involved in trying to address the issue nationally until 2024, when he began criticizing the Biden administration’s lack of response to incidents of antisemitism taking place amid anti-Israel campus protests. 

Still, Terrell says he’s no stranger to fighting for civil rights protections for all, citing his three-decade “love affair” with the Jewish people and his legal career, which included efforts to address antisemitism in California.

“The Jewish American community and I have had a love affair for the last 35 years. One of my first jobs as a lawyer, I worked in a Jewish law firm, and I was befriended not only by the Jewish lawyer who helped me get started, but by the community at large. So my relationship with the Jewish American community has been in place for the last 35 plus years,” Terrell said, noting his time leading the California Commission Against Hate Crimes, “where we looked at all hate crimes against Blacks, Browns, Jews, Catholics.” 

“I have committed to civil rights and my commitment to the Jewish American community has been so heartwarming based on my experience here in this position and on Fox, but it goes well beyond that. It goes well beyond that. For the last 25 to 30 years, ever since I have been a lawyer, I’ve had a fantastic, strong, great relationship with the Jewish American community and it is going to maintain.”

The American Jewish Committee — together with major groups representing U.S. universities — on Tuesday released a statement asking the Trump administration to reconsider its approach to combatting campus antisemitism, which it said involves steps that “endanger” academic freedom. 

“America’s higher education and Jewish communities share and endorse the Trump Administration’s priority of eradicating antisemitism. We come together to ask the Administration to pursue this important goal in ways that preserve academic freedom, respect due process, and strengthen the government-campus scientific partnership,” said the joint statement, which was co-signed by American Council on Education, Association of American Universities, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, American Association of Community Colleges, National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

The groups — which together represent more than 1,000 colleges and universities — called antisemitism “a plague on humanity” which “has found unacceptable expression on U.S. campuses in recent years, as it has elsewhere in American society, on both sides of the political spectrum.”

The statement continued, “In the name of combating antisemitism, the federal government has recently taken steps that endanger the research grants, academic freedom, and institutional autonomy of America’s higher education sector.”

It urged the U.S. government to instead address antisemitism “through the nation’s powerful anti-discrimination laws, which allow for vigorous enforcement while providing due process rights that are essential to ensure fair treatment of individuals and institutions.” 

The groups pledged “continuing consequential reform and transparent action to root out antisemitism and all other forms of hate and prejudice from our campuses.”

The Trump administration has cut — or threatened to cut — more than $12 billion in research funding from elite schools including Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Brown and Northwestern. The moves to rescind billions in federal funding from colleges and universities, as well as to detain and deport foreign students, have ignited debate in the Jewish community in recent months, with many stressing a need for due process. 

“Our democratic values are not at odds with our vision for classrooms and campuses free from antisemitism – in fact, each is necessary for the other,” Ted Deutch, CEO of the AJC, said in a statement on Tuesday. 

Deutch told Jewish Insider last month that the group is trying to take a nuanced approach to the White House’s response to campus antisemitism. 

“There are campuses [where] so many of the challenges should have been addressed by universities, and weren’t. We’ve been clear that it’s really important that the administration, that the president, is making this a priority,” Deutch said. “At the same time, as we’ve said, due process matters and obviously our democratic principles matter as well, we have to be able to both express appreciation and, when necessary, express concern.”

“When the hammer [of funding cuts] is dropped in a way which winds up cutting life-saving cancer research, that’s when we have concern, which we’ve expressed,” Deutch warned. 

Barbara Snyder, president of AAU, an organization of 69 leading research universities, said in a statement that “cutting funds for life-saving research and threatening academic freedom and constitutional rights such as freedom of speech do nothing to make students safer. Fighting discrimination and supporting due process are two sides of the same coin; you cannot have one without the other.” 

Harvard University’s long-awaited dual reports on antisemitism and Islamophobia, released on Tuesday, reveal a campus beset by tension and simmering distrust — as well as a university struggling to handle competing claims of discrimination, animosity and exclusion made by Jewish and Muslim students. 

In the 300-page antisemitism report, which was made public amid alumni frustration and pressure from the Trump administration, Harvard commits to partner with an Israeli university; provide additional resources for the study of Hebrew and Judaic studies; host an annual academic symposium on antisemitism; ask the leadership of Sidechat, a social media app that allows college students to post anonymously, to enforce its content moderation policies; and launch a pilot program in the business school addressing contemporary antisemitism.

The authors of the antisemitism report described “severe problems” that Jewish students have faced in the classroom, on social media and through campus protests. The report announced the hiring of an Office for Community Conduct staff member expected to consult on all complaints relating to antisemitism, as well as the release of an annual report on the university’s response to discrimination or harassment based on the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. 

In a letter publicizing the reports, Harvard President Alan Garber called the 2023-2024 academic year, following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, “disappointing and painful,” and said the reports “reveal aspects of a charged period in our recent history.” He condemned both antisemitism and Islamophobia, and pledged that the university will take action to counter both forms of hatred. 

Many of the recommendations in both the antisemitism and Islamophobia reports are the same: working to create a pluralistic campus environment where differing opinions are respected, committing additional resources to the university’s Title VI office, providing greater halal and kosher food options and shoring up university policy around protests and activism. 

But the instances of hate or discrimination that were described by Jewish and Muslim students differ. Often, what one group views as bigotry, the other views as acceptable behavior, or an expression of their freedom of speech.

For instance, a Muslim staff member described Harvard as “embarrassingly, shamefully biased” for shutting down the anti-Israel encampment in Harvard Yard last spring. Yet some Jewish students described “being followed and verbally harassed” as they walked near the encampment. 

In the recommendations and commitments made by the antisemitism task force, Harvard pledged to follow the guidance of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism in its Non-Discrimination and Anti-Bullying Policies. But the authors of the Islamophobia report say the IHRA definition — which identifies some criticism of Israel as antisemitic — “sparked concerns” and created “apprehension that this may suppress pro-Palestinian protest.” 

Garber’s letter, and the recommendations issued by the task forces, do not address how the university will act when pulled in different directions by the Jewish and Muslim student populations.

The antisemitism report authors wrote that after more than a year of conducting listening sessions with the university community, it was clear that since Oct. 7, Jewish and Israeli students believed that their “presence had become triggering” to peers and in some cases, faculty. Many Jewish Harvard students were frequently asked to clarify that they were “one of the good ones” by denouncing Israel. The campus climate began to rapidly deteriorate while Hamas’ invasion of southern Israel was still underway, the authors wrote — when 33 Harvard student groups co-signed a letter saying Israel was “entirely responsible” for the terrorist attack.  

The recommendations were divided into three areas: strengthening academic and residential life, supporting belonging and promoting respectful dialogue and revising and implementing campus policies, procedures and training. 

The report called on department deans to work with faculty to “maintain appropriate focus on course subject matter; ensure students are treated fairly regardless of their political/religious beliefs; promote intellectual openness and respectful dialogue among students; and maintain appropriate professional boundaries in instructional settings by refraining from endorsing or advocating political positions.” 

The reports come as Harvard, the world’s wealthiest university, finds itself embroiled in a high-stakes legal battle with the White House. The university is suing the Trump administration in protest of a series of demands issued by President Donald Trump earlier this month, aimed at reforming Harvard’s handling of antisemitism, as well as its governance structure, admissions policies and teaching practices.

The 15-member antisemitism task force’s final set of recommendations were initially expected to be issued last fall, following the release of preliminary recommendations in June, which several Jewish faculty and alumni told Jewish Insider at the time fell short of expectations. The reports were set to be released in early April, according to the Harvard Crimson, but their publication was again delayed as the university came under scrutiny from Trump. 

Amid the Trump administration’s funding freeze and ongoing legal battle with Harvard, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights instructed the university earlier this month to send the report to the government. 

The university has not commented on what led to the delay in issuing the final task force reports. 

For Fox News host Dana Perino, supporting Israel has been a given since the early days of her career, when she visited the Jewish state multiple times with President George W. Bush as his press secretary. Perino, who first arrived at the White House while the nation was reeling from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, worked alongside Bush, initially as his deputy press secretary, throughout the early years of the war on terror. 

Two decades later, as co-anchor of Fox’s “America’s Newsroom,” Perino finds herself frequently drawing on those experiences, especially in the past year and a half as she’s reported on the aftermath of another crisis — Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, the ensuing war in Gaza and record-breaking levels of antisemitism in the U.S.   

“Once you learn those issues, they are ingrained in you,” Perino told Jewish Insider, referring to the threats Jews face, in Israel and around the world. “Plus, if you care about doing the right thing — and an additional plus is working for a place that encourages you to do the right thing, that news comes first. To me, it was an obligation and an honor to tell the story the way it needed to be told: bluntly with really engaging guests that did not gloss over the complexities of the situation, but that [are] very honest about drawing a line between right and wrong.” 

The sentiment has increasingly caught the eye of liberal-leaning American Jews who believe that much of the mainstream media’s coverage is unfairly hostile to Israel. Weeks after Oct. 7, Fox Corp.’s CEO, Lachlan Murdoch, told shareholders at the annual meeting that the network must “stand-up” to antisemitism. 

It was then that even some staunchly liberal Jews found refuge in Fox’s coverage, which by the end of October 2023 had debuted a newsletter — and running section on its website — called “Antisemitism Exposed.” 

Fox has also garnered attention for its Middle East coverage, with Tel Aviv-based chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst leading the network’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. Yingst, who was the first reporter from a major American network on the scene on Oct. 7, 2023, following Hamas’ terrorist attack in southern Israel, detailed his firsthand account of the attacks and experience on the ground in Gaza in “Black Saturday,” his book published last fall.

Even as Fox has long been the leading news source for conservatives, ratings data from liberal-leaning major metropolitan areas show a spike in viewership that surpasses its rivals and has remained consistent since October 2023. (There is no publicly available data on the religious affiliation of the cable news viewing audience.) 

According to Nielsen Ratings, between Oct. 8, 2023, and April 14, 2025, Fox News Channel viewership increased among its target demographic of 25-54 year-olds by 46% in L.A., 42% in New York, and 62% in Philadelphia. Comparatively, in those same cities, CNN viewership increased by 1%, 8% and 19%, respectively. MSNBC viewership declined by 8% in New York over the same period. 

Fox News commentator and “The Five” co-host Jessica Tarlov, who is Jewish and one of the network’s liberal commentators, told JI she frequently hears from like-minded Jewish friends and peers in New York City that they’re increasingly watching Fox.  

“A bunch of friends who are all Democratic voters, not part of the cohort who even switched over to voting for Trump on the issue of Israel in the 2024 election — I hear quite regularly people say they are making a choice to consume content that reflects the world they see — which is that there was a massive terrorist attack against the Israeli people and that’s the most important component of this and Hamas is the one that is regularly breaking these ceasefires,” Tarlov said. 

“They are feeling underrepresented, and sometimes completely unrepresented, in some of the left-leaning coverage [at other networks]. They have found a home at Fox and are enjoying the rest of the coverage that we do on top of that.” 

Reporting on college campus protests was “a huge lightning-bolt issue” on the topic of antisemitism, Tarlov said. But as university protests fizzle out in 2025 and other global and domestic events are taking attention away from the war in Gaza, Fox News has remained focused on the issue.  

Earlier this month, its subscription service, Fox Nation, premiered “Rebound: A Year of Triumph and Tragedy at Yeshiva University Basketball,” a documentary that tells the story of YU’s basketball team’s challenges and successes in the wake of Oct. 7. 

Perino said she’s made it a personal and professional goal to “never forget every day that there are hostages being held [in Gaza]. The story is not over.” 

And it appears that more Jewish viewers are taking note of it these days — including in Israel, where an IDF soldier who accompanied Fox’s leadership on a visit to the Jerusalem bureau last year asked for a message to be delivered to “The Five” co-hosts in New York. “We love you all very much,” the soldier said in a video message. “Thanks for supporting Israel. This is a blessing from the IDF. Please come and visit us anytime. It is safe here. And when you come, you’re always welcome to each and every home.”

A group of Jewish Senate Democrats accused President Donald Trump of weaponizing antisemitism as a pretext to withhold funding from and punish colleges and universities, moves they said in a letter on Thursday “undermine the work of combating antisemitism” and ultimately make Jewish students “less safe.”

“We are extremely troubled and disturbed by your broad and extra-legal attacks against universities and higher education institutions as well as members of their communities, which seem to go far beyond combatting antisemitism, using what is a real crisis as a pretext to attack people and institutions who do not agree with you,” the lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), antisemitism task force co-chair Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) wrote to the president.

“It has become abundantly clear that for this administration, the stated goal of fighting antisemitism — which is needed now more than ever, and for which we stand ready to work in a bipartisan way on real solution — is simply a means to an end to attack our nation’s universities and public schools and their ability to function as multifaceted and vital institutions of higher learning and to protect free speech and the civil liberties of their students and employees,” they continued.

The letter points to Trump’s attacks on Harvard University, including the freezing of billions of dollars in funding and threats to revoke its tax-exempt status, as the most prominent examples of the administration’s efforts, which they say “go far beyond constructive and necessary efforts” to support Jewish students.

They said the administration instead appears to be trying to change “the way the university functions” and impose significant penalties “in ways wholly unrelated to combating antisemitism.” The lawmakers instead accused Trump of trying to undermine or destroy these colleges under the “guise” of antisemitism.

“We strongly support efforts to ensure universities uphold their duty to protect students from unlawful discrimination and harassment, but we reject your administration’s policies of defunding and punishing universities out of spite, as they actually undermine the work of combating antisemitism,” the letter continues, “ultimately only making Jews less safe by pitting Jewish safety against other communities and undermining the freedoms and democratic norms that have allowed Jewish communities, and so many others, to thrive in the United States.”

The letter poses a series of questions to the administration, requesting answers by the end of April, including how the administration has chosen the institutions it has targeted, the specific charges made against Harvard, how the “totally disproportionate” penalties are being assessed, how the administration is deciding what funding to cut and what its legal basis is for threatening Harvard’s tax-exempt status.

The lawmakers particularly raised concerns about the impact of cuts to medical research funding, which they say will affect all students, including Jewish students, and why Harvard’s medical school has been targeted.

They also asked why the administration has significantly cut funding and resources for the Department of Education’s Office for Civil rights and how it plans to work with schools to implement reforms and protections for Jewish students going forward, in light of those cuts.

The letter further asks whether the administration has consulted “a broad range” of Jewish students and organizations on remedies for antisemitism and how it will ensure that funding cuts don’t hurt Jewish students or those uninvolved in or victimized by antisemitic activity.

They additionally inquired about the revocation of visas of foreign students and deportation proceedings and whether such actions are being taken based “solely on their expressed views and speech, which the administration has identified as antisemitic.” They asked whether the administration believes that the First Amendment applies to non-citizens and whether any deported or detained students have been charged with any crimes.

A new organizational chart released by the State Department on Tuesday shows major changes to the department’s structure, including the elimination of the office where the special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism’s team is located. Despite this, internal department communications affirmed that the office of the special envoy is still a department priority and will continue to exist.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the major shake-up of the department’s organizational structure as seeking to counter what he described as left-wing orthodoxy in the department and “drain[ing] the bloated, bureaucratic swamp.”

The changes include the elimination of the office of the under secretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights, where the office of the antisemitism envoy was previously placed. 

A fact sheet sent to State Department employees that was obtained by Jewish Insider makes clear that the antisemitism envoy’s office will now fall under the State Department’s new foreign and humanitarian affairs office, along with the office of international religious freedom. Many other offices were not afforded the same clarity in Rubio’s fact sheet. Layoffs are expected across the department, but senior officials declined to share with employees who might lose their job. 

“President [Donald] Trump and Secretary Rubio are focused on realigning U.S. foreign policy to reflect America’s core national interests and deliver better results for Americans,” the fact sheet stated. 

Trump nominated businessman Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun to serve as antisemitism envoy, an ambassador-level position that requires Senate confirmation. The office is still staffed by several civil servants even in the absence of a confirmed envoy.

Two of the leading Democratic hopefuls looking to replace retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) condemned anti-Israel protesters for harassing University of Michigan Regent Sarah Hubbard over the weekend. 

Protesters could be heard in video of the incident, which began circulating on social media on Sunday evening, shouting at Hubbard that she had “blood on [her] hands” along with other insults as she was guided away by a uniformed police officer. “Your money has gone to kill Palestinian children. Your money has killed our families. We are your students, you answer to us,” one protester shouted as they filmed Hubbard. 

In response, Hubbard wrote on X that, “I remain steadfast in my commitment to make our campus a safe place for all our students and will not be intimidated by protestors.”

The incident prompted quick statements of condemnation from Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, two of the Democratic Senate candidates looking to replace Peters. Abdul El-Sayed, a Bernie Sanders-endorsed progressive candidate, did not issue a statement and did not respond to Jewish Insider’s request for comment.

“The harassment and antisemitism we’ve seen against University of Michigan regents in recent months is wrong, plain and simple. Regent Hubbard should be able to walk to her car without a police escort. And Regent [Jordan] Acker’s family was terrorized in their own home when vandals threw jars of urine through their windows and spray painted graffiti on their car,” McMorrow told JI in a statement. 

“The attacks and intimidation need to stop now,” McMorrow, who launched her campaign earlier this month, added.

A spokesperson for Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), who announced her candidacy on Tuesday, told JI in a statement, “Rep. Stevens has been clear that violence and vandalism have no place in our communities and will continue to make sure all Michiganders are safe in their daily lives.” 

Former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), who is also running to replace Peters, similarly denounced the harassment in a statement.

“These activists’ criminal actions toward university leaders at their homes cannot be tolerated. I stand with Sarah Hubbard and the Michigan Regents as they continue to stand up to hate and antisemitism in their efforts to make the campus safe for all students,” Rogers told JI.

Jewish Insider’s senior congressional correspondent Marc Rod contributed to this report.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog called Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Sunday, a week after an arsonist motivated by anti-Israel animus set the governor’s mansion on fire. 

Herzog expressed solidarity with Shapiro after the attack, which took place hours after the governor hosted a Passover Seder. 

Shapiro told Herzog he greatly appreciated the call, a spokesperson for the president told Jewish Insider.

The man who set fire to the governor’s mansion last weekend said in a 911 call that he “will not take part in [Shapiro’s] plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people.” 

While Shapiro quoted the Jewish priestly blessing following the attack, he stopped short of attributing the attack to antisemitism in an interview on Friday with ABC News and rebuffed a call by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to have Attorney General Pam Bondi investigate the attack as a hate crime.

Herzog was the first Israeli official to call Shapiro after the attack. 

Ofir Akunis, the Israeli consul general in New York, sent a letter to Shapiro last week, saying that he was “deeply shocked and saddened to learn of the arson attack.”

“This appalling act of violence, carried out during one of the most meaningful nights of the Jewish calendar, could have resulted in a far greater tragedy,” Akunis added. “We commend law enforcement for their swift and effective response, and we stand in full solidarity with you and your family.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is holding firm in his choice not to label the arson attack that targeted the governor’s mansion on Passover as antisemitic or a hate crime, saying in a Friday interview on ABC News’ “Good Morning America” that he will leave that question to the prosecutors. 

“I think that’s a question for the prosecutors to determine. They’re going to determine motive,” Shapiro said. “I recognize when you’re in these positions of power, there are people out there that want to do you harm, but I try not to be captive to the fear, and I try not to worry or think about why people want to do that harm.”

ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos pressed Shapiro on the question, noting that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called on the Department of Justice to investigate the attack as a hate crime. Shapiro stood by his statement made on Thursday that Schumer’s letter was not “helpful.”

Stephanopoulos followed up with an opportunity for Shapiro to address antisemitism by connecting the attack on the governor’s mansion to the 2018 Tree of Life shooting. 

Shapiro’s job, Stephanopoulos argued, “is to combat the kind of conditions we’re seeing to create the opportunity for situations like this. Pennsylvania is no stranger to this,” he said. “We saw the attack in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018. How do you combat this kind of hate?”

Shapiro pivoted away from the comparison. “By speaking and acting with moral clarity,” Shapiro responded.

Rather than mentioning antisemitism in his response, Shapiro instead spoke about political violence. He talked about the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in Butler, Pa., last summer and mentioned the arrest of Luigi Mangione, the man charged with murdering the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, in Altoona, Pa. 

“I think it’s also important when you’re not dealing with a traumatic event, in Butler, in Altoona or here in Harrisburg, to be leading every day in a way that brings people together and doesn’t just continually divide us,” said Shapiro. 

A yearslong debate in a California school district over ethnic studies education culminated on Wednesday night with a unanimous vote to renew a contract with a controversial consultant whose curriculum has sparked antisemitism allegations among local Jewish leaders. 

The move has fueled concern by some of those leaders that the vote could potentially lay the groundwork for other school districts to follow suit. 

The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees voted 7-0 in favor of returning to Community Responsive Education (CRE) as the vendor to provide consultation on teaching ethnic studies in the district, which is near Santa Cruz. “CRE has produced some frameworks that have [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel] in the curriculum, with no balance about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” David Bocarsly, executive director of the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, told Jewish Insider. 

Several local Jewish leaders pushed the district for months to secure a more inclusive ethnic studies training provider — and three of them gave public testimony at Wednesday’s board meeting.

Roz Shorenstein, a retired physician whose grandchildren are students in the district, was one of those advocates. She told JI that some of the board members used “classic antisemitic tropes” at the vote. This included an accusation that the Jewish community is not using their “privilege and power” to help underprivileged communities, according to video footage obtained by JI.

Another school board member said that they were “a little taken aback by the lack of acknowledgement of the economic power historically held by the Jewish community that the community of Black and brown people don’t have … there is that economic power that really does exist.”

Shorenstein told JI: “We’ll still be active in the field of fighting antisemitism and liberated ethnic studies. Our experience giving testimony has brought out some significant antisemitic behavior in the community.” 

Marc Levine, the Anti-Defamation League’s Central Pacific regional director, echoed the sentiment that there was “raw antisemitism” on display at the board meeting.

“Most disturbing was that the rhetoric came from elected board members,” Levine said in a statement.  “What does that say about their willingness to allow ethnic studies to be used as a gateway for antisemitism to seep into their classrooms?” 

In 2021, California became the first state in the country to pass a law that high school students must take at least one semester of ethnic studies to graduate. The intent, according to  the state’s California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, “is to encourage cultural understanding of the struggles of equality, equity, justice, racism, ethnicity, and bigotry that have been prevalent throughout the history of America.” 

The bill, AB101, allows school districts to either adopt the state’s ethnic studies curriculum — without the need for an outside consultant — or develop their own. 

That same year, the Pajaro Valley school board approved a contract with CRE, a for-profit consulting firm founded by San Francisco State University professor Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, to offer guidelines for ethnic studies curricula at the district’s three high schools. CRE is marketed as a Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, or simply “Liberated.” 

The contract was canceled after two years due to pushback from the Jewish community, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which alleged the firm was promoting anti-Israel and antisemitic content in its curriculum. A push from the board to renew CRE’s contract soon followed. 

Four local rabbis opposed using CRE’s curriculum in an October open letter to Pajaro Valley district leadership. “We strongly support the inclusive model of Ethnic Studies that focuses on the history of minorities and celebrates their contributions to our country. In contrast, Community Responsive Education led by its co-founder, Allyson Titiangco-Cubales, espouses a ‘Liberated Ethnic Studies’ model,” the rabbis wrote, adding that “based on CRE’s public statements and past performances, we do not believe that the CRE approach to Ethnic Studies is appropriate to train your educators.”

The rabbis voiced concern about the first draft of the California Ethnic Studies Curriculum, which Titiangco-Cubales co-authored. CRE was formed by supporters of that draft, which was rejected by Gov. Gavin Newsom “and a large number of community organizations as being offensive, biased and antisemitic,” according to the letter, which was signed by Rabbi Eli Cohen, who leads Chadesh Yameinu Jewish Renewal of Santa Cruz; Rabbi Paula Marcus, senior rabbi of Temple Beth El; Rabbi Rick Litvak, rabbi emeritus of Temple Beth El; and Rabbi Debbie Israel, community rabbi of Santa Cruz County. 

CRE has bid for contracts in districts across California, including with the Fresno Unified School District, one of the largest districts in the state. At least two of those bids have been rejected. Bocarsly called the situation in Pajaro Valley “unprecedented,” especially because there was a successful effort earlier this year to oust sitting school board members who opposed CRE, he said.   

Since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel and ensuing war with Hamas, K-12 classrooms have seen a rise in the use of antisemitic materials — with several of the most serious incidents concentrated in California school districts. In February, Santa Ana Unified School District became the first in the state to cite antisemitism as its reason to stop teaching ethnic studies after settling a lawsuit that claimed course material used by the district was rooted in antisemitic rhetoric. 

Pajaro Valley is a small district among the more than 900 public school districts in California. Still, Bocarsly expressed concern that the vote signals a wider problem.

“We know that there are ongoing efforts in many different ways amongst the liberated ethnic studies community to try to get their harmful content into the classrooms,” he said, adding that “we’ve got our eye on dozens of districts across the state.”  

Part of that effort includes a statewide bill JPAC is currently working on that would create standards and frameworks to advise school districts what should not be taught in the classrooms to prevent harm to Jewish students, including transparency requirements in ethnic studies. 

“If done right, ethnic studies can help build empathy and understanding, and that’s good for Jews,” Bocarsly said. “If done wrong, it’s quite unfortunate to see a lesson meant to alleviate bias in fact create bias against the Jewish community.” 

Jewish faculty, alumni and students at Harvard — including some who have been outspoken against Harvard’s handling of antisemitism over the past year and a half — are watching with concern as the White House targets the Ivy League institution and the university prepares to battle with the Trump administration.

The Trump administration announced on Monday that it would be canceling $2.2 billion in federal funds to Harvard University after President Alan Garber said he would not cede to its demands. Many Jewish Harvard affiliates are wary of Trump’s aggressive intrusion into academia, while also calling for Harvard to take stronger action to address antisemitism. 

An April 11 letter from the Trump administration called for reforms to Harvard’s governance structure, its hiring of faculty, its admissions policies and its approach to antisemitism, with stringent federal reporting requirements, with all demands expected to be implemented by August. Attorneys for Harvard responded that Trump’s demands “go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration.” 

“The second Trump letter had demands that could charitably be called ridiculous, and the Trump administration must have known that Garber would have no choice but to reject them,” Jesse Fried, a Harvard Law School professor who has spoken publicly about increasing antisemitism and anti-Zionism at Harvard after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, told Jewish Insider. “They say that Trump is the great divider, but I’ve never seen anybody unify the Harvard faculty as successfully as he has.”

Rabbi David Wolpe, who was a visiting faculty member at Harvard Divinity School from 2023-2024, said he has no problem “with the general goals that are laid out” in Trump’s letter. But, Wolpe added, “I think this is a letter that will have a lot of unintended consequences, and it seems to me an overreach.” 

“I think there are people in the Trump administration — one or two of whom I’ve spoken to — who I know that this is a genuine cause of the heart for them, I have no doubt about that,” Wolpe said. “But I think there are a lot of other agendas swirling around that are not directly concerned with antisemitism.” 

Jewish leaders on Harvard’s campus called on the university to implement some of the federal government’s suggestions to crackdown on antisemitism, even if the university rejects making a formal deal with Trump.  

“Considering that there is wide support in the Harvard community and beyond for many of these policies and changes, they should have been put into place long ago,” Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, who leads Harvard Chabad, told JI. “It’s our hope that in wanting to demonstrate its independence, Harvard will not delay implementing further necessary changes, because an authority is trying to impose it on them.” 

Former Harvard President Lawrence Summers, who is still a professor at the university, praised Garber for “resisting extralegal and unreasonable demands from the federal government.” But just because Trump’s approach is the wrong one, Summers argued in a post on X, that doesn’t mean Harvard should ignore the issues raised in his letter.

“The wrongness of federal demands must not obscure the need for major reform to combat antisemitism, to promote genuine truth seeking, to venerate excellence and to ensure ideological diversity,” wrote Summers, who has been critical of Harvard’s handling of antisemitism after Oct. 7. 

One Harvard senior who has sharply criticized Harvard’s response to campus antisemitism, Jacob Miller, argued that Trump’s “crusade against Harvard” seeks to “hobble” the university, “the same way he has sought to incapacitate other perceived political enemies, including a number of law firms.”

Alex Bernat, a senior who is co-president of the Harvard Chabad Undergraduate Board, said that if Harvard is set on resisting the government’s demands, “then it is imperative Harvard release the steps they will take to further fix antisemitism here.”

Bernat praised some of the recent changes Harvard made in an attempt to combat antisemitism ahead of the government’s reforms, such as last month’s firing of two controversial heads of the university’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

“But [that is] not enough by any means and I’d like to see a concrete plan, whether developed internally at Harvard or agreed upon with the government,” he continued. “Additionally, I think Harvard ought to be careful about failing to take a given appropriate action merely because it was recommended from outside the university.” 

One nonprofit representing Harvard alumni calling for the school to make changes focused on promoting academic excellence, the 1636 Forum, has been highly critical of Harvard’s handling of campus protests after Oct. 7. 1636 Forum co-founder Allison Wu, a Harvard Business School alumna, said Garber should use this opportunity to clarify what reforms he will take.

“Harvard could benefit from publicly articulating a concrete roadmap for internal reforms and showing it can make swift, meaningful progress on that plan — even in the face of internal resistance or inertia,” Wu told JI. 

Rabbi Jason Rubenstein, executive director of Harvard Hillel, declined to weigh in on the issue. 

The funding freeze is already affecting major research projects at Harvard. Jeff Fredberg, a professor emeritus at the Harvard School of Public Health, has been meeting weekly with Jewish public health students, researchers and faculty over the past year, and the feeling among them now “is one of fear and depression.” 

“They’ve dedicated their whole life to this, and now I’m hearing from them, ‘What am I going to do? There are not going to be positions, or my lab is going to get closed, or has been closed,’” said Fredberg, who started meeting with the group amid increasing antisemitism within the public health field. He worries the federal actions will backfire for budding Jewish scientists. “These Jewish students are afraid there’s going to be a backlash, because the sciences are going to take the body blows on this, and ‘It’s going to be because of the Jews.’”

Harvard’s attorneys made clear the university will fight Trump, although the school has not yet announced plans to file litigation against the federal government. The Trump administration’s antisemitism task force stated on Monday that it will not let up on its demands.

“Harvard’s statement today reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges — that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws,” the task force wrote in a press release announcing the funding pause. “It is time for elite universities to take the problem seriously and commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support.” 

Trump added to Harvard’s worries on Tuesday by threatening to revoke the university’s tax-exempt status for “pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness.’” 

The intense scrutiny that the Trump administration has placed on Columbia University for failing to address rising campus antisemitism escalated last week in several incidents that culminated in Department of Homeland Security agents raiding two dorm rooms on Thursday night and arresting one student, and another student having their visa revoked by the State Department. 

Leqaa Korda, a Palestinian from the West Bank who has been active in anti-Israel protests on campus, was arrested for allegedly overstaying her expired visa, which terminated in January 2022. Korda had previously been arrested for her involvement in the protests last year, according to DHS. 

A second student, Ranjani Srinivasan, a Ph.D. candidate from India, had her student visa revoked on March 5 for “advocating for violence and terrorism,” DHS said in a statement Friday. Srinivasan has already “self-deported” to Canada.

Katrina Armstrong, Columbia’s interim president, said in a statement that she was “heartbroken” by the raid, adding that “no one was arrested or detained,” which DHS contradicted with its statement. DHS agents served Columbia with two warrants to access the dorms, where Armstrong said “no items were removed, and no further action was taken.”

The search came as Columbia University faces mounting pressure from the Trump administration to address the antisemitic demonstrations that have roiled the campus since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks. The university became the focal point of a national debate on free speech last week when immigration officers arrested and threatened to deport recent graduate Mahmoud Khalil over his role in anti-Israel activism on campus.

Earlier this month, the White House cut $400 million from Columbia’s federal funding over its failure to crack down on antisemitism. The Wall Street Journal reported the decision is under a 30-day review period. 

The Trump administration followed up last week with a series of preconditions and policy changes that Columbia must implement in order to restore the federal funding. Demands from the federal government — which the university must agree to by March 20 — include the termination of the University Judicial Board, the implementation of a mask ban and the granting of “full law enforcement authority, including arrest and removal of agitators” to public safety officers. The letter stated that Columbia has “fundamentally failed to protect American students and faculty from antisemitic violence and harassment in addition to other alleged violations of Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”

Also on Thursday, the university issued expulsions, multiyear suspensions and degree revocation for students who participated in the anti-Israel encampment and occupation of the university’s Hamilton Hall last spring, after the University Judicial Board found that the participants violated university policy. 

A university official told Jewish Insider that Columbia began the disciplinary process against these students immediately following the takeover of the campus building last April — which initially included interim suspensions of several participants. 

The official added that new revisions — including a designated rules administrator and the development of an Office of Rules Administration — will “allow the Rules process to operate more expeditiously” going forward. The university declined to provide the number of students impacted by these latest actions.

Brian Cohen, executive director of Columbia Hillel, called the disciplinary action “an important first step in righting the wrongs of the past year and a half.”

“I am grateful to the Rules Administrator and other members of the Administration for their roles in ensuring these cases were resolved,” Cohen wrote on X. 

Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) on Friday criticized the hiring of Kingsley Wilson, who has a lengthy history of sharing antisemitic conspiracy theories, as deputy press secretary at the Pentagon in a statement to Jewish Insider on Friday.

“Antisemitism and all forms of racism are completely unacceptable and have no place in the Pentagon or government,” Bacon, a new co-chair of the House antisemitism task force, said. “With the alarming rise in antisemitic rhetoric and attacks, we must firmly stand united with the Jewish communities here in the United States and around the world.”

Bacon is now one of just a small number of Republicans who have publicly addressed the situation, with many telling JI this week that they were not familiar with the situation or not responding to requests for comment.

JI reached out on Thursday to other Republican co-chairs of the antisemitism task force, including Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Dan Meuser (R-PA) on Thursday, but they did not respond.

Rep. Craig Goldman (R-TX), one of three Jewish House Republicans, declined to comment.

JI also spoke to several senators about Wilson’s long record of antisemitism, most of whom said they were not aware of the situation but would look into it. Those members include Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), Susan Collins (R-ME), Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Thom Tillis (R-NC).

Joe Rogan’s controversial decision to invite a prominent antisemitic conspiracy theorist onto his show earlier this week underscored how the popular podcast host is increasingly handing his megaphone to extremists while failing to challenge their claims, lending legitimacy to a range of false and incendiary views.

Rogan, whose lucrative podcast has more than 14 million subscribers, faced backlash on Wednesday for hosting a friendly discussion with Ian Carroll, a self-described journalist with a sizable following who has frequently spread antisemitic conspiracy theories — claiming that “Israel did 9/11” and that the U.S. is controlled by a “Zionist mafia,” among other baseless assertions.

During their nearly three-hour conversation, Carroll pushed another of his fixations, alleging that Jeffrey Epstein was just an “employee” of “organized crime rings” with ties to “the CIA, the Mossad and British intelligence.” The disgraced financier, he added in an incoherently worded insinuation, “was clearly a Jewish organization working on behalf of Israel and other groups.”

Elsewhere in the discussion, Carroll also rehashed the debunked “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, which imagined a child sex-ring linked to Democrats run from a pizza parlor in Washington, claiming a cover-up.

Rogan, meanwhile, never seriously challenged his guest, at one point offering words of encouragement as Carroll continued to invoke a range of antisemitic tropes about Israel, including a claim that the country had been founded by “organized crime figures in America” with ties to “the Jewish mob” as well as “the Rothschild banking family.”

“What’s interesting is you can talk about this now, post-Oct. 7, post-Gaza,” Rogan mused in response to such claims. 

“Ian Carroll has a troubling history of spreading toxic conspiracy theories and disinformation, especially related to the Jewish community and Israel,” added Oren Segal, the Anti-Defamation League’s senior vice president for counter-extremism and intelligence. “It is difficult to understand why Joe Rogan would offer his platform to further disseminate these ideas at a time when the Jewish community is facing increased vulnerability due to rising incidents targeting them.”

In the coming days, Rogan is also set to host Darryl Cooper, a known Holocaust revisionist and a Hitler apologist who produces his own history podcast. In a recent entry published on his Substack newsletter, Cooper said that he would soon be “going to Austin to” join Rogan’s show. Cooper’s appearance would come months after he drew widespread backlash over an interview with Tucker Carlson in which he downplayed the Holocaust and called Winston Churchill the “chief villain” of World War II.

Several leading Jewish and pro-Israel groups spoke out against the podcast on Thursday, raising alarms over Rogan’s behavior amid a surge in antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks in Israel.

Holly Huffnagle, the American Jewish Committee’s U.S. director for combating antisemitism, said in a statement to Jewish Insider that “now is the time to decry antisemitism, not platform those who spread it.”

“Ian Carroll has a troubling history of spreading toxic conspiracy theories and disinformation, especially related to the Jewish community and Israel,” added Oren Segal, the Anti-Defamation League’s senior vice president for counter-extremism and intelligence. “It is difficult to understand why Joe Rogan would offer his platform to further disseminate these ideas at a time when the Jewish community is facing increased vulnerability due to rising incidents targeting them.”

Mark Mellman, president of Democratic Majority for Israel, said that Rogan “has offered his platform to antisemites on too many occasions,” referring to past episodes in which he has hosted the far-right pundit Candace Owens and former mixed martial arts fighter Jake Shields, who have both trafficked in antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories about Israel.

“Now, we find him hosting Ian Carroll who has lodged vile attacks against Israelis accusing them of wanting to rape his children,” Mellman told JI. “Mr. Rogan should help stop burgeoning antisemitism in this country by denying purveyors of antisemitism a platform on his show and by acknowledging it was wrong to host Ian Carroll.”

“Since Oct. 7, overt antisemitism has become more normalized and mainstream,” said Gunther Jikeli, associate director of the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism at Indiana University. “The fringes have become part of the mainstream and the mainstream has increasingly included views that were on the fringes not so long ago.”

Rogan’s team did not respond to a request for comment from JI on Thursday, nor did Spotify, which last year inked a multiyear agreement to renew its partnership with the podcast host for an estimated sum of $250 million.

Experts who track online extremism suggested that Rogan has little to no incentive to apologize or even acknowledge scrutiny, noting that his choice to host Carroll, whose bigoted views are well known, conforms with a wider trend in which antisemitism is becoming an accepted element of public discourse in the U.S. and beyond.

“Since Oct. 7, overt antisemitism has become more normalized and mainstream,” said Gunther Jikeli, associate director of the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism at Indiana University. “The fringes have become part of the mainstream and the mainstream has increasingly included views that were on the fringes not so long ago.”

Such “taboo-breaking,” Jikeli added, “is attractive, finds a market — and can be monetized in today’s social media world.”

In addition to Carroll, other high-profile purveyors of antisemitic rhetoric have also found mainstream audiences this week, including Owens — who joined the comedian Theo Von’s podcast and received high praise from the sports commentator Stephen A. Smith after she sat down for an interview with him. Andrew Tate, the alleged sex trafficker, appeared on a popular podcast, where he complained that “speaking out against the Jews” is forbidden in American discourse and a hindrance to free speech. 

Armin Langer, a visiting assistant professor at the University of Florida’s Center for European Studies who specializes in contemporary antisemitism, said Rogan’s choice to host Carroll “without challenging his antisemitic conspiracy myths reflects a troubling trend where podcasters amplify hate speech under the guise of free speech.”

“In the profit-oriented digital landscape, controversy drives engagement, and antisemitic content — whether coded dog-whistles or overt conspiracy myths — can spread easily because of the algorithmic amplification and the lack of moderation from hosts and the platforms,” Langer told JI. “I see an urgent need for accountability, not just from the podcasters but also from the platforms that profit from their shows, before hate speech becomes further entrenched in the mainstream.”

For his part, Rogan previously faced accusations of invoking an antisemitic trope in 2023 when he claimed that “the idea that Jewish people are not into money is ridiculous,” while defending comments from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) that were widely condemned as offensive to Jews.

More recently, he has drawn scrutiny for arguing that Israel was committing genocide amid its war with Hamas, suggesting that the Jewish state was enacting a “small scale” Holocaust in Gaza. Facing pushback from a podcast guest on another episode, however, Rogan later indicated that he was willing to change his views on the matter.

“What we are seeing now,” Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, told JI, “is the end result of a yearslong effort to create a permissive environment for antisemitism and racism, driven by brain-rotted, bad-faith actors who now have their hands on the levers of power.”

Susan Benesch, executive director of the Dangerous Speech Project, an independent research group, and a faculty associate of Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, observed that “Israel’s bombing and besieging of Gaza have been a big present to antisemites, who take advantage of the deep sympathy that many well-intentioned, non-hating people have for Palestinian civilians.”

“They mix criticism of Israel and antisemitism, which allows the latter to circulate more widely,” she told JI.

While Rogan has long shown a penchant for indulging conspiracy theories and been relatively indiscriminate in choosing guests for his podcast — spanning the gamut from vaccine skeptics to serious public intellectuals — his recent invitations to both Carroll and Cooper suggest a broader turn toward extremism for the polarizing podcast host as he further engages with antisemitic figures on the right.

Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, characterized such engagement as “just the latest example of how mainstream these deeply antisemitic conspiracies have become in recent years.”

“What we are seeing now,” he told JI, “is the end result of a yearslong effort to create a permissive environment for antisemitism and racism, driven by brain-rotted, bad-faith actors who now have their hands on the levers of power.”

Prominent Palestinian-American DJ and producer Farid Karam Nassar, who goes by the stage name Fredwreck, targeted Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) earlier this week with a series of explicit racial slurs, citing Torres’ support for Israel.

Nassar, who has worked with artists including Eminem, Britney Spears, Ice Cube, 50 Cent, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, won a Grammy in 2020 for an album with R&B artist Anderson .Paak and he assisted with the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show.

In response to a video of a recent public confrontation between Torres and a pro-Palestinian activist, Nassar described Torres as a “s@mbo koon,” using misspellings of two racial slurs for Black people.

Nassar also commented, “He’s lucky I didn’t run into him on the streets.”

The DJ followed up with a direct message to Torres’ Instagram account, shared with Jewish Insider by the congressman’s office, in which he called Torres a “sell out as House Slave” and made a remark referencing AIPAC and gay sex. Torres is openly gay.

“Violence is not a bug but a feature of the Free Palestine movement,” Torres said in a statement. “No amount of harassment and intimidation will deter me from standing up and speaking out against AntiZionism and antisemitism.”

Nassar did not respond to a message requesting comment.
Nassar accused Israel of genocide on Oct. 18, 2023, and posted on Instagram “From the River to the Sea… We will be free… #endapartheidisrael.”

Congressional Democrats lambasted the Trump administration for hiring Kingsley Wilson, who has a lengthy history of posting antisemitic conspiracy theories, as a deputy press secretary at the Pentagon. Republicans have largely remained silent on the issue. 

“As antisemitism continues to surge around the world since October 7th: The Trump administration hired a top Pentagon official with a history of antisemitic conspiracy theories and extremism,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a statement. “It’s outrageous, and Secretary [Pete] Hegseth must fire her now.”

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), the co-chair of the Senate antisemitism task force, told Jewish Insider that Wilson’s “appalling comments and conspiracy theories paint a disturbing pattern of behavior.”

“No one who engages in this antisemitic rhetoric should ever hold a position in the U.S. government, and it is alarming that the Trump administration hired her in the first place,” Rosen continued.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who previously served in the Pentagon, told JI, “Whether it’s her antisemitic comments, delegitimizing Kosovo or promoting conspiracy theories, this woman is unfit to serve alongside our men and women in uniform.”

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) also described Wilson’s hiring as characteristic of the Trump administration.

“Wilson has a long history of antisemitism and her comments are egregious and disqualifying,” Wasserman Schultz said. “But Trump has always surrounded himself with extremists, conspiracy theorists, and the far-right fringe, so I can’t say I’m surprised. She is not fit to serve in any role given her bigoted views.”

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), a co-chair of the House Jewish Caucus, described Wilson as the latest in a series of problematic hires.

“It is outrageous that someone with a history of promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories is now speaking for the Pentagon,” Nadler said in a statement. “Kingsley Wilson’s extremist views have no place in our government — yet under President Trump, they are not the exception, they are the rule. She is just the latest addition to a disgraceful roster of staffers who reflect this administration’s disturbing embrace of hate and bigotry. The American people deserve better.”

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), the co-chair of the House antisemitism task force, said that Wilson “must be removed immediately.”

“To stomp out antisemitism, we must do it on the extreme left & right,” Goldman said. “No one who compares Hamas’ infanticide to abortion, promotes Great Replacement Theory, or celebrates the lynching of Jews should get an important DOD appointment.”

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) wrote to Hegseth, calling Wilson’s hiring “an insult to the integrity of the Department of Defense” and that she is “unfit for any position of public trust,” and demanding she be fired immediately.

“If Kingsley Wilson is the type of person you believe should represent the Department of Defense, it raises serious questions about your judgement — and your commitment to the values that define this nation,” Torres wrote, adding that a failure to fire her would be “reasonably understood by the public as an endorsement on behalf of yourself and the Pentagon of her repugnant views.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that he had not been briefed beyond the basic details about the situation, but expressed sadness at the notion of a young person being so bigoted.

The Virginia senator said that the “first thing” he asked himself upon learning of Wilson’s comments was, “I wonder how old this person is, because you should never see this from a young person.”

“How could a young person have their mind so poisoned by this? I mean, I don’t get it. There’s no excuse for antisemitism or bigotry, but I, sort of I guess naively, think that young people would be more immune to it,” Kaine told JI. “What has been your life experience that has led you to that belief?”

No congressional Republicans commented on the situation to JI on Thursday, with several  saying they weren’t familiar with the situation and saying they would look into the matter. Others did not respond to requests for comment.

On Wednesday, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) told Politico the comments were “horrible” and “not appropriate.” She was not the only member of her conference to speak out.

“I’m not gonna tell them who to hire, but I do know that [President Donald] Trump doesn’t believe any of the things she’s talking about, and I’ll leave it up to them to determine if they think she’s the right spokesperson,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told the outlet. “If what you say about these posts are true, then she’s completely off-script with President Trump.”

The atmosphere for Jewish students on college campuses nationwide has somewhat improved in the last year, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s second annual Campus Antisemitism Report Card, released on Monday.

Several universities saw significant improvement in their scores compared to last year’s report card — which was released as antisemitism roiled campuses in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and ensuing war between Israel and Hamas.

Forty-six percent of previously graded schools improved, while only 9% declined. The ADL gave 36% of schools an “A” or “B” in this year’s report card, up from 23.5% in 2024. It assessed 135 schools — 50 more than last year — using 30 evaluation criteria to assign letter grades from A to F.

“While many campuses have improved in ways that are encouraging and commendable, Jewish students still do not feel safe or included on too many campuses,” Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL’s CEO, said in a statement. “The progress we’ve seen is evidence that change is possible — all university leaders should focus on addressing these very real challenges with real action.”

Despite modest improvement, Greenblatt cautioned, “Every single campus should get an ‘A’, this isn’t a high bar — this should be the standard.” He called on “all university leaders [to] focus on addressing these very real challenges with real action.”

The schools that received “A” grades were Brandeis University, CUNY Queens College, CUNY Brooklyn College, Elon University, Florida International University, University of Alabama, University of Miami and Vanderbilt University. 

Failing schools — those that received “F” Grades — were California Polytechnic State University, DePaul University, Evergreen State College, Haverford College, Loyola University New Orleans, Pitzer College, Pomona College, Portland State University, Scripps College, The New School, University of California Santa Barbara, University of Illinois Chicago and University of Minnesota.

Twenty percent of schools received a “D,” including Barnard College, where a staff member was assaulted and sent to the hospital last Wednesday by anti-Israel demonstrators who stormed the college’s main administrative building.

The ADL released its first campus report card in April 2024 — and a revised version two months later.

The schools selected for the report card were among the country’s top liberal arts colleges, in addition to schools with the highest enrollment of Jewish students, according to the antisemitism watchdog group. 

At the time, Shira Goodman, senior director of advocacy for the ADL, told Jewish Insider that the idea to rank universities’ handling of antisemitism came about prior to Oct. 7. But the attacks sped up the process, Goodman said, noting that “when there are problems in the Middle East, it tends to increase antisemitism at home.” 

Some Jewish leaders and organizations, including Hillel, the most prominent group serving Jewish students on college campuses, which typically has a good relationship with the ADL, criticized the inaugural report card. “We do not believe it is constructive or accurate to try to assign grades to schools,” Adam Lehman, Hillel’s CEO, told JI at the time. “Efforts to do so, however well-intended, produce misleading impressions regarding the actual Jewish student experience at those schools.”

New Jersey legislation codifying the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism is splitting the Democratic field in the gubernatorial race, after one leading candidate said last week he’d veto the bill.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) told JI this week that she supported legislation under consideration in the state that would codify the IHRA definition as New Jersey’s official definition of antisemitism for assessing cases of antisemitic discrimination. “I’ve supported the IHRA definition in the U.S. House, and would support the current state Senate bill to combat the alarming rise of antisemitism in New Jersey,” Sherrill said in a statement to JI.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer’s (D-NJ) campaign indicated in a statement that he also supports the bill. His campaign manager, Chelsea Brossard, noted that he “helped write and pass” the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which codifies the IHRA definition at the Department of Education. 

“Since October 7th, antisemitic incidents have skyrocketed to an all-time high in New Jersey. This is unacceptable, and Josh will continue working tirelessly at all levels of government to protect Jewish students and families from all forms of hate,” Brossard said.

Those comments come after Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, who has touted his Jewish heritage on the campaign trail, said he was opposed to the legislation, arguing that it could infringe on criticism of Israel and ultimately exacerbate antisemitism.

Three other candidates in the race — Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller and former state Sen. Steve Sweeney — did not respond to requests for comment on the IHRA issue.

Fulop and Sherrill have both recently come under scrutiny for campaigning alongside progressive leaders who’ve been outspoken against Israel. 

A Jewish leader in the state told JI that Fulop’s IHRA stance, in combination to his ties to anti-Israel figures including Sadaf Jaffer, an outspoken anti-Israel former state assembly member, have generated growing frustration and a sense of betrayal among members of the Jewish community.

Fulop aggressively rejected the notion that his IHRA stance was motivated by politics, and said his comments have been misconstrued by various constituencies. “What I said was a very thoughtful, careful, deliberate answer that serves very little political benefit because I answered it honestly,” Fulop told JI.

He said that, in the same comments about IHRA, he had supported the New Jersey-Israel Commission and anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions legislation and said that Gov. Phil Murphy had not been aggressive enough in response to antisemitism on college campuses.

He also said Jaffer was only a campaign volunteer and that they don’t agree on all issues. “Anybody who says that I’m antisemitic or I don’t sympathize with the Jewish community is totally misguided, and they’re purely political.”

Another Jewish leader said that many Jewish politicos see Gottheimer’s record as the strongest on antisemitism and supporting Israel, but that without an aggressive advocacy effort highlighting the differences in the candidates’ records, the Jewish vote could end up split among various candidates, with voters prioritizing other issues.

A key political dynamic in the race is becoming the fight between New Jersey’s Democratic machine and those casting themselves as outsiders opposing that machine. Institutional support has largely been divided between Sherrill and Gottheimer, but some leaders who had initially backed Gottheimer recently switched their allegiance to Sherrill.

“Party leadership in New Jersey is a little bit scared,” Dan Cassino, the executive director of the Fairleigh Dickinson University poll, told JI. “There’s a strong incentive for that group, for institutional Democrats, to unify behind one candidate and make sure that candidate gets the nomination, to preserve at least the perception that they’re able to pick the candidates and therefore maintain their power.”

If Sherrill and Gottheimer split the moderate vote, one of the other candidates could muster enough support to achieve victory. No reliable polling is available in the race at this point.

Fulop and Baraka seemed to pick up momentum from strong performances in a recent debate and have been making strides in fundraising, Cassino added. In that debate, Sherrill appeared to be “riding the fence,” he continued, and avoiding controversial policy positions, while Gottheimer was on the receiving end of criticism from several other candidates.

As they’re trying to lock down a winning coalition, some candidates are trying to balance appealing to both left-wing constituencies critical of Israel and the state’s sizable Arab and Muslim populations, as well as the state’s significant Jewish population and the moderate voters they’ll need to win the general election.

Baraka’s candidacy could raise concerns in the Jewish community given that his father, poet Amiri Baraka, claimed in a 2002 poem that Israelis knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance. A Baraka-backed initiative in Newark held an event on Oct. 7, 2023, honoring the elder Baraka, which featured multiple speakers who have been accused of antisemitism. Baraka has defended his father from accusations of antisemitism.

A Jewish leader in the state said that Baraka’s base largely coincides with anti-Israel parts of the Democratic Party.

Sweeney, a moderate Democrat and the former senate president, supported anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions legislation when he was in the state Senate and led legislation to combat antisemitism in schools in 2019 which largely utilized the IHRA definition. Hailing from southern New Jersey, his base of support is expected to come largely from that part of the state, potentially including some Jewish voters in the Cherry Hill area.

The Jewish leader said that Sweeney’s record on Jewish issues has been unobjectionable.

Spiller, the former mayor of Montclair, N.J., could face issues among Jewish voters in the state over concerns about antisemitism in New Jersey’s public schools, though he has offered condemnations of antisemitism in the past. He’s leaning into education issues on the trail. The Jewish leader described the teachers’ union as having a poor record on Israel issues.

The Department of Justice announced a new multi-agency task force on Monday whose “first priority” will be to “root out anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses,” according to an announcement by the department. 

The formation of the task force comes days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling on every federal agency and department to review and report on civil and criminal actions available within their jurisdiction to fight antisemitism. 

Under the executive order, the DOJ was directed to review existing antisemitism cases and prepare to more actively bring legal action against those who commit acts of antisemitism in violation of federal civil rights laws. The order also “demands the removal of resident aliens who violate our laws,” according to a White House fact sheet. 

Other agencies involved in the new task force include the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services, according to the DOJ. 

In a statement, Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights, said that the department “takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred [antisemitism] wherever it is found.” 

“The Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump’s renewed commitment to ending anti-Semitism in our schools,” said Terrell, who will head the task force. 

Trump claimed during his 2024 campaign that, if reelected, U.S. universities that failed to address antisemitism would lose accreditation and federal support. In the weeks leading up to Trump’s return to the White House, a number of universities rushed to settle their antisemitism complaints with the Biden administration’s DOE in its final weeks.

The new administration’s focus on tackling antisemitism appears to be impacting administrators’ behavior. Over the last week, some of the universities that have been in the spotlight for slow — or nonexistent — crackdowns on antisemitism have been more responsive.

Columbia University, for example, recently suspended a student for participation in a masked demonstration in which four people barged into a History of Modern Israel class, banged on drums, chanted “free Palestine” and distributed posters to students that read “CRUSH ZIONISM” with a boot over the Star of David.  

At Chapman University, the group Students for Justice in Palestine was stripped of a Martin Luther King Jr. Community Award last week due antisemitic demonstrations, including its involvement last year in the illegal anti-Israel campus encampment movement. The award was meant to honor groups “making strides in the area of diversity, social justice and community empowerment.” 

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who have been leaders on speaking out against antisemitism and advocating for Israel largely praised the Trump administration’s executive order on antisemitism, issued earlier this week.

The centerpiece of that executive order was a directive that foreign nationals in the United States on student visas should have their visas revoked and be expelled if they express support for terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who was the lead Senate sponsor of the Antisemitism Awareness Act and other antisemitism legislation last year, praised the executive order as a welcome change of pace from the Biden administration.

“When antisemitism reared its ugly head across our nation, especially on college campuses, following Hamas’ October 7th terror attack on Israel, the previous administration equivocated and looked the other way. I’m thrilled to see clear-eyed, moral leadership has returned to the White House,” Scott said in a statement to Jewish Insider. “I fully support President Trump’s decisive actions to protect the rights and safety of our Jewish brothers and sisters and combat antisemitic hatred in all forms.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told JI that he thought the order was “fantastic. It is exactly what I predicted the Trump administration would do.” 

“A foreign student who engages in that conduct should absolutely be deported, so I’m very glad to see the order,” Cruz said. 

The Texas senator added that he had come away from conversations with Pam Bondi, Trump’s nominee for attorney general, with the impression that “enforcing Title VI, the civil rights laws, and cutting off funding for universities that allow Jewish students to be harassed and threatened” was “going to be a real priority” for the Department of Justice. 

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), the Democratic co-chair of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, praised the order while emphasizing the need for due process protections — a concern shared by some Jewish groups.

“I applaud this Administration for issuing strong guidance to all federal agencies to combat antisemitism. If someone is a material supporter of terrorism and has broken the law, they should absolutely face consequences,” Rosen told JI. “At the same time, we also have to ensure the Trump Administration follows due process and the law when carrying this out.”

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) expressed strong agreement with the executive order.

“If you’re a student who is here on a visa and you’re breaking laws, committing crimes, and aligning with terrorist organizations that seek the destruction of the United States, you should have your visa revoked,” Torres said. “A visa is not a right but a privilege, and that privilege, once abused, should be revoked.”

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) called the executive order “good,” adding, “having a student visa is not a right if you support a terrorist organization.”

Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that Trump “took an important step … by showing that non-citizen criminals involved in hate speech against Jews following the horrific October 7 attacks in Israel must leave.”

Several major Jewish organizations welcomed President Donald Trump’s executive order on Wednesday calling on every federal agency and department to review and report on civil and criminal actions available within their jurisdiction to fight antisemitism. 

Some groups also expressed caution that deportations carried out under the executive order could conflict with the First Amendment. 

Under the executive order, the Department of Justice is directed to review existing antisemitism cases and prepare to more actively bring legal action against those who commit acts of antisemitism in violation of federal civil rights laws. The Department of Education is directed to conduct a thorough review of pending Title VI complaints and investigations. 

The order also “demands the removal of resident aliens who violate our laws,” according to a White House fact sheet. 

The executive order expands on a 2019 executive order combating antisemitism issued during the first Trump administration, which said that federal agencies must utilize the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism when investigating Title VI civil rights violations.

Amid soaring antisemitism in the U.S. since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, Michael Masters, CEO of the Secure Community Network, called for “every lawful tool [to] be at the disposal of our federal law enforcement and public safety partners to be able to mitigate threats and stop violence against Jews before it happens.” 

“Violent criminals who attack Jews or provide material support to designated terrorist organizations like Hamas, ISIS, or Iran and its proxies should not find safe harbor on American soil,” Masters told Jewish Insider. “Those criminals should be prosecuted in full accordance with the law; people must understand that America does not and will not stand for religious hate crimes against Jews or any religious group, nor will it —– or the people who foment it —– be tolerated.”

Nathan Diament, executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, told JI that the group “applauds President Trump’s EO on additional steps to combat antisemitism.”

“The American Jewish community, sadly, has endured an unprecedented assault upon our religious freedoms, and it requires an unprecedented response by those charged with protecting us as citizens,” Diament said. 

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement that “combating antisemitism requires a whole-of-government approach, and we are eager to see every federal agency and department take concrete measures to address this scourge.”  

“We welcome this effort by President Trump to put the full force of the federal government against rising antisemitism in our country,” Greenblatt said, adding that since Trump returned to the White House last week, “the increased enforcement of university policies already has started to make a significant difference in the campus environment — and more should be done.”

“We hope that holding perpetrators accountable to the fullest extent of the law — including, where applicable, violations of one’s visa conditions — will have a similar effect,” Greenblatt said. 

Greenblatt noted that while the ADL applauds “strong action and severe consequences for those who commit violent crimes or otherwise break the law,” he called for “any immigration-related ramifications” to be “consistent with due process and existing federal statutes and regulations.”

“They also should not be used to target individuals for their constitutionally protected speech,” Greenblatt said. 

The American Jewish Committee welcomed the order. “We endorse without hesitation the instruction to identify statutes to prevent discrimination against Jews, and the call to apply existing laws to address civil rights violations relating to antisemitism in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack against Israel,” a statement from AJC read. “With that said, it is vital that other provisions in the Executive Order which have the potential to be broadly interpreted to threaten certain ethnic and religious groups be implemented with strict adherence to existing law.”

The Nexus Task Force, which pushes for a definition of antisemitism favored by progressives as an alternative to the widely embraced IHRA definition, condemned the new executive order, arguing that it does violate free speech. “The order cynically weaponizes legitimate concerns about Jewish safety to suppress constitutionally protected speech and threatens vulnerable student populations,” Jonathan Jacoby, the group’s national director, said in a statement. 

Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said in a statement that the executive order left “many unanswered questions.”

These include, according to Spitalnick, “how it will actually be applied; how it intersects with and could undermine civil liberties; how the federal government will actually enforce hate crimes laws, given the freeze on civil rights cases and other disturbing steps taken over the past week; and more. Everyone in the United States has basic due process rights, and when we start applying them selectively we don’t only threaten our values – we ultimately threaten our safety too.” 

Another leading Jewish group, the Jewish Federations of North America, told JI it would need time to review the executive order before commenting. 

Legal scholar Ilya Shapiro had a personal run-in with cancel culture in 2022, when a tweet he later admitted was poorly worded sparked an online uproar and allegations of racism, leading to an official investigation by Georgetown University Law Center, where he had been hired to lead the university’s Center for the Constitution. 

Months later, the university closed its investigation and cleared Shapiro’s name. But too much damage had been done, Shapiro said, and he resigned just days after formally taking the helm of the center. 

Now, three years after he posted the ill-fated tweet that criticized President Joe Biden for promising to name a Black woman to the Supreme Court, Shapiro has many more allies in his criticism of the “illiberal takeover” of higher education and legal education in particular, a problem he describes in his new book, Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elite.

The aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel and the rise in antisemitism that followed at many top American universities proved to be a tipping point, Shapiro argued.

“It raised the issue of the dysfunction and pathologies in our institutions of higher education to a national level,” Shapiro, a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute, told Jewish Insider in an interview on Thursday. 

Shapiro, whose career has been spent in libertarian and conservative institutions, asserts that his critique of legal education today is not about the fact that most law school faculty at the nation’s top universities lean to the left politically. In other words, he insists that his concerns are not just the grievances of someone whose views place him firmly in the minority in the legal sphere. 

“I want to emphasize that this is not the decades-long complaint that conservatives have with the hippie takeover of the faculty lounge, if you will,” said Shapiro. 

Instead, Shapiro is sounding the alarm about what he fears is the corrupting of the legal profession, a field that is crucial to so many facets of American life, by a culture of silence and groupthink. 

“[Law students] are being acculturated into the idea that inquiry is not a high value, that certain topics can’t even be broached, that certain perspectives shouldn’t be raised,” said Shapiro. “It’s antithetical to the idea that you train lawyers to understand the other side of the issues so they can better advocate for their clients.” 

“What happens at law schools matters,” Shapiro added, “because lawyers, for good or ill, are overrepresented among our political leaders, among the gatekeepers of our institutions.” 

He drew a distinction between why people outside of academia should care about the shift away from nuance and openmindedness at America’s top law schools versus similar challenges in other academic disciplines.

“While it’s sad and unfortunate for the development of human knowledge and such if an English department or a sociology department goes off the rails, the law schools are more directly connected to our public life, so it matters what kind of lawyers are turned out,” Shapiro argued.

He pointed to early career associates pressuring their law firms to take them off cases with certain clients, or firms parting ways with prominent partners who worked on conservative cases — such as former Solicitor General Paul Clement, who in 2022 won a major gun rights case at the Supreme Court but then had to start his own firm when his employer decided it no longer wanted to work on Second Amendment issues. 

In his book, Shapiro outlines some high-profile incidents that occurred in recent years at top law schools. In 2022, several student groups at Berkeley Law School said they would not allow any Zionists to give talks to their members, which prompted outrage by Berkeley Law’s dean, Erwin Chemerinsky — who last year faced antisemitic hate from his own students. 

“I think a lot of people have come to realize that there really are issues, and it’s not just conservatives whining about this or that,” said Shapiro, who attributes many contemporary challenges on university campuses to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion bureaucracies that have increasing power over many parts of campus life. 

As President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration approaches, some major companies are doing away with their DEI programs, a “vibe shift” that Shapiro says hasn’t yet come to American law schools. 

What Shapiro wants to see at law schools is more commitment to showcasing diverse viewpoints, and a recommitment to teaching America’s future lawyers that the legal system, though imperfect, is not broken beyond repair, even as many students now learn that the rule of law in America is “irrevocably spoiled with racism, sexism, inequality, imbalances.” He thinks fixing the problem isn’t actually that hard, if law school administrators can muster the courage to do it. 

“This is not rocket science,” said Shapiro. “It’s just a matter of enforcing your own policy and applying common sense and standing up to the mob. But all too few university leaders are willing to do that.”

Shapiro is on a book tour this spring, which includes a speaking gig at Georgetown. He hasn’t been back since his ignominious departure.

The U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, told reporters at a roundtable on Tuesday — her last before departing her role — that U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres had condemned Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on the situation on human rights in the Palestinian territories, who the U.S. has repeatedly criticized for antisemitic comments, in a one-on-one conversation with her.

Lipstadt also spoke about her hopes for the Trump administration’s efforts to fight antisemitism, internal issues among some State Department staff relating to her office’s mission, China’s role as a driver of global antisemitism and her most important accomplishments in office.

The outgoing envoy said that, during an event at a synagogue during the Munich Security Conference, she had spoken to Guterres about the U.S. government’s concerns with Albanese. In Lipstadt’s retelling, Guterres responded, twice, “She’s a horrible person.”

U.S. lawmakers have repeatedly pressed Guterres and the U.N. to dismiss Albanese, whose position is unpaid, but those calls have gone unanswered.

Lipstadt declined to comment on some of the controversial names, such as Shmuley Boteach, Alan Dershowitz and Dov Hikind, who’ve been floated to replace her, but said that she hopes President-elect Donald Trump will nominate “someone who will be a barn-builder, not a barn-burner,” and can build on the progress she has made.

“I would hope it would be someone who would command the respect and the attention of the foreign governments with which they’ll be dealing,” she continued. Lipstadt said she “certainly hope[s]” that the incoming administration is up to the task of combating the global surge in antisemitism.

She said that, based on conversations with Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio during her confirmation process, she is confident that the Florida senator “takes this issue very seriously” and “gets it 100%, just as Secretary [Tony] Blinken got it, so that gives me direct hope on this issue.”

Lipstadt said she’d be willing to offer advice to the Trump team or her eventual replacement if they ask, explaining that refusing to do so “would be a dereliction of duty and everything I’ve said.”

Since the Oct. 7 attacks, several mid-level State Department staffers have publicly resigned in protest of the U.S.’ support for Israel. While Lipstadt said that the issue had not impacted the senior policy-making levels of the State Department, some individual mid-level staff had expressed issues with her office’s work because they did not understand that combating antisemitism and support for Israel are separate issues.

“For some of them, I think it spilled over into thinking, ‘Well, if they fight antisemitism, they must support Israel 120%,’ or something like that,” she said. “It wasn’t resistance to the work that we’re doing but I think there were some people, misinformed people, who thought [they knew] what our particular views were without ever asking us.”

Lipstadt said that State Department officials also still had yet to identify who scrawled a swastika inside an elevator in the State Department headquarters several years ago.

She also noted that China has been a significant driver of global antisemitism in recent years, which she described as a form of “utilitarian” antisemitism, employed for political gain, rather than ideological reasons.

“It seems to have been … a way of signaling that ‘We are with the global south. We’re with you and not with them,’” Lipstadt said.

She said that such discussions have made a particularly strong impression on foreign officials with whom she has met, and helped some better understand the nature and importance of combating antisemitism.

U.S. intelligence and security agencies are “very aware” of the Chinese government’s amplification of antisemitism and the “global implications” of that, she added.

Reflecting on the rise of antisemitism since Oct. 7, Lipstadt said she believes that the organized Jewish community overlooked and underestimated the extent to which anti-Israel and pro-Hamas groups had built up support on college campuses. She said she’s “glad the organizations are re-assessing” and are adapting to the new landscape.

She also emphasized that antisemitism is now impacting individual Jews’ “personal lives in a way that we haven’t seen since the ‘50s and early ‘60s.”

The spike, she said, has brought antisemitism issues “into sharper focus than I ever imagined,” and the global landscape has “changed tremendously,” with antisemites becoming more emboldened and brazen.

She noted that it’s been “frustrating at times” to be restricted, because of her international remit, in her ability to address domestic antisemitism on college campuses, where she spent most of her career before the State Department.

Lipstadt did say she was struck by how “heated and extreme” rhetoric on college campuses became, including overt support for terrorism and denial of Hamas’s atrocities, “in a way that I had never seen before in relation to other kinds of tragedies.” She said that “struck me as something really significant.”

Lipstadt said that one of her early goals in office was making progress on fighting antisemitism in Gulf states, and convincing them to separate the issue from geopolitical issues with Israel. Her first foreign trip in her role was to Saudi Arabia to pursue this goal.

She said those efforts were stalled as a result of the Oct. 7 attack, but said she hopes that the next administration is able to advance them.

“I think that could have a very big impact in terms of the power of those countries, the importance of those countries, but also in terms of antisemitism within the Muslim world, the Arab world,” Lipstadt said.

Lipstadt said she believes she has helped raise the prominence of antisemitism as a foreign policy concern issue both within the State Department and with partner governments abroad, even in countries without substantial Jewish populations.

One key signal of this, she said, is that the State Department distributed the global guidelines for combating antisemitism, which the U.S. and other partners developed, as a démarche to a range of U.S. partners, formally asking other nations to sign express their support for the guidelines and making them a formal part of the State Department’s global human rights agenda.

Lipstadt said another major success was overhauling the structure of the office, which had just two full time and one part-time permanent staff members when the Trump administration left office and effectively shut down in the transition period between presidential administrations.

Now, the office will have approximately 20 full-time non-political staff who will continue on into the Trump administration and will be able to keep the office’s work moving ahead even before a new special envoy is nominated or a deputy special envoy is appointed.

Those staff, she said, will continue to work on recruiting additional countries to sign the global guidelines, participate in international conferences and continue to advise other State Department personnel and policymakers on antisemitism.

Lipstadt, who was a frequent social media user in her pre-government life — a fact that caused issues with some Republicans during her confirmation process — said she’s still deciding how best to speak out in her post-government life.

She said that she’s also found, in government life, that not speaking out, or acting quietly, can be more effective in the long-run than public condemnations.

“I’ll have to decide,” she said. “Also, if you speak too much on everything, at some point you’ll just be dismissed as a partisan hack.”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), the former chair of the House Progressive Caucus who has been a leading supporter of efforts to block weapons sales to Israel, is set to join the influential House Foreign Affairs Committee, House Democratic leadership announced on Tuesday.

Jayapal will join Reps. George Latimer (D-NY), Johnny Olszewski (D-MD), Julie Johnson (D-TX) and Sarah McBride (D-DE) as the new Democratic members of the key House committee.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, Jayapal has repeatedly voted against legislation to support Israel, counter Iran and combat antisemitism, including supplemental U.S. aid for Israel’s war effort, and has called on the U.S. to withhold aid, accusing Israel of violating arms sales law and serious human rights violations.

Weeks after the Hamas attack, Jayapal voted present on a widely bipartisan resolution expressing support for Israel and condemning Hamas, even though she initially sponsored it. She was among the earliest lawmakers to call for a cease-fire, sponsoring a resolution to that effect on Oct. 18, 2023.

She also faced accusations that she had equivocated about or downplayed Hamas’ use of sexual assault as a weapon of war in public comments. 

Prior to Oct. 7, Jayapal described Israel as a “racist state,” comments she walked back under criticism from Democratic leadership, and suggested that the Progressive Caucus might ban members from taking funding from the pro-Israel advocacy group Democratic Majority for Israel. She also voted against a resolution supporting the Abraham Accords and the U.S.-Israel relationship and pushed for the State Department to consider controversial alternative definitions of antisemitism.

She suggested as early as 2020 that the U.S. should consider conditioning aid to Israel if it pursued annexation of the West Bank.

She has also led efforts to restore funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and opposed U.S. strikes against the Houthis as unconstitutional.

Outside of Middle East policy, in 2022, Jayapal led Progressive Caucus members on a letter calling for direct talks between Russia and Ukraine for a peace deal that was quickly disavowed by some of its key signatories.

Jayapal did not immediately provide comment. 

Latimer, also joining the committee, was elected on a staunchly pro-Israel platform — ousting anti-Israel Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) — with the support of the large Jewish community in Westchester, NY. He voted last week in favor of sanctions on the International Criminal Court. 

Olszewski also ran on a pro-Israel platform and has ties to the Maryland Jewish community. He voted against the ICC sanctions but signed a letter to the ICC condemning its efforts to arrest Israeli leaders, as did Johnson and McBride.

In her campaign, McBride also expressed strong support for Israel, a stance that earned her the particular ire of some in the progressive community.

Johnson holds the seat of Rep. Collin Allred (D-TX), a former HFAC member.

Elsewhere, Democrats announced that Reps. Jason Crow (D-CO), Gil Cisneros (D-CA), Eric Sorensen (D-IL), Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), Sarah Elfreth (D-MD), George Whitesides (D-CA), Derek Tran (D-CA), Eugene Vindman (D-VA) and Wesley Bell (D-MO) will join the Armed Services Committee.

Crow has repeatedly led letters accusing Israel of violating U.S. arms sales law.

Among the freshmen members, Cisneros and Bell voted for the ICC sanctions, while Cisneros, Elfreth, Tran and Vindman voted against. Whitesides was not present for the vote.

Vindman, a former military war crimes prosecutor and investigator, ran as a supporter of Israel but has also called for caution in Israeli military operations. He was one of the leaders of the letter condemning the ICC arrest warrants. Cisneros, Sorensen, Goodlander and Elfreth all signed it as well.

Goodlander, the wife of Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan, is a former congressional national security adviser and intelligence officer in the Navy Reserves, who conducted research fellowships in the Middle East. She expressed support for Israel and continued U.S. aid on the campaign trail.

Elfreth received support from the AIPAC-affiliated United Democracy Project super-PAC and said she opposes conditions on U.S. aid, though she appeared to indicate support for such efforts at a candidate forum last year. A spokesperson said after that event that she supports the existing, universally applicable regulations on U.S. aid, not new conditions.

Bell ran on a staunchly pro-Israel platform, with support from St. Louis’ Jewish community, to oust anti-Israel former Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO).

Reps. Greg Casar (D-TX), Summer Lee (D-PA) and John Mannion (D-NY) are set to join the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, the committee that investigated campus antisemitism.

A synagogue in Montreal was targeted with arson early Wednesday morning for the second time since the Oct. 7 attacks. The incident marks the seventh instance in the last 14 months where a Jewish institution in Montreal, Canada’s second largest city, has been attacked. 

As a result, Jewish leaders criticized elected officials on Wednesday for what they say has been a muted response in the face of rising antisemitism and warn that Canada is becoming increasingly unsafe for Jews, spiraling into “total chaos.”  

Police were called to Beth Tikvah, a Modern Orthodox synagogue, in the city’s Dollard-des-Ormeaux suburb around 3 a.m. after receiving reports of fire, according to the Montreal Gazette.  Police also discovered two smashed windows at the nearby Jewish community center that houses offices of the Federation CJA and the Hebrew Foundation School.

Upon arriving at the scene, police reportedly found remnants of a crude firebomb and smashed glass. Smoke caused minor damage to the building. No injuries were reported. A spokesperson for the Montreal police told Jewish Insider that the investigation is ongoing and no arrests have been made. 

Henry Topas, Beth Tikvah’s cantor and B’nai Brith Canada’s regional director for Quebec and Atlantic Canada, told JI that the attack comes as the government of Canada has “allowed unbridled immigration to come.”

“The people who have been coming have not been adapting to the fabric of Canadian society,” Topas said. “Montreal Mayor [Valérie Plante] has virtually handcuffed the police. She doesn’t let the police do their job and she has allowed threatening — verging on violent — [anti-Israel] demonstrations to go on and people feel free to do whatever the hell they want,” Topas said. “It’s total chaos.” Plante did not immediately respond to a request for comment from JI about her handling of anti-Israel protests. 

In a statement Wednesday, Federation CJA echoed that the fire is a “brutal reminder of what happens when politicians don’t denounce antisemitism and the escalation of violence in our streets.”

Pierre Poilievre, Canada’s Conservative party opposition leader, condemned “these cowardly acts” in a statement. 

He called on “this Liberal government to finally show a backbone and do something to protect our people.”

“Another brazen act of antisemitic hate and violence overnight,” Poilievre wrote on X. “After 9 years of [Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau, Canada has become a more dangerous place for people of the Jewish faith.” 

Both Trudeau and Plante denounced the attacks in statements. On X, Plante wrote, “Antisemitic actions are criminal actions. The SPVM will investigate and will find those responsible. It is not acceptable that Montrealers live feeling unsafe because of their religion.”

Trudeau described it as a “cowardly, criminal” and a “vile antisemitic attack.”

Jewish leaders worldwide also condemned the attacks and called for a stronger response from Canada’s lawmakers.

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said on X that the “lack of global outrage” to attacks on Montreal’s Jewish community “is inexplicable and inexcusable.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said the local government should “take the strongest possible stance against antisemitism” following the attacks.

The recent spate of antisemitic incidents in Montreal has also included a Jewish day school being fired upon and the vandalism of a billboard announcing a new Montreal Holocaust Museum.

Beth Tikvah was also the target of a Molotov cocktail in November 2023, which caused burn marks on the front door. Topas said that despite the attacks, he expects “above normal attendance this [Shabbat] to show solidarity, [including] people from other societies and faiths.”

Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Jewish activist who has emerged as a surrogate at Trump campaign events for speaking out against antisemitism within the Democratic Party, backed out of former President Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday over Tucker Carlson being granted a speaking slot. 

Kestenbaum, a recent Harvard graduate who spoke at the Republican National Convention in support of Trump’s 2024 bid, told Jewish Insider he decided against participating in the event over Carlson’s attendance. 

Kestenbaum said he was in discussions with the Trump campaign about speaking at the rally, but that the plans were scrapped to make room for speeches from Carlson, Elon Musk and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), among others. 

“I believe President Trump, through the advocating for the Antisemitism Awareness Act, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act protections, Abraham Accords, and other measures, is the best choice for American Jewry,” Kestenbaum told JI in a statement on his decision. “I will be voting for him and will continue to make the argument for him to moderate and liberal Jewish voters as the election closes.” 

“I also believe that Tucker Carlson is a dangerous antisemite who has no business in electoral politics. I will continue to call out far-left and far-right antisemitism. Whether it be the right or left, I will never attend an event with an antisemite,” he added. 

The Trump campaign did not respond to JI’s request for comment on Kestenbaum’s withdrawal from the event over Carlson. Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) have stood by the conservative commentator despite his decision to host Holocaust denier Darryl Cooper on his popular podcast last month.

At the Madison Square Garden rally, which featured a litany of derogatory and bigoted remarks towards minorities, Carlson mocked the media attention to Vice President Kamala Harris’ racial identity: “She’s just so impressive as the first Samoan Malaysian, low-IQ, former California prosecutor ever to be elected president,” Carlson said.

Carlson has emerged as a valued adviser to the Trump campaign, and will be hosting Trump as a featured guest as part of his cross-country speaking tour on Thursday in Glendale, Ariz. Carlson was given a primetime speaking spot on the final night of the Republican National Convention, and was feted in Trump’s presidential box in Milwaukee. 

Carlson also lobbied Trump to choose Vance as his running mate; the senator appeared on his podcast after the much-maligned episode with Cooper.  Vance was the guest at Carlson’s Sept. 21 stop in Hershey, Pa. on his nationwide tour.

Jewish Insider’s features reporter Matthew Kassel contributed to this report.

With the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 terror attacks approaching, JEWISHcolorado — a Denver-based nonprofit affiliated with the Jewish Federations of North America — posted on Instagram on Oct. 1 about the organization’s Oct. 7 commemoration event. Concerns about antisemitism meant attendees would need to register in advance, and JEWISHcolorado needed to give them time to do so before the start of Rosh Hashanah.

The post, though, did not successfully reach community members. That’s because soon after sharing it, JEWISHcolorado’s Instagram account was disabled. When the account manager tried to appeal the suspension, an automated email informed the JEWISHcolorado staff that their account, with 895 posts and nearly 2,500 followers, was “permanently disabled,” with all of its content set to be “permanently deleted,” according to messages shared with Jewish Insider.  

JEWISHcolorado was one of at least four local Jewish federations in the United States to have accounts on Meta-run platforms disabled after posting in the lead-up to the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks. They did not receive any answers from Meta regarding why they had been suspended, leading some to question whether they were being targeted for the content of their posts — sharing information about Oct. 7. 

“We suspect maybe it had something to do with our posting, but it’s an automated message that says you violated community guidelines. We don’t consider that to be so,” said Renee Rockford, president and CEO of JEWISHcolorado. The reasoning, according to a message from Meta, was that Meta does not “allow people on Instagram to pretend to be a business or speak for them with our permission.” 

The Facebook account of the Jewish Federation of San Antonio was disabled in mid-September. Similar to JEWISHcolorado, they were removed for alleged “impersonation,” according to Kayde Jones, director of marketing and communications at the San Antonio federation. 

Jones and her colleagues had no way of explaining themselves, or finding out who Meta believed them to be impersonating. 

“It was as if we were completely wiped off the Facebook Earth,” said Jones. “It’s very hard to get in touch with anybody at Meta. There’s no phone calls. There’s no customer service that’s readily available.” Attempts to appeal the decision through Meta’s platforms were unsuccessful. 

All of the disabled accounts have since been restored — JEWISHcolorado’s after four days, and the San Antonio federation’s after nearly two weeks. But it took the involvement of a staff member at JFNA, the national advocacy arm representing Jewish Federations, who reached out to a contact at Meta directly.

It’s not clear if someone had reported the Jewish federation accounts, or if Meta’s automated systems erroneously detected these accounts. None of them had ever previously had their accounts disabled. 

“We are very grateful these issues were resolved, which seems to indicate that Meta is not intentionally targeting Jewish pages,” Niv Elis, a JFNA spokesperson, told JI. “That said, the fact that pages were taken down over Oct. 7 commemoration posts was very disappointing and indicates that there is clearly a problem that still needs to be fixed.”

A spokesperson for Meta did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

Jewish student leaders from the City University of New York shared firsthand accounts of campus antisemitism with Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and New York City Mayor Eric Adams at a roundtable inside City Hall on Monday. 

The meeting came as a result of several antisemitic incidents CUNY students have faced just weeks into the new academic year. Many of the students in attendance said that antisemitism is more intense on campus than it was last year. They shared that they were met with loud protests outside of a recent event intending to welcome new Jewish students to campus.

On Sep. 3, some CUNY Jewish students were followed to a kosher restaurant in midtown Manhattan, where pro-Palestinian student demonstrators blockaded the entrance and shouted threats at Jewish customers. 

Also this month, CUNY’s Baruch College tried to cancel an annual campus Rosh Hashanah celebration over safety concerns. Baruch’s president, Szu-yung David Wu, initially told students that he could not “guarantee their security.” The decision was later reversed on the condition that Hillel’s name would not be on the Sept. 26 event due to fears of anti-Israel protests. 

“We’ve been fighting for almost a year now with all of the antisemitism going on both on campus and in the city,” Maya Gavriel, a third-year student studying accounting at Baruch, told Jewish Insider at the event. “Being able to speak with leaders who can actually make change, and they’re listening to what’s happening, feels like I’m finally getting an opportunity to be proud about being Jewish. I’m under the impression that [Adams and Torres] care about wanting to give us the resources to make a change, but it will only come with time and a lot of pressure.” 

Gavriel noted that she’s particularly appreciative of Torres for meeting with Baruch Jewish students immediately after the Rosh Hashanah event cancellation. “He set up the meeting with Mayor Adams and the NYPD,” she said. “He listened and gave us resources and that’s how I know things are happening. That’s why we keep showing up to tell our stories and we’re not stopping this fight.” 

Students expressed that the NYPD did not move fast enough last year to break up demonstrations. 

Adams told the group of about a dozen students that “we need action from you guys to ask them to go onto campus.” 

“Our lawyers made it clear you don’t have the authority to go on those college campuses without the permission of the individuals of the schools, the presidents and the faculties,” the mayor said after listening to students’ concerns and experiences.  

“Whatever the law allows me to do, I am going to do it to ensure New Yorkers are safe,” Adams said. 

“Free expression is vital to a free society,” said Torres. “But there is a difference between free expression and harassment [and] intimidation. What we’re seeing in our colleges and universities is the creation of a hostile environment in violation of Title VI [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964].” 

Several Jewish members of Adams’ team also addressed students’ concerns at the roundtable, including Menashe Shapiro, deputy chief of staff and senior advisor to the mayor; Richie Taylor, deputy chief of the NYPD and Fabien Levy, deputy mayor for communications.   

Candace Owens, a far-right pundit who has frequently broadcast antisemitic commentary, is no longer attending an event sponsored by the Trump campaign later this week, a source familiar with the event confirmed to Jewish Insider on Tuesday — after her scheduled participation faced backlash from conservative critics and Jewish allies of the former president.

Owens, 34, had been scheduled to appear with Donald Trump Jr. on Friday in Nashville, Tenn., for an event that will coincide with the annual Bitcoin Conference, according to an online promotional flier that listed her as a guest of the event until Tuesday afternoon, when her name was suddenly removed.

The inclusion of Owens — who has engaged in Holocaust denial and amplified blood libel in her commentary — had become a headache for former President Donald Trump on Tuesday, as his campaign privately faced pressure to remove her from the event.

Shabbos Kestenbaum, a recent Harvard graduate who voiced support for Trump’s policies to combat antisemitism during a speech at the Republican convention in Milwaukee last week, told JI earlier on Tuesday that Owens “is not merely intellectually challenged, but a Hitler-loving antisemite who should play no role in normative politics or the Republican Party.”

“It is simply outrageous, inexcusable, and deeply antisemitic that anyone in Trump’s orbit would associate with her,” Kestenbaum, who until recently identified as a progressive Democrat, told JI, adding that he “will continue to call out the far left and the far right for their antisemitism.”

In recent months, Owens has delivered a string of virulently antisemitic statements on Jews, Israel and the Holocaust. In one commentary on YouTube earlier this month, she called Holocaust education a form of Soviet indoctrination while also casting doubt on infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele’s experiments at Auschwitz, which she dismissed as “bizarre propaganda.”

In response to backlash over her comments, Owens shot back at what she called the “Zionist media” for trying to censor her. “The reason why this particular episode is so detrimental to Zionism,” she wrote on X, “is because they have polluted American minds to believe that we must defend Israel out of morality and the evils of the Holocaust.”

“It is inexplicable to me how you stand by Israel, stand against antisemitism, and stand with the execrable Candace Owens,” Danielle Pletka, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said in an email to JI. “She is a Holocaust denier, an antisemite, and a loathsome bigot.”

Owens has also blamed rising antisemitism on “political Jews,” alleged that “secret Jewish gangs” are terrorizing Hollywood, liked a tweet claiming that Jews are “drunk on Christian blood” and defended Nick Fuentes, a prominent white nationalist and Holocaust denier.  

John Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary and a conservative critic of Trump, said the Owens event presented what he viewed as the campaign’s “first serious internal test” after the GOP convention in Milwaukee last week, where several speakers who have advanced antisemitic rhetoric were elevated to prime-time roles.

“That is, whether or not Candace Owens ends up on that stage on Friday,” he said in an interview with JI. “If she does, then it will demonstrate that it is a far less disciplined and far more chaotic effort and organization than it appears to have been over the last six or seven months, and morally, will represent an absolutely horrific stain,” which be said would be “completely self-inflicted.”

In an email to JI on Tuesday afternoon, Mitchell Jackson, who claimed to be a spokesperson for Owens, said it “was never announced Candace was hosting an event with the” Trump campaign. 

While Owens has long drawn controversy for promoting conspiracy theories, she has more recently faced criticism for advancing antisemitic commentary in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.

In March, Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire announced that it had ended its relationship with Owens, who had served as a weekday host for the conservative media outlet.

Donald Trump Jr. is set to headline a Trump campaign fundraiser on Friday in Nashville, Tenn., that will feature Candace Owens, the far-right pundit who has frequently advanced antisemitic commentary.

Owens, a fervent supporter of former President Donald Trump, has in recent months amplified the ancient blood libel against Jews, downplayed the Holocaust and defended Nick Fuentes, a prominent white nationalist, among other incendiary remarks.

In March, the 34-year-old conspiracy theorist parted ways with Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire — where she had served as a weekday host — amid mounting tensions over her increasingly antisemitic rhetoric and fierce criticism of Israel in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.

Trump Jr.’s scheduled appearance with Owens on Friday appears to underscore the influence he is now exerting on his father’s campaign — as Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, have played a less prominent role with the former president’s campaign after previously serving as top advisers in his administration.

The former president’s eldest son also played a key part in persuading Trump to choose Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his running mate, in an effort to anoint an ideologically aligned successor. 

Despite her extreme commentary, Owens has continued to find a place in Trump’s GOP, which elevated several speakers who have espoused antisemitic rhetoric during the Republican National Convention last week in Milwaukee.

In addition to Owens, the event on Friday will include David Bailey, the CEO of Bitcoin Inc., and Camryn Kinsey, a former Trump administration official who will moderate a panel discussion on the future of cryptocurrency and other topics.

The July 26 fundraiser, according to an online flier, is sponsored by the Trump campaign as well as a digital token called MAGAA — or Make America Great Again, Again — which describes itself as “the only crypto token that generates money to push conservative messaging and pro-Trump adverts.” It will be held on Friday evening at 7:30 p.m. on the rooftop lounge of the Westin Nashville.

The event, with tickets running as high as $5,000, will coincide with the annual Bitcoin Conference that kicks off in Nashville on Thursday, and where Trump is expected to give remarks. The former president is reportedly holding a separate, high-dollar campaign fundraiser on Saturday.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In North Dakota, the race for the state’s sole House seat is set to play out as another battle between the Republican Party’s traditional wing and the Freedom Caucus-aligned insurgent right wing.

North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak faces former state Rep. Rick Becker, a plastic surgeon, in the primary. Fedorchak is defending U.S. engagement around the world, while Becker is pushing for scaled back U.S. involvement globally and opposes most foreign aid.

Fedorchak has backing from GOP leaders including Gov. Doug Burgum, former Gov. Ed Schafer, Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND), Attorney General Drew Wrigley and a slew of state officials, as well as House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY).

Becker, meanwhile, is endorsed by various right-wing leaders at the federal level including Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Vivek Ramaswamy and Reps. Bob Good (R-VA), Chip Roy (R-TX), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Scott Perry (R-PA), Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Warren Davidson (R-OH), as well as former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX). Becker challenged Hoeven in the 2022 North Dakota Senate race, first as a Republican and subsequently as an independent.

He significantly led Fedorchak in fundraising as of the end of March, with $828,000 raised throughout the campaign to her $449,000 raised. The primary election will be held on June 11.

One of the sharpest divides between the two Republicans is over foreign policy. Fedorchak is leaning into traditional conservative views on foreign policy in her campaign — expressing staunch support for continued U.S. assistance to Israel and Ukraine — while Becker favors dramatically cutting foreign aid.

“I think Israel needs to have the resources necessary to properly secure its safety and stability and help reinforce the stability in the broader region as a whole and the Middle East,” Fedorchak told Jewish Insider, adding that she’s “committed to ensuring the continuation of foreign aid to Israel.”

Speaking more broadly about the recent foreign aid bill, Fedorchak said, “We have to support our allies around the world and help them defend their democracies and stave off the aggressors that are anti-democracy and anti-American.”

She declined to weigh in specifically on the humanitarian Palestinian aid in the bill, but said that there need to be mechanisms to “ensure that it’s going to the right places to help the women and children” impacted by the war and will not ultimately be used against Israel.

She called Iran “the trouble source in the Middle East,” emphasizing the need to work with U.S. allies to crack down on Iran, its nuclear program and its regional influence, using “the strongest diplomatic and economic sanctions.”

Fedorchak said U.S. energy independence and production is a critical method to ensure that U.S. allies globally aren’t dependent on countries like Iran and Russia for their energy supplies.

She said stronger U.S. energy production could also stave off price fluctuation driven by Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing gulf states. She described herself as “very excited to join forces with President Trump and support his America First energy policy.”

When he spoke to JI, Becker said that he is “very much in favor of pulling foreign aid,” particularly from U.S. adversaries, but that “Israel should be the last place that we pull foreign aid” and he is “completely in favor” of continuing that aid in the near term. 

Ultimately, he continued, he wants to see Israel in “a position where Israel no longer even desires or needs aid from the United States.” He said Israel’s continued reliance on the U.S. may not be in Israel’s “best interest” because it “makes them susceptible to these changes that we have whenever we get a new administration.”

Becker’s support for continued near-term aid for Israel appears different from a view he has expressed in at least one other interview.

In a Feb. 17 interview with The Dakotan, Becker said that foreign aid “is a bunch of bullcrap for the most part.” 

“I respect Israel and I respect Israel’s right to defend itself completely but sending billions and billions of dollars to Israel — they are less in debt than we are. I understand they may even have a surplus, I don’t know,”  he said. “But the point is we’re in the hurt bay. There’s no place for us to be lending money, even to our friends, Israel.”

He said the U.S. should stop sending money ”to both Israel and Israel’s enemies” and “just maybe let the taxpayers keep it.”

Pressed on the apparent contradiction between those past comments and his position expressed to JI, Becker said he didn’t recall having made them and suggested they were taken out of context, insisting that he’s been consistent in his views.

“It’s crazy to me that we will go further into debt and then send money overseas… that is the starting point of the principle from where I’m coming,” Becker said. “But we have the conundrum that we have an ally which we have put into a precarious position because of funding her neighbors.”

When he spoke to JI, he said he supported the $14.3 billion in U.S. military aid for Israel passed by Congress, but said he would have preferred to see it voted on by itself and is not sure how he would have voted on the full Israel portion of the aid package.

Many of Becker’s congressional allies voted against the Israel aid bill.

He called humanitarian aid for the Palestinians, also included in the bill, potentially problematic, adding that he’s “very skeptical that the humanitarian aid money is going to where it’s supposed to go and isn’t just funding Hamas.” But he said he might be supportive of purely humanitarian support like food and medical supplies.

He also said cuts to the U.S.’ own defense budget must be in consideration, arguing that there’s “very likely inefficiency and waste,” and overall advocated for scaled-back U.S. military involvement globally.

Becker said he wants to avoid direct armed conflict with Iran, and that sanctions, whenever possible and effective, should be used. He said he’s more open to direct military action against the Houthis.

He said unequivocally that he opposes additional U.S. aid for Ukraine and that he’s “very reluctant” to support aid to Taiwan without receiving intelligence briefings on the nature of the threat and the planned “endgame.” He said he wants to see action to “calm the waters” and avoid a military conflict between China and Taiwan.

In the Dakotan interview, Becker further claimed the U.S. had “manipulated the Ukraine government since 2014,” when a pro-Western protest movement overthrew the Russian-backed government, and said that the U.S. may have “set up a situation that puts Russia in a position where they maybe feel like they have to do this.”

Addressing antisemitism at home, Fedorchak told JI that the current wave of antisemitism “just can’t be tolerated in our country.” 

She said that colleges need to “get tougher” on protests that are “getting out of hand,” and said that federal aid for colleges that support anti-Israel and anti-American agendas should be reexamined.

Becker said he sees fighting antisemitism as “much more of a state issue and maybe even much more of a local issue.” He said he’s concerned that powers granted to the federal government to fight antisemitism “can be used elsewhere… perhaps one day against us.” 

But he said that if he were running for a state office, like governor, he’d be pushing to “get some bulldozers and clear the encampment.” He said that leveraging education funding would be the limit of federal government action.

Told about the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which provides funding to religious institutions and nonprofits, Becker said it sounded like it is “outside of the scope” of proper federal authority and spending, and that the federal government should instead reduce taxes to allow people to choose to spend their money on increasing their institutions’ security themselves.

The two GOP rivals also view their priorities in Washington very differently. In the interview with JI, Fedorchak highlighted her background in business and public service, and said she believes she has “a lot of good experience” and “the passion for conservative solutions” to solve issues like energy policy and border security. Her in-state work has focused heavily on energy policy.

She said she’d be a “very serious-minded problem-solving member of Congress who’s ready to get to work on day one.”

Becker told JI he’s running for Congress because “the entire country is in a very precarious position,” warning that federal spending is “effectively sending America over a cliff.” 

He said he wants to work with lawmakers like those who’ve endorsed him to help rein in spending, describing himself as having been “very principled and very consistent” in his time in state government. In North Dakota, he founded an ultra-conservative legislative caucus, the Bastiat Caucus, named for 19th-century French economist Frederic Bastiat, famous for his free trade theories.

“I am happy to label myself America First,” Becker said. “For me it means refocusing on American sovereignty and moving away from some of these international treaties” and organizations, warning that the executive branch is implementing a “very globalist agenda.”

The recommendations handed down earlier this week from Columbia University’s task force on antisemitism painted a picture of Jewish students feeling “isolation and pain” in the wake of pro-Palestinian protests that have gripped the campus since Oct. 7. 

They also cited a lack of disciplinary response from the university regarding unauthorized protests of the Israel-Hamas war as contributing to Jewish students’ struggles on campus, and called for the university to more effectively investigate policy violations by creating an easier process for filing complaints.

But on the pivotal question of whether some of the slogans chanted at those rallies veer from legitimate political speech into antisemitism the task force’s recommendations are ambiguous.

The report states, “Obviously, the chants ‘gas the Jews’ and ‘Hitler was right’ are calls to genocide, but fortunately no one at Columbia has been shouting these phrases… Rather, many of the chants at recent Columbia protests are viewed differently by different members of the Columbia community: some feel strongly that these are calls to genocide, while others feel strongly that they are not.” 

The report does not, however, specifically address the slogan “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free,” which has frequently been chanted at protests on Columbia’s campus and is widely viewed by Jewish groups as a call for genocide of Israelis.

According to David Schizer, a professor of law and economics and dean emeritus of Columbia’s law school, who is one of the three co-chairs of the task force, the key issue that the 24-page report addresses is the thorny matter of campus free speech — emphasizing that “everyone needs to have a right to speak and to protest,” he said. 

“How can we make sure the people have the right to speak and protest, while at the same time ensuring that protests don’t interfere with the ability of other members of the community to teach classes, study for a test, to hear their professors,” Schizer, who is also the former CEO of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, continued. While the report emphasizes the right to peaceful demonstrations, it also condemns faculty for participating in unauthorized demonstrations.

But some prominent leaders of the movement to fight antisemitism in higher education expressed skepticism that a set of recommendations could fix the raging antisemitism on Columbia’s campus — which has included repeated violations of the rules on protests and physical assault and other serious attacks on Jewish students. 

“The new recommendations have some technically good work which could provide incremental advances, but it’s certainly not the kind of thing that will solve Columbia’s problems,” Kenneth Marcus, founder of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, told JI. The Brandeis Center recently filed federal complaints against the University of California for antisemitism at UC Berkeley and American University, while the Department of Education is currently investigating Brandeis Center complaints filed against Wellesley, SUNY New Paltz, the University of Southern California, Brooklyn College and the University of Illinois for violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and for discrimination against Jewish students.

The recommendations come as Columbia faces pressure from donors and investigations by Congress and the Biden administration over antisemitism. It also comes in the wake of scrutiny regarding a number of antisemitism task forces set up at elite universities as a response to the surge in antisemitism that erupted following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks in Israel. Five months later, questions remain over the effectiveness and direction of such groups — with some experts claiming task forces have been all talk with minimal action so far. 

But Schizer said that in Columbia’s case, there have been months of ongoing research of university policies, including interviewing students. It aims to release a series of reports in the coming months with the goal of gaining a deeper understanding of the campus climate and providing further recommendations.

The report states that while it agrees with the university’s principle that calls for genocide, like other incitement to violence, violate the rules, “the application of it should be clarified.”

It goes on to encourage the university’s legal team to “provide more guidance on this issue,” and emphasizes that clearer guidance is needed, like the university has done with its rules on gender-based misconduct to include “scenarios,” “to provide greater clarity help to provide fair notice, so Columbia affiliates have more of a sense of what is permissible (even if offensive) and what is not.” 

Columbia administration plans to review the task force’s interim policy at the end of this semester. Minouche Shafik, the university’s president, said in a statement that the new recommendations —  the first set in a series — are welcomed by the university and “will continue across a number of fronts as the University works to address this ancient, but sadly persistent, form of hate.” 

Marcus said it’s “good that Columbia finally has good people asking serious questions about harassment and disruptive protests,” but he added, “What’s needed is not just a few recommendations regarding the rules on protest. The fact is that there’s been antisemitic bigotry [at] Columbia University for decades now.”

“It’s not as if a few changes to the protest policies are going to substantially change the institution as long as they continue business as usual,” he continued. “Much of what’s in this new set of recommendations could have been written on Oct. 6 given everything that’s happened since. What’s needed is not a series of incremental measures, but a rethinking of what Columbia is doing to cause harm, not just to Jewish students but also to the surrounding community. These recommendations may lead to technical and marginal changes in the ways that the university responds to specific incidents, and generally speaking that’s a good thing. 

But it’s certainly not a solution to the problem.” 

Marcus noted that the recommendations are “framed fairly narrow, with response to only one narrow piece of the problem.” 

“I know this is only one of the series of reports that we can anticipate, but if this is an indication of what’s to come, it may provide some useful professional iteration but not a truly substantial change,” he said. “It does not indicate a new mindset that is ready to deal with the problems Oct. 7 has revealed.” 

Mark Yudof, chair of the Academic Engagement Network, expressed a similar sentiment as Marcus, but added that he’s “hopeful” the report will bring change. Schizer, as well as the two other co-chairs of the task force, Ester Fuchs and Nicolas Lemann, are all longtime members of AEN. 

“We need adequate rules about speech and we need to put teeth into it and have reasonable procedures in which people are actually disciplined for violating the rules,” Yudof said, calling the report “complex.” 

While skeptical, Yudof also expressed praise for the recommendations — “I think Columbia’s report gets at the core problem of education and I applaud them,” he said. 

“I like the report and am hopeful… I would urge the Columbia administration to adopt the recommendations of the task force, but the proof will be in the pudding.”

For two hours on Wednesday, lawmakers heard from a parade of Jewish students, each delivering the same message: They do not feel safe on their college campuses.

Speaking to a roundtable organized by the House Committee on Education & the Workforce, Jewish students from Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia, Rutgers, Stanford, Tulane, Cooper Union and University of California, Berkeley spoke about about the harassment, threats and violence they’ve faced on their campuses since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

The students’ accounts were all remarkably similar, despite coming from a range of locations and school types, including openly antisemitic taunts and harassment, angry mobs rampaging through campus and overtaking campus buildings, vandalism and in some cases threats of or actual incidents of violence, all going largely or completely unaddressed by university administrators and campus police, despite repeated and sustained pleas from the students for help and support. 

In some cases, the students said professors and administrators were complicit or actively involved in the antisemitic activity. Students said that they feared for their safety and even their lives.

The students, saying they felt abandoned by their universities and had no faith in them to act to protect them, pleaded for action from Congress. They said that they hoped their testimony could serve as a wakeup call to both Congress and the American public.

“As my friends from Harvard and UPenn can tell you, it doesn’t end simply because presidents are replaced. Systemic change is needed,” Kevin Feigelis, a Stanford student, said. “Universities have proven they have no intention of fixing themselves. It must be you, and it must be now.”

Shabbos Kestenbaum — a Harvard student who said he’d contacted the school’s antisemitism task force more than 40 times without a response and had been threatened in a video with a machete by a still-employed Harvard staff member — called Congress and the courts the students’ “last hope.”

Multiple students and lawmakers said that the current events on campus carry echoes of 1930s Germany or the pogroms in Russia.

Some suggested potential courses of action that Congress and other federal branches could take, including leveraging U.S. taxpayer funding or the schools’ tax-exempt statuses, placing third-party monitors on campus and enforcing diversity requirements in Middle East studies departments requiring them to include pro-Israel views.

Students from Harvard, Penn and MIT all said that little has changed on their campuses since last year’s blockbuster congressional hearing on campus antisemitism, which prompted the ouster of Harvard and Penn’s presidents.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), the committee’s chair, vowed that she and her colleagues would not stop their efforts to tackle antisemitism on campus.

“I was very emotional,” Foxx told Jewish Insider, “I’m a mother and a grandmother. I have one grandchild who went to college and I’m not sure what I would have done if he had come home to say he felt threatened on his campus like these students feel threatened. No student on a college campus, in this country, in the year 2024, should feel threatened.”

Foxx said that the committee’s antisemitism investigation is proceeding deliberately, but that the schools will be held to account. The committee has already requested documents from Harvard, Penn and Columbia and has now subpoenaed Harvard. Foxx suggested that other schools whose students had appeared Thursday could be next.

Students chanting “kill the Jews.” 

Students asking their Jewish classmates what “their number is,” referring to numbers tattooed on Jews during the Holocaust.

Teacher-promoted walk-outs in support of Hamas.

A second-grade teacher leading a classroom activity where children wrote: “Stop Bombing Babies” on sticky notes to display in the building.

Those are some of the incidents endured by K-12 Jewish students in the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) that have sparked a Title VI complaint filed on Wednesday with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, Jewish Insider has learned. 

The complaint alleges that the district has failed to take action against “severe and persistent” bullying and harassment of Jewish students by peers and teachers since Oct. 7.  

JI has obtained a copy of the complaint, which was filed jointly by the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League. It states that Berkeley administrators have ignored parent reports, including a letter signed by 1,370 Berkeley community members to the Berkeley superintendent and Board of Education, while knowingly allowing its public schools to become hostile environments for Jewish and Israeli students.

Chiara Juster, a parent in the district for years, recently made what she called the “uncomfortable” decision to pull her eighth-grade daughter out of the school district and homeschool instead because of “scary” antisemitism in the school district. 

“She was called a ‘midget Jew,’” Juster told JI. “That just shook me in a different way than [other bullying she had faced]. It was scary.”  

Juster recalled that her daughter was able to transfer to a different class, away from the student who name-called, but the situation grew worse. “That first day in the new class, she was told by a teacher that she should go to the watermelon club” — a reference to a symbol associated with Palestinian rights — “to learn the truth about Gaza.”

“The answer shouldn’t have to be moving classes,” Juster said, adding that homeschooling has been a challenge but that she doesn’t “trust the district to keep my child safe at all.” 

“I think [the administration is full of] empty words,” she continued. “I hear things like ‘this is a safe and inclusive environment,’ when it’s anything but. I think the school district is trying to sweep a problem under the rug, and I don’t have a lot of hope. What I would like to see is no kid ever feel uncomfortable because of the way they were born and for the schools to protect our kids. I can’t believe I even need to say this in this day and age.” 

Trish McDermott, a spokesperson for BUSD, told JI that “the district is not aware of any families that have left the district for this reason [antisemitism].” 

Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks on Israel, antisemitism has skyrocketed on U.S. college campuses. The Department of Education is currently investigating complaints filed against Wellesley College, SUNY New Paltz, the University of Southern California, Brooklyn College and the University of Illinois. The Brandeis Center recently filed federal complaints against American University and the University of California, Berkeley over concerns about the administration’s handling of antisemitism.

But the ideology behind anti-Israel sentiments infiltrating campuses is beginning earlier than college — and has been creeping in some public K-12 schools. The complaint against BUSD comes on the heels of a Title VI investigation that was opened in Oakland and San Franscico’s K-12 school districts. At least 30 parents between the two school districts have withdrawn their children and transferred them to other districts following an educator-organized unauthorized teach-in for Gaza last month.

“California has numerous anti-discrimination laws that apply to schools but are not being enforced by the district or by anyone else,” Rachel Lerman, the Brandeis Center’s vice chair and general counsel who is overseeing the complaint, told JI. “We are hoping this investigation will reveal some of the rot that is there and will prompt [action] on the part of the district.” 

Since Oct. 7, the ADL has recorded a total of 256 antisemitic incidents, ranging from swastika graffiti to physical assault, in elementary, middle and high schools alone. The data represents a 140% increase compared to the same three-month period a year prior. 

James Pasch, ADL’s senior director for national litigation, told JI that “there has certainly been a pattern of significant [antisemitism] in K-12 schools, particularly in California, but what we’re seeing is not isolated to California. We’ve seen it from coast to coast.”

“[The BUSD] district has certainly been [particularly] pervasive… and there’s a lack of a comprehensive response from the administration to protect its Jewish students… [which is] a legal obligation,” Pasch continued. “It needs to stop now.” 

Managing partners from 17 prominent global law firms issued a letter on Thursday denouncing antisemitism “in all its forms.” The letter, originally published in The American Lawyer, comes amid a sharp rise in antisemitic violence and rhetoric stemming from recent violence in Israel and Gaza.

The letter cites a recent opinion piece written by New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, titled “Anti-Zionism Isn’t Anti-Semitism? Someone Didn’t Get the Memo,” in which he criticized elements of the progressive left for distinguishing anti-Zionism from antisemitism. In the piece, Stephens pointed to the increased use of antisemitic dogwhistles and recent incidents in which pro-Palestinian demonstrators used overtly antisemitic language — including chanting “Death to Jews.”

The firms condemned the “demonization of Jews pervading the press, social media, and the streets of this country.”

The letter is the first of its kind on behalf of a group of major American companies.

“I had previously addressed the rise of antisemitism in a firm-wide communication earlier, including this past week,” Brad Karp, chairman of Paul Weiss, told Jewish Insider. “Sadly, I have found it necessary to publicly address intolerance and hate and violence targeting multiple communities, including the Jewish community, numerous times in recent years.”

Many law firms, at the behest of clients and staff, have taken public stances in support of minority communities in recent years, with some encouraging and funding their lawyers to take pro bono cases on certain issues. The letter’s signatories alluded to these efforts.

“We have fought against efforts to separate children from their parents’ arms at our borders; we have fought to expand the right to marry to include same-sex couples; and we are engaged in the struggle to end gun violence,” the letter continued. “We are advocates who take action to redress the wrongs in our country and to protect the vulnerable. Today, and every day, we stand against the pernicious and violent attacks against Jews in this country.”

The letter’s signatories noted the lack of media coverage and public condemnation following the recent uptick in antisemitic attacks.

“We are disheartened and alarmed by the lack of urgency in denouncing these escalating and offensive attacks on Jews. In the face of these acts in our own country, we are frightened by the silence of a nation that vowed never to forget the massacre of millions at the hands of hate.”

“The silence is kind of deafening, and it doesn’t make sense,” Joseph Shenker, chair of Sullivan & Cromwell, who first proposed writing a letter, told Jewish Insider in an interview on Thursday afternoon. “We are so used to not being considered a discriminated against minority — which was nice — that we don’t realize that there are elements that still hate Jews.”

The firms previously issued a joint letter supporting voting rights, along with numerous internal letters addressing social and civil issues across the country. 

“I’m very proud of the increasing willingness of private law firm leaders to speak out on important issues of social justice, civil rights and tolerance and inclusion,” Karp said. “I believe it is vital for leaders – whether in business, in law, in government, in academia – to speak out in the face of intolerance and injustice, in all forms. Increasing acts of antisemitism cannot be ignored; they must be called out and hate crimes must be prosecuted.”  

Shenker emphasized that these were not political statements. “These are the bedrock of what as officers of the court in the system of the United States and the Constitution we’re sworn to uphold.”

Read the full letter below.

As leaders of some of this country’s largest law firms, we are heeding the call by Bret Stephens, Anti-Zionism Isn’t Anti-Semitism? Someone Didn’t Get the Memo, The New York Times, May 24, 2021, to publicly denounce anti-Semitism and the demonization of Jews pervading the press, social media, and the streets of this country.

We stand for the rule of law and the tolerance and inclusion of all. We have protested the senseless murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and countless others; we have publicly condemned acts of violence and hatred against Asian Pacific Islanders, Black, Latinx, LGBTQ, and Muslim communities; we are litigating against hate groups to hold them accountable for their racist and violent acts; we have litigated seminal civil rights cases; we have fought against efforts to separate children from their parents’ arms at our borders; we have fought to expand the right to marry to include same-sex couples; and we are engaged in the struggle to end gun violence. We are advocates who take action to redress the wrongs in our country and to protect the vulnerable.

Today, and every day, we stand against the pernicious and violent attacks against Jews in this country. We are horrified by the vitriolic hate being spewed, by both the uneducated and the educated who know better, on social media. We are disheartened and alarmed by the lack of urgency in denouncing these escalating and offensive attacks on Jews. In the face of these acts in our own country, we are frightened by the silence of a nation that vowed never to forget the massacre of millions at the hands of hate.

An attack on any group based on race, religion, color, sexual orientation, or national origin — including Jewish people — is an assault on the values of diversity, equity and inclusion that are the bedrock of this country and that we as law firms strive to uphold in our own institutions. We call on our colleagues, the leaders of corporate America, and private and public academic institutions, including law schools, to stand with us and publicly denounce anti-Semitism, in all of its forms.

Neil Barr (Davis Polk & Wardwell)

Barbara Becker (Gibson Dunn & Crutcher)

Michael W. Blair (Debevoise & Plimpton)

Bradley J. Butwin (O’Melveny & Myers)

William R. Dougherty (Simpson Thacher & Bartlett)

Scott Edelman (Milbank)

Eric Friedman (Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom)

Michael A. Gerstenzang (Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton)

David J. Greenwald (Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson)

Julie Jones (Ropes & Gray)

Brad S. Karp (Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison)

Kim Koopersmith (Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld)

Jami McKeon (Morgan Lewis & Bockius)

Daniel A. Neff (Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz)

Faiza Saeed (Cravath Swaine & Moore)

Joseph C. Shenker (Sullivan & Cromwell)

Barry M. Wolf (Weil, Gotshal & Manges)

Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV) left politics nearly a decade ago. In that time, she has seen antisemitism increasingly consume elements of the political right — and is concerned that the same thing could happen in her own party. In her new role as the co-chair of the Jewish Federations of North America’s security and antisemitism committee, she wants to address the issue head-on.

“If you look at the right, they are as antisemitic as the Nazis,” Berkley, who represented Nevada’s first congressional district from 1999 to 2013, remarked in an interview with Jewish Insider on Thursday. “When you look to the left, there are Democrats on the far left that are just as hateful and antisemitic as on the right.”

“It upsets and angers me that there is a segment of the Democratic Party that is not only anti-Israel, but from their rhetoric there is no other conclusion than they are antisemitic,” she said. “It worries me on the left that mainstream Democrats are not taking a stand against the antisemitic, pro-BDS rhetoric coming out of the left,” she said, referring to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that targets Israel.

Candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, which supports BDS, recently won control of the Democratic Party apparatus in Berkley’s home state.

As co-chair of the JFNA committee that leads the federations’ advocacy, education and training efforts fighting antisemitism and securing Jewish institutions, Berkley is attuned to the growing threats facing the community.

Berkley said she plans to actively oppose legislation like a recent bill from Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) that would place restrictions on U.S. aid and any BDS initiatives, as well as to support the National Security Grant Program and bills promoting Holocaust education.

“These issues are very important to me,” Berkley said, adding that she sees her new position with JFNA as a complement to her job as the chief executive officer and senior provost of Touro University’s Western Division.

As a legislator, Berkley was actively involved in Jewish community issues and was known as one of the most prominent pro-Israel members of Congress. Berkley left the House for an unsuccessful bid for Senate, later joining Touro.

Berkley said that right-wing antisemitism “once was a fringe” but is “becoming far more mainstream on the right,” pointing to incidents like the January 6 Capitol riot and the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va.

“Now, members of the Republican [Party in] Congress do not want to investigate that insurrection. The only conclusion is that they agree with it,” Berkley said, “or they would be far more anxious to get to the bottom of how that happened and ensure it never happens again.”

Berkley also reflected on the legacy of another major figure in Nevada and pro-Israel politics, Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson, who died earlier this year. 

Berkley and Adelson had a long and complicated relationship — she was a high-ranking lawyer for the casino mogul in the ‘90s, but the two split over a union dispute, and Adelson ultimately dedicated significant resources to her political opponents. A 2012 Politico article during Berkley’s Senate run described the two as “mortal foes.”

“One must give credit where credit is due. Some of the issues that came to the forefront under the Trump administration — moving the embassy to Jerusalem, which I have always supported, and initiating the Abraham Accords — I suspect came from Sheldon,” Berkley said. “Sheldon and Trump were very close allies. And I know that Sheldon had Trump’s ear. So I applaud those initiatives.”

Berkley praised the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states, as “a miraculous step forward,” which she hopes is expanded further.

“Imagine that region in the world if there was cooperation… Everyone will be better off for it,” Berkley said. “It makes absolutely no sense to continue these petty hatreds and refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist. I don’t want to shock anybody in the Arab world, but Israel exists and it’s flourishing.”

The former congresswoman said she has confidence that President Joe Biden and his foreign policy team will continue to support the U.S.’s close alliance with Israel and create opportunities for Middle East peace.

“President Biden has been in public office at the forefront of foreign affairs for his entire career and almost his entire life… He has assembled a great foreign policy team,” she said. “As our most reliable ally and the only democracy in the Middle East, it is essential that Israel remain strong. And while they are certainly self-sustaining, it is the most important alliance in the world, the American-Israeli relationship.”

A group of progressive House Democrats plans to encourage Secretary of State Tony Blinken to consider alternatives to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism, suggesting two definitions that allow for broader criticism of Israel. 

A draft of a letter to Blinken obtained by Jewish Insider, which is being led by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), and has been signed by Reps. Mark Pocan (D-WI), Andy Levin (D-MI), Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), urges Blinken to “consider multiple definitions of antisemitism, including two new definitions that have been formulated and embraced by the Jewish community,” pointing to the Nexus Document and the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism.

The IHRA definition, first developed in the mid-aughts by a collective of government officials and subject experts, was used as guidance by successive Republican and Democratic administrations dating back to the George W. Bush administration, and codified by a 2019 executive order from former President Donald Trump. The push to codify the definition was born out of a 2014 meeting in then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) office.

While there is some overlap between the two more recent definitions and the IHRA working definition of antisemitism — which has been adopted by dozens of countries, many of them European — both the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism, a majority of whose signatories are academics, and the Nexus Document, which was authored by U.S.-based academics, allow more space for criticism of Israel. The Jerusalem Declaration describes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement as “not, in and of themselves, antisemitic.”

The Nexus Document pushes back on the idea — included in some of the IHRA definition’s associated examples — that applying double standards to Israel is inherently antisemitic. The Nexus Document argues instead that “paying disproportionate attention to Israel and treating Israel differently than other countries is not prima facie proof of anti-Semitism” and that “there are numerous reasons for devoting special attention to Israel and treating Israel differently.” The Jerusalem Declaration similarly argues that boycotts of Israel are not inherently antisemitic.

“While the IHRA definition can be informative, in order to most effectively combat antisemitism, we should use all of the best tools at our disposal,” the letter argues. The letter will remain open for signatures until Tuesday.

Left-wing Jewish groups, including J Street, have been vocal about their concerns with the IHRA definition.

Abe Foxman, the former director of the Anti-Defamation League who led the organization while the IHRA definition was being developed, argued that this criticism stems from disagreements with Israeli policy, rather than legitimate issues with the IHRA definition itself.

“The common denominator of all the groups who don’t like the current definition are groups that have issues with Israel,” Foxman said. “[The IHRA definition] included a new dimension of antisemitism which was anti-Israel and anti-Zionism because in the last 20 years or so, antisemitism metastasized to use Israel as a euphemism for attacking Jews.”

In a letter to the American Zionist Movement in February, Blinken said that the Biden administration “enthusiastically embraces” the IHRA definition, indicating that efforts to implement alternative definitions may struggle to gain traction at the State Department. 

Foxman told JI that he is concerned that considering other definitions of antisemitism, as Schakowsky’s letter urges, would “water down” the State Department’s efforts to fight antisemitism and could also lead the range of other governments and private institutions that have adopted the IHRA definition to reconsider doing so.

Other House Democrats have defended the IHRA definition in the past and its adoption by the federal government. In a 2019 Times of Israel op-ed, Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) urged the government to adopt the IHRA definition as “an important tool to guide our government’s response to antisemitism.”

“Opponents of this definition argue that it would encroach on Americans’ right to freedom of speech,” Deutch wrote. “But this definition was drafted not to regulate free speech or punish people for expressing their beliefs, however hateful they may be. It would not suddenly make it illegal to tweet denial of the Holocaust or go on television accusing Jews of being more loyal to Israel than the United States. But it would identify those views as anti-Semitic.”

In January, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations adopted the IHRA definition, and it has the support of major mainstream Jewish organizations including the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League.

Read the full text of the letter here:

Dear Secretary Blinken:

We write to thank you and the entire Biden Administration for your commitment to fighting against the rising threat of antisemitism, both globally, and here in the United States. We applaud your prioritization of combatting this ancient hatred. In carrying out this critical work, we urge you to consider multiple definitions of antisemitism, including two new definitions that have been formulated and embraced by the Jewish community.

In 2016, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), of which the United States is a member, adopted a non-legally binding definition of antisemitism. The Department of State began using this working definition at this time. In September of 2018, the Trump Administration announced that it was expanding the use of the IHRA definition to the Department of Education. This was followed by the 2019 “White House Executive Order on Combatting Antisemitism” that formally directed federal agencies to consider the IHRA working definition and contemporary examples of antisemitism in enforcing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

While the IHRA definition can be informative, in order to most effectively combat antisemitism, we should use all of the best tools at our disposal. Recently, two new definitions have been introduced that can and should be equally considered by the State Department and the entire Administration. The first is the Nexus Document, drafted by the Nexus Task Force, “which examines the issues at the nexus of antisemitism and Israel in American politics.” The Task Force is a project of the Knight Program on Media and Religion at the Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism at USC. The definition is designed as a guide for policymakers and community leaders as they grapple with the complexities at the intersection of Israel and antisemitism.

Another valuable resource is the recently released Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA).  The JDA is a tool to identify, confront and raise awareness about antisemitism as it manifests in countries around the world today. It includes a preamble, definition, and a set of 15 guidelines that provide detailed guidance for those seeking to recognize antisemitism in order to craft responses. It was developed by a group of scholars in the fields of Holocaust history, Jewish studies, and Middle East studies to meet what has become a growing challenge: providing clear guidance to identify and fight antisemitism while protecting free expression.

These two efforts are the work of hundreds of scholars and experts in the fields of antisemitism, Israel and Middle East Policy, and Jewish communal affairs, and have been helpful to us as we grapple with these complex issues. We believe that the Administration should, in addition to the IHRA definition, consider these two important documents as resources to help guide your thinking and actions when addressing issues of combatting antisemitism.

Once again, we thank you and President Biden for prioritizing this important matter and urge you to use all tools at your disposal to combat the threat of antisemitism.

Freshman Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) cautioned about the rise of antisemitism in progressive politics during a wide-ranging conversation in the inaugural episode of Jewish Insider’s “Limited Liability Podcast,” hosted by Rich Goldberg and Jarrod Bernstein.

Torres, who describes himself as “the embodiment of a pro-Israel progressive,” said he is mindful of anti-Israel elements within the Democratic Party that have the ability to turn antisemitic. “We have an obligation to combat antisemitism no matter where it emerges, whether it’s from the right, from the left. It has to be fought at every turn and in every form,” he said. 

“My concern is that the pro-BDS left could be to the Democratic Party in American politics what Jeremy Corbyn has been to the Labour Party in British politics,” Torres cautioned. “It only takes a few demagogues to pump antisemitic poison into the bloodstream of a political party. And so I see it as my mission to resist the Jeremy Corbynization of progressive politics in the United States.”

Torres, a freshman representing New York’s 15th congressional district, addressed his hard-fought primary victory, which pitted him against a diverse group of Democratic candidates, from the conservative Rubén Díaz, Sr. to Democratic socialist Samelys López, who had the backing of high-profile progressive leaders and groups.

“New York City has become ground zero for Democratic socialism. In the latest election cycle, the [Democratic Socialists of America] won every single race in which it endorsed, except mine,” noted Torres, who on Thursday endorsed New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang.

“I had powerful forces arrayed against me — I had Bernie Sanders, [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], the [Working Families Party], the DSA, all endorsed Samelys López against me. And not only did I win, but I won decisively,” Torres said of his primary victory. “And I sent a powerful message that you can run as a pro-Israel, pragmatic progressive without catering to the extremes and you can win decisively in a place like the South Bronx.”

“Limited Liability Podcast” is a new weekly podcast for readers of Jewish Insider. Hear from the key players generating buzz and making headlines in conversation with two top political operatives, Jarrod Bernstein and Rich Goldberg. One Democrat, one Republican. Both hosts have extensive experience in the political arena and a deep rolodex to match. It’s Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff brought to life.

A bill elevating the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism to the rank of ambassador passed Congress on Thursday, nearly two years after first being introduced. Prior to its passage, the legislation appeared to stall in the Senate, raising concerns in the final days of the 116th Congress that legislators might have had to start over in the new Congress.

The House of Representatives first passed its version of the bill on Jan. 11, 2019. But — despite broad bipartisan support for the legislation — procedural issues bogged down the bill  once it reached the Senate. 

Several proponents of the bill both inside and outside Congress told JI that they believed the bill was going to die in the Senate, forcing a reset in the new session of Congress, which began January 3. This characterization was disputed by other Hill staffers and activists who had been communicating with senators to advance the legislation.

“I wouldn’t say it was dead, but it needed outside help,” a Republican aide told JI.

The bill was hampered by a dispute over whether to pass an amended version of the House bill or an identical bill that originated in the Senate, according to two Senate aides familiar with the bill, as well as American Jewish Congress President Jack Rosen.

Rosen, who spoke to several senators in an effort to move the bill forward, said Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) preferred to pass the bill as a Senate measure. Menendez did not respond to a request for comment.

Backers of the legislation told JI that Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) was critical to clearing the roadblocks that stood in the way of the bill’s passage. 

“Rosen became incredibly engaged and helpful,” a Senate Republican aide familiar with the bill told JI. Both Senate staffers familiar with the bill said that the senator had aggressively pushed colleagues to pass the legislation.

“Senator Rosen… moved this up in her agenda and began to push her colleagues,” Karen Barall, director of government relations for Hadassah, told JI. “She was very effective in ensuring this was understood to be an important measure. Without her, this would not have passed the Senate.”

Rosen told JI she was pleased that the bill passed through both chambers by unanimous consent — a procedure used to expedite legislation without requiring a formal vote. “In the Senate, I was able to build on my bipartisan record of working with colleagues to fight antisemitism by ensuring this critically important bill was brought to the floor and passed,” she said.

The Senate passed the bill on December 16, leaving a narrow window for the House to pass the amended bill and send it to the president’s desk before the end of the 116th Congress. 

To ensure the bill made it through the House, supporters had to contend with a chamber focused on urgent debates over government funding and COVID-19 relief payments, as well as disputes between Republican and Democratic leadership, generating concerns that the bill would not make it back through the House before the end of session.

“The issue that came up was not a substantive issue related to the text of the legislation, but rather they got caught up in Republican and Democratic food fight over other issues,” a pro-Israel activist involved in discussions about the bill said.

In addition to Rosen and the bill’s lead sponsors in the House, Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Brad Schneider (D-IL), a number of Jewish advocacy organizations joined the effort, including the Anti-Defamation League, Hadassah, the Orthodox Union, American Jewish Congress, American Jewish Committee, Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

“After the Senate voted, there was very little time for the House leadership to act and major legislation — the NDAA, the omnibus, COVID relief — were understandably top priorities for House leadership,” said Barall. “Hadassah and other organizations made an aggressive push to get this done though, and send the bill to the president.”

The pro-Israel activist who asked not to be named credited Smith and Schneider for winning the support of their respective parties’ leaders to allow the bill to pass by unanimous consent on December 31.

Assuming President Donald Trump signs the bill, President-elect Joe Biden will become the first president to nominate a special envoy on antisemitism for Senate confirmation, although it will likely take time before he announces a pick for the spot, and even longer for the nominee to be confirmed.

Trump took 23 months to nominate the current special envoy, Elan Carr, for the position. An individual involved in discussions over the bill told JI that he expects an extended delay to fill the slot, noting that Senate-confirmed nominees face a more expansive background check process, and must go through the lengthy confirmation process, which can take months.

Given that Biden still has yet to nominate some Cabinet secretaries and a range of other high-level appointees that will require Senate confirmation, it’s unlikely the president-elect will name his pick for the position before his inauguration on January 20, the source added.

Among the names said to be under consideration by the Biden transition team are former ADL national director Abe Foxman, past envoy Ira Forman, Emory University professor and noted Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt, University of California, Berkeley professor Ethan Katz and ADL senior vice president of international affairs Sharon Nazarian. Foxman and Katz declined to comment to JI. Lipstadt did not respond to a request for comment. 

Nazarian confirmed to JI she has spoken to members of the Biden transition team about the role and is submitting a formal application. She posited that her experience at ADL, as well as her personal experiences as an Iranian-born Jew, uniquely qualify her to expand and advance the special envoy’s office.

“My number one mission every day… is to advocate and to monitor and to educate, and to train as many people, stakeholders, government officials, as I can to first of all, make them aware of the threat of global antisemitism, and how it manifests in our lives today,” Nazarian said. “I feel like I’m well-positioned both as a practitioner of this work, as someone who’s led a very large team at ADL at the senior executive level, and also [as] someone who’s lived it through my own intersectional identity.”

Nazarian argued that the special envoy’s office, to date, has not taken a sufficiently modern or forward-looking approach to antisemitism, and has relied too heavily on 20th-century understandings of and approaches to global antisemitism.

Forman, who served as special envoy under former President Barack Obama from 2013 to the end of Obama’s term, declined to say if he was in consideration for the slot, but told JI, “I know there are a number of highly qualified people who could undertake this critical work and I am confident the Biden team will make an excellent choice.”

The Senate passed a bipartisan bill by unanimous consent on Wednesday night which upgrades the status of the State Department special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism. The bill now goes to the House for a final vote.

Under the new bill, the special envoy would become an ambassador-level position requiring Senate confirmation.

Per the terms of the legislation, the special envoy — a position currently held by former Los Angeles County deputy district attorney Elan Carr — would be the primary advisor and coordinator for U.S. government efforts to monitor and combat antisemitism abroad.

“I welcome the passage of this important bipartisan bill that will ensure that the U.S. remains a leader in the fight against antisemitism worldwide,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), one of the legislation’s original cosponsors, said in a statement. “I commend my Senate colleagues for passing this legislation, and look forward to the House quickly passing it and sending it to the president to be signed into law.” 

The bill’s other original cosponsors were Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Cory Gardner (R-CO).

In her own statement, Rosen said, “To equip the State Department to better address rising antisemitism, it is critical that we elevate the role of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism to Ambassador-at-Large,” and that the bill will ensure “that the United States remains a leader in combating anti-Semitism internationally and has the tools needed to track and respond to this growing scourge.”

Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Patty Murray (D-WA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Ed Markey (D-MA) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) signed on as cosponsors after the bill was introduced.

The House passed a version of the bill, introduced by Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Eliot Engel (D-NY), in January of 2019 by a vote of 411 to 1 — Libertarian Rep. Justin Amash (I-MI) was the only representative to vote against the legislation. 

Rubio, Gillibrand, Engel and Smith introduced similar legislation during the 115th Congress, but it did not pass the Senate during the previous term.

Outside advocates applauded the Senate for passing the legislation, with Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt calling it “an important step today to ensure that our government can better fight rising antisemitism around the world.”

American Jewish Committee Director of International Jewish Affairs Rabbi Andrew Baker concurred, saying the bill “will enable the U.S. to enhance our leadership addressing the scourge of antisemitism across the globe.”

Orthodox Union Executive Director for Public Policy Nathan Diament said in a separate statement, “With the passage of this legislation, the Senate is providing powerful new tools to the State Department to lead impactful international efforts to combat what has been aptly called ‘the world’s oldest form of hatred’ and roll back the tide of anti-Jewish hate.”

Recently released statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation — indicating the highest number of antisemitic hate crimes in a decade — “severely” undercounted the number of incidents, New York Attorney General Letitia James said on Monday.

James and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost joined a webcast hosted by the American Jewish Committee to discuss the release of the FBI’s annual hate crimes report, which found that hate crimes targeting the Jewish community had increased by 14% in 2019.

James said she questioned the accuracy of the data, suggesting that underreporting from both local law enforcement and the impacted communities themselves led to a lower number.

The New York attorney general — who described herself as an “honorary member of the Orthodox community,” having represented Crown Heights in the New York City Council for 10 years — sees the latter issue as a particular problem in what she called the “insular” Orthodox Jewish community.

“Going forward, obviously we’ve got to do a better job, particularly in the Orthodox community,” she said. “We’ve got to inform them and educate them and encourage them with respect to reporting these crimes.”

Yost agreed that underreporting is an issue for many categories of crimes, not just hate crimes, but noted that the victims of hate crimes are more than statistics laid out in data.

“We’re talking about hate crimes. That’s measured one life at a time. One case file at a time. This doesn’t happen to X number of people, it happens to one person… Someone who’s going to carry that trauma with them, the rest of their lives,” he said. “As much as I care about the data, it’s not the numbers that move me, it’s the stories.”

The Ohio attorney general criticized New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for his particularly stringent enforcement of coronavirus mitigation measures in Orthodox Jewish communities.

“When you single out a particular group and other similarly situated groups are not called out, I think you’re really sending a subtle message that helps to create a fertile seed bed for antisemitism or for racism or what have you,” Yost said.

James and Yost diverged on recent discussions and protests over police accountability. While James saw them as a potential step toward rebuilding trust between citizens and the police — thereby increasing reporting of hate crimes — Yost painted a darker picture. 

“The notion of law enforcement being a tool of the popular will frightens me and… it should frighten every American who knows anything about history,” he said. “The Holocaust, the things that happened in Nazi Germany were popularly supported. Law enforcement famously looked by while lynchings occurred in the South. Why? Because it was popularly supported… I’m really concerned that in our rush to make policing more responsive in some communities, that we risk unleashing the genie from the bottle.”