In one of his final acts in office, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares sent a letter on Monday reminding all K-12 superintendents and school boards in the state of their obligation to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism into their codes of conduct and discrimination policies. 

“Every student in Virginia has the right to learn in an environment free from fear,” Miyares said in a statement. “The IHRA definition provides schools with a clear framework to recognize and respond to antisemitic conduct and distinguish protected speech from unlawful discrimination, intimidation, and harassment.” 

The IHRA definition is currently used by the Department of Education to enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Virginia law also requires use of the IHRA definition by state agencies. “As part of your compliance with Federal and Virginia law, you must implement the IHRA definition and its contemporary examples into your codes of conduct and discrimination policies to assess unprotected activity,” Miyares wrote. 

Miyares, a Republican, lost his reelection bid in November to Democrat Jay Jones, who will be inaugurated later this month. 

In New York City, newly inaugurated Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing criticism for repealing an executive order, issued by former Mayor Eric Adams, that saw the city adopt the IHRA definition. As Virginia’s use of the IHRA definition was codified in state law after being passed by the state legislature in May 2023, neither Jones nor Democratic Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger could reverse it without approval from the General Assembly. 

Virginia public schools have been roiled by a number of high-profile antisemitic incidents in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza. The House Committee on Education and the Workforce announced in November it would open investigations into the Fairfax County, Va., school system, along with several others across the country. 

“Jewish students in Virginia have been excluded, harassed, threatened, and even assaulted,” Miyares wrote in the letter. “Our youngest children have been targeted with harassment as early as elementary school and our young adult leaders have faced hostile and even threatening environments in higher education. This discrimination often masks itself as ‘Anti-Zionism,’ targeting the majority of Jews whose identity includes connection to the modern Jewish state of Israel and fellow Jews who live there… But normalized discrimination based on shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics is still illegal discrimination.”

Miyares continued, “When determining discriminatory motive, the IHRA definition is an effective tool to identify both traditional antisemitic tropes and modern antisemitism that often involves demonization, delegitimization, or applying double standards against Israel.”  

“Pushing back against antisemitism requires clarity, consistency, and courage,” Miyares wrote. “We cannot fight something we fail to define. By adopting this resolution, schools can meet their legal obligations while upholding constitutional principles and ensuring equal access to education for every student.” 

The University of Maryland, College Park and Maryland’s attorney general have asked the state to approve their joint request to settle a First Amendment lawsuit brought by the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter.

The request to settle the case, which was not previously publicly available information, was revealed in a memo detailing the agenda for an impending meeting of the Maryland Board of Public Works, which oversees matters impacting the state university system. The university’s settlement, according to the agenda posted to BPW’s website ahead of a Wednesday board meeting, would provide $100,000 to defendants through the CAIR Legal Defense Fund, an arm of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. 

“The University of Maryland College Park and the Office of the Attorney General recommend paying $100,000 to settle all claims, including attorneys’ fees, as in the best interest of the State,” the memo reads. 

The University of Maryland declined to comment to Jewish Insider about its request to settle and Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown did not respond to JI’s request for comment.

On behalf of UMD SJP, CAIR and Palestine Legal filed a lawsuit against the university’s College Park campus last September alleging a violation of the students’ free speech after UMD President Darryll Pines announced that the school had canceled an SJP-sponsored anti-Israel rally slated for the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. 

UMD initially granted SJP a permit last August to hold the Oct. 7 demonstration on the campus’ central McKeldin Mall, prompting swift backlash and calls from campus groups including Hillel and the Jewish Student Union — and from former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who was running for the Senate at the time — for the school to reverse course. 

After the university canceled the protest, SJP filed a lawsuit stating that its First Amendment rights had been violated and a federal judge wrote in an opinion that the group “has demonstrated a substantial likelihood that it will prevail [in its lawsuit] on the merits of its freedom of speech claim.” The university then backtracked a second time and ultimately allowed the demonstration to take place, but the lawsuit moved forward. 

Pines said at the time that the initial decision to cancel the event — and all events scheduled for Oct. 7, other than university sponsored ones — was made following a “safety assessment,” which, he added, did not identify any threats to the campus. 

Einav Tsach, a rising senior studying journalism and business, told JI that amid turmoil around the SJP demonstration, Jewish students still “came together as a strong, vibrant Jewish campus community to mark the one-year anniversary of the horrors perpetrated by Hamas.” 

As the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks approaches this fall, Tsach, the former leader of  Mishelanu, an on-campus Israeli-American cultural association, said that Jewish UMD students “remain focused on marking this solemn day in the most meaningful way possible.”

Other than the controversy around last year’s demonstration, UMD, which has one of the largest Jewish student populations in the country — nearly 20% of the College Park undergraduate student body of more than 30,000 is Jewish — has largely avoided egregious incidents of antisemitism that have occurred on other college campuses. 

Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Wednesday that the Department of Justice was keeping a close eye on potential homeland threats to the Jewish community that may be motivated by the American and Israeli military strikes on Iran.

Bondi’s comments followed recent administration warnings about potential Iran-linked “sleeper cells” in the country or radicalization of individuals domestically by Shia or Iranian propaganda.

Bondi, asked by Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) about potential threats to the Jewish community, highlighted the Capital Jewish Museum attack, the firebombing of activists at a hostage-awareness march in Boulder, Colo., and the arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home as a series of connected incidents.

“We are all over these cases, working hand in hand with the FBI, with Homeland Security, all of our agencies are working so well together to try to combat this throughout our country,” Bondi said. “Without getting into detail in this setting, Iran, of course, is a threat. They have been a threat, and they always will be a threat to our country. And we are working hand in hand with all of our agencies to protect Americans and to keep us safe. We have a 24/7 command center at the FBI set up for situations just like you described, senator.”

Bondi again addressed “sleeper cell” concerns later in the hearing, adding that the administration had arrested 1,500 undocumented Iranian immigrants in the country, saying she would want to discuss the issue further in a classified setting.

“Have they invaded our country? Absolutely,” Bondi said.

She also identified Jerusalem Cafe, a coffee shop in Oakland, Calif., that expelled a customer for wearing a Star of David hat and which has menu items honoring terrorists, as part of a trend connected to the antisemitic attacks.

“My Civil Rights division is all over that,” Bondi said. “My Civil Rights division is going after them with full force.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) urged Bondi to “reconsider” pulling security details from former U.S. officials such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whom Iran has targeted for assassination.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) asked Bondi about officials who have been reassigned from counterterrorism and cybersecurity to immigration-related cases, raising concerns that the terrorism cases were being sapped of resources.

She said the DOJ team is attentive to national security threats, arguing that national security “is going hand in hand with the people who have come into our country through our borders.” Bondi added that the DOJ is also focused on foreign cybersecurity threats.

Jason Miyares, the attorney general of Virginia, announced this week that his office had filed a petition to enforce a judge’s order from last July that a pro-Palestinian advocacy group with alleged ties to Hamas turn over closely guarded financial records that could shed light on its donor network — which has faced growing scrutiny in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks.

Miyares’ office said in a statement on Tuesday that American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), a nonprofit group headquartered in Virginia that he has been investigating in a probe of its fundraising operations, “has refused to comply” with a civil investigative demand for documents the group has long shielded from public view.

The petition “seeks AMP’s immediate compliance” with the demand, the statement said, reiterating that Miyares’ team has been requesting records as part of an ongoing investigation into allegations that the group “may have used” funds “for impermissible purposes, such as benefiting or providing support to terrorist organizations.”

In a major court ruling last summer, a Richmond judge rejected AMP’s effort to challenge the demand, ordering the group to “produce records” and denying its petition to narrow the focus of the probe, according to a statement from the attorney general’s office after the decision had been made.

But Miyares, a Republican who first launched his investigation shortly after Hamas’ attacks on Israel in October 2023, said that AMP has continued to drag its heels several months later.

“Despite the court denying AMP’s previous efforts to halt my investigation, they continue refusing to comply,” he said in a separate statement posted to social media on Tuesday, while calling the petition “necessary to ensure accountability and uphold the law.”

A spokesperson for his office did not respond to a request for comment on the investigation.

Christina Jump, an attorney for AMP, said that she was unable to comment on the petition because she had “yet to see the referenced enforcement action,” claiming the attorney general’s office had “issued a press release prior to making any effort to contact AMP — or its counsel — about this new step.”

Jump added that AMP had filed a “timely” appeal of the judge’s decision and made “requests for a stay of the enforcement,” accusing the attorney general’s office of attempting to “thwart” the group’s “right to utilize the full legal process,” which she called “both disappointing and premature.”

“We will continue to pursue all legal actions which AMP may rightfully pursue — and its appeal of the underlying decision remains actively pending,” she wrote in an email to Jewish Insider on Wednesday.

Founded in 2006, AMP describes itself as “a grassroots organization dedicated to advancing the movement for justice in Palestine by educating the American public about Palestine and its rich cultural, historical and religious heritage and through grassroots mobilization and advocacy.”

But in the wake of Oct. 7, the group has faced growing scrutiny over its involvement in anti-Israel protests on college campuses around the country and its financial backing of National Students for Justice in Palestine, members and chapters of which have voiced outspoken support for Hamas.

Top officials at AMP, meanwhile, were also once affiliated with a now-defunct group, the Islamic Association for Palestine, found liable for aiding Hamas.

The attorney general’s investigation is one of several legal challenges now targeting AMP’s records, which critics have long suspected of hiding illicit financial activity.

The group has insisted it has never supported or funded terrorism and that it does not send money overseas. Jump, in her email to JI, said “no court, in any jurisdiction, has ever found that AMP has done anything inappropriate regarding its fundraising. It has not.”

AMP’s fiscal sponsor, AJP Educational Foundation, took in more than $2.2 million in revenue in 2023, according to its most recent tax filings, which do not disclose the group’s donors.

In an interview with JI last September, Miyares — who has largely avoided commenting publicly on the active investigation — said that his office has been “aggressively in the process of using the legal system” to obtain additional records that AMP has fought to withhold.

“We have been relentless in that pursuit, and we will continue to be relentless,” he said. “Our job is to get to the truth.”