The assistant attorney general for civil rights said the DOJ will pursue those funding, training and supporting groups such as American Muslims for Palestine
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon arrives for a news conference at the Justice Department on September 29, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleHarmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, said the Justice Department intends to pursue and ultimately shut down groups that have engaged in disruptive protests at synagogues and other antisemitic activities, as well as those supporting those groups.
“We are investigating, prosecuting, and we will bring these groups and these individuals to justice,” Dhillon said. “We intend to bring strong cases that dismantle these groups at their very root so that these unlawful attacks can be stopped once and for all.”
She said her division’s work includes pursuing those funding, training and supporting groups such as American Muslims for Palestine and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which she said are engaging in “acts of domestic terrorism.”
Dhillon said that many of the groups behind antisemitic attacks are also involved in other activities, including “unlawful obstruction” of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
The assistant attorney general said that Jewish communities around the country that she’s engaged with “feel like they’re under a coordinated attack and that authorities aren’t doing enough to help them,” adding that she is “ashamed as an American, to hear that groups have acted with impunity.”
She alluded to numerous pending investigations of disruptions at synagogues, of civil rights violations on campuses and of discrimination in zoning and land use approvals, vowing that the DOJ “will not let this stand.” She emphasized that the DOJ has been acting “swiftly and decisively” in response to acts of antisemitism and attempted attacks.
Dhillon said that the DOJ’s invocation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act in prosecuting individuals for their involvement in a demonstration outside New Jersey’s Congregation Ohr Torah has become a model that has “paved the way” for its use in other cases to defend other synagogues and houses of worship for other groups. She said that there are more FACE Act investigations underway, related to both Jewish and Christian organizations.
The FACE Act bars the use of force, threats or obstruction to block access to reproductive health services or to obstruct the right to worship. It has previously been applied in cases of demonstrators blocking abortion clinics, but the DOJ under the Trump administration has applied it in cases of protesters blocking of houses of worship.
“For too long, groups and individuals acted as if they were above the law when attacking people of faith,” Dhillon said. “They engaged in a coordinated campaign designed to intimidate Jewish communities from even holding events at synagogues. Their methods are unlawful.”
Speaking at a conference on antisemitism organized by The George Washington University Program on Extremism, Dhillon also praised GW President Ellen Granberg “for standing up to these attacks and being a leader in this area,” pushing back on antisemitism on campus.
Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, spoke at the Israel Hayom conference in New York City on Tuesday
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon arrives for a news conference at the Justice Department on September 29, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Justice Department, defended Tucker Carlson’s hosting of neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes at the Israel Hayom summit on Tuesday.
Dhillon took part in a conversation at the gathering, which took place in Manhattan, with the outlet’s senior diplomatic correspondent, Ariel Kahana, about the Trump administration’s efforts to combat domestic antisemitism.
Asked about Carlson’s interview with Fuentes and what tools the U.S. had to prevent the spread of the antisemitic ideas from the far right, Dhillon distanced herself from Fuentes while calling Carlson a “friend.” She noted the importance of protecting free speech, though she did not condemn Carlson for his recent history of inviting antisemites and Holocaust deniers on his podcast.
“What we say in First Amendment world is: The antidote to speech that you don’t like is more speech. It isn’t shutting down speech,” Dhillon said. “So, I don’t agree with a single word that Nick Fuentes says or has to say, and the decision of whether or not to platform that person is one for my friend and former client, Tucker Carlson.”
“But we have a free country, still,” she continued. “Nothing is guaranteed, it is always one generation away from being lost. Thanks to Elon Musk acquiring Twitter, we have a free platform in America on X.” A study by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs earlier this year found that antisemitic content is rampant on X, more so than other social media sites.
Despite not pushing back on Carlson’s antisemitic embrace, Dhillon said Americans have an obligation to counter antisemitic and other hateful ideas through dialogue.
“The beauty of our country is that you can drown out negative views and viewpoints by simply speaking more,” she said, later adding: “It devolves on each of us as citizens to drown out those voices of hatred with our own voices, and have courage and stand up. The government can only do so much, and we are doing that.”
Earlier in the conversation, Dhillon lambasted New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani as an “antisemitic demagogue” who is incapable of changing his views.
“Look, the future mayor of New York is an antisemitic demagogue. That’s a fact,” Dhillon said. “There’s no persuading that kind of person, in a way. We will be responding with law enforcement to the extent that the city of New York fails to protect Jews in this city, and we see hate crimes, we see attacks or blockages surrounding houses of worship in this city.”
“The federal authorities, including the Department of Justice, FBI and others, are already actively investigating attacks in New York, New Jersey and elsewhere,” she continued. “Everywhere we find it in this country, we will step up and protect Jews.”
Plus, Israel weighs Oct. 7 tribunals
(Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department on September 29, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Good Friday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to the Department of Justice’s Harmeet Dhillon about the agency’s efforts to address antisemitism, and look at Rep. Mikie Sherrill’s outreach to Jewish voters in the homestretch of New Jersey’s gubernatorial race. We cover yesterday’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing for Amer Ghalib, the Trump administration’s embattled nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Kuwait, and spotlight efforts in Israel to put the perpetrators of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on trial. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Larry Summers, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, Eliya Cohen and Ziv Aboud.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve. Have a tip? Email us here.
For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent Jewish Insider and eJewishPhilanthropy stories, including: Graham Platner says ‘I am not a secret Nazi’ after photos of his tattoo emerge; A 21-year-old from rural Argentina travels 5,000 miles to learn — and teach — tolerance; and Britain’s Jewish community wants actions, not words, after Manchester synagogue attack. Print the latest edition here.
What We’re Watching
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio continues his visit to Israel. Rubio met on Thursday evening with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and is slated to meet with other senior officials today.
- Early voting begins tomorrow in New York City’s mayoral election.
- And in Florida, the Jewish National Fund’s annual Global Conference for Israel continues through the weekend.
- In Israel, Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday, putting Israelis six hours — instead of seven — ahead of the East Coast for the next week.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S MATTHEW KASSEL
As polls show Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) with a narrow lead in the run-up to New Jersey’s gubernatorial election, less than two weeks away, the Democratic lawmaker has stepped up her efforts to court the state’s sizable Jewish community — whose support could make the difference in what is expected to be a close race.
In recent weeks, Sherrill has previewed a plan of action to counter antisemitism in a webinar led by Jewish Democrats, joined calls for the state’s largest teachers’ union to fire an editor of its magazine over antisemitic and pro-Hamas social media comments and met with Orthodox Jewish leaders in Lakewood who represent an influential voting bloc.
The moderate congresswoman, who has held a northern New Jersey House seat since 2019, has condemned her Republican rival, Jack Ciattarelli, for appearing onstage at an event last weekend just after a Muslim affairs advisor had said he was “not taking money from Jews,” a remark Sherrill called “blatant antisemitism” from her opponent’s “inner circle.”
In addition to attending a Jewish event with Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) late last month in Bergen County, Sherrill is also expected to join Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and other Democratic leaders for a fundraiser on Saturday hosted at the home of Shawn Klein, the Jewish deputy mayor of Livingston, in northeastern New Jersey.
The increased engagement and attention to Jewish issues comes as Sherrill finds herself in a tightening race against Ciattarelli, who came close to unseating term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021 and was trailing by just five points in a poll released Thursday. The state’s significant Jewish population could help tip the scales for either candidate — with Ciattarelli depending on particularly robust turnout from the Orthodox community.
Her engagement otherwise comes as she has faced lingering reservations from some Jewish leaders in the state who believe she embraced a more critical approach to Israel in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, including early calls for a pause in fighting in Gaza.
QUAD CONTROL
Harmeet Dhillon says DOJ will fight antisemitism through law, not speech codes
When Harmeet Dhillon started her role as assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Justice Department in April, she refocused the division’s priorities to explicitly follow the aims of President Donald Trump: rooting out antisemitism, eradicating diversity, equity and inclusion programs and ending the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports. The move was met with controversy among the civil rights division’s staff, many of whom are civil servants, not political appointees. In an interview at the Justice Department on Thursday, Dhillon told Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch that she does not intend to crack down on free speech despite the prevalence of antisemitism at American universities — a position that she said diverged from what some members of Congress and Jewish activists have asked of her.
Pushing back: But while Dhillon, a Republican operative and civil rights attorney from San Francisco, is committed to rigorously carrying out Trump’s agenda, she is attempting to do so while also remaining committed to protecting free speech. “People in the Jewish community have pressured me to issue guidance to outlaw certain kinds of speech on the campus, and I haven’t gone that far. I don’t think that’s appropriate,” Dhillon said. “I think that you can criticize Israel. Many Jews criticize Israel. You can criticize the United States’ role. You can support the aspirations of the Palestinian people. You can even support Hamas, to a degree.”
BETWEEN IRAQ AND A HARD PLACE
Trump’s ambassador nominee struggles to explain antisemitic record in contentious Hill hearing
Amer Ghalib, the mayor of Hamtramck, Mich., and President Donald Trump’s embattled nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Kuwait, struggled to win over skeptical senators of both parties during his confirmation hearing on Thursday as he faced a grilling over his long record of promoting antisemitic ideas and embracing anti-Israel positions as an elected official, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
Ghalib grilling: Ghalib was grilled by Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which began when the committee’s ranking Democrat, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), called out his litany of antisemitic comments and denial of sexual violence during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. It culminated with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), after questioning Ghalib about his past opposition to the Abraham Accords and support of boycotts against Israel, announcing at the end of the hearing that he would not be able to support his nomination. He also faced bipartisan scrutiny over his recent characterization of Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator who invaded Kuwait, as a “martyr” — a social media post senators found stunning given that he’s being tapped as ambassador to the country Hussein invaded.
CLEAN-UP
Netanyahu does damage control after Trump, Vance, Rubio condemn annexation push
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu distanced himself on Thursday from the Knesset’s approval of two bills to extend Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank, after President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke out against annexation. The Knesset approved two settlement annexation bills brought by right-wing members of the opposition in preliminary votes on Wednesday, despite the coalition whipping votes against them, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Fallout: Vance was asked about the vote on his way onto Air Force Two departing Israel on Thursday, and said that he was “confused” and found the vote “weird.” He said he asked about the vote and was told it was symbolic. “If it was a political stunt, it was a very stupid political stunt, and I personally take some insult to it,” he said. Netanyahu attempted to repair the damage of the votes on Thursday morning, with a statement from his office calling them “a deliberate political provocation by the opposition to sow discord during Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Israel.” Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter assisted in Netanyahu’s damage control efforts, calling Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to clarify the situation.
MANIFESTO MAYHEM
Pomona College anti-Israel protesters release threatening manifesto
An anonymous manifesto was sent on Wednesday to two Pomona College student-run newspapers by demonstrators who recently stormed a campus vigil for the second anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. The emailed manifesto states that “Zionism is a death cult that must be dealt with accordingly,” Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Chain of events: It was sent days after an on-campus event commemorating the Oct. 7 anniversary was disrupted by four masked and keffiyah-clad individuals who barged in chanting “Zionists not welcome here.” The memorial, sponsored by Hillel in a university building and scheduled on the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the attacks, featured a talk by Yoni Viloga, who survived the attack on his family’s home in Kibbutz Mefalsim. The disruption, which also included chants of “Zionism is still a colonial ideology” and “You’re all complicit in genocide,” lasted about two minutes, until campus safety officers arrived. The perpetrators of last week’s demonstration wrote in the manifesto that “Viloga served in the zionist occupational forces and is a settler on stolen land. Knowing this, we had to act.”
DISCUSSION REOPENED
With hostages home, Israel revisits special tribunal, death penalty for Oct. 7 terrorists
The return of the final, living hostages to Israel last week has reopened discussion of putting the Palestinian perpetrators of the Oct. 7, 2023, atrocities in Israel on trial. Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin threw his support behind legislation to allow for the formation of a special tribunal to prosecute Hamas terrorists who are part of the Nukhba, the terrorist group’s special forces unit, on charges of genocide, which carries the death penalty, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Legislative plans: The bill is meant to “ensure that the legal process will be run efficiently and to ensure that justice will be done and seen,” Levin said in a joint statement with the bill’s sponsors, Simcha Rothman, the chairman of the Knesset Law, Constitution and Justice Committee, of the Religious Zionist Party, and Yisrael Beitenu lawmaker Yuli Malinovsky. The group plans to bring the legislation to a first vote as soon as possible and usher it through the process “at the greatest speed, with a shared aim to bring the Nukhba terrorists to justice soon.” Levin, Rothman and Malinovsky said that the office of the Israeli state attorney, the country’s chief prosecutor, has drafted indictments against Nukhba terrorists.
PULPIT POLITICS
After Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove endorses Cuomo, leaders debate if he opened Pandora’s box or if circumstances demanded it
Since July’s IRS decision to allow religious figures to endorse candidates in houses of worship, pulpit rabbis have held their tongues, but this past Shabbat, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of the Conservative Park Avenue Synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side pleaded with congregants not to vote for Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and he endorsed former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the independent candidate, for the Nov. 4 mayoral election. Preaching politics into the pews has always been a fine line. Prior to July’s IRS decision, the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 tax code, caused congregations to lose tax-exempt status if leaders endorsed candidates (not policies), but it was rarely enforced. The line blurred more as Mamdani stoked fears in New York, with prominent rabbis like Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, the leader of Manhattan’s Reform Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, taking aim at Mamdani on his podcast and in sermons, and more than 900 rabbis signing a petition condemning Mamdani earlier this week, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher reports.
Cosgrove’s call: Cosgrove crossed a Rubicon by outwardly endorsing Cuomo from the pulpit. Some in the Jewish community told eJP that given the risk posed by a Mamdani mayoralty, this is something that should have occurred more often and far earlier. Others expressed concerns that — regardless of one’s opinions of a specific candidate — this kind of politicization of religion ultimately puts Jews and democracy in danger. “As a rabbi, the safety of the Jewish people is my preeminent concern,” Cosgrove told eJP. In the past, he has never been this outright political. The rules dictated by the IRS had nothing to do with his decision to condemn Mamdani or endorse Cuomo, he said. “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. This was an exceptional circumstance.”
Read the full story here and sign up for eJewishPhilanthropy’s Your Daily Phil newsletter here.
Worthy Reads
Foreign Policy Pivot: The Washington Post’s David Ignatius looks at what he describes as the “misallocation of priorities” in the Trump administration, amid growing Russian intransigence and Washington’s pivot away from Europe. “The FBI’s most experienced national security agents have been purged; cyber defenses at several agencies have been slashed; scores of veteran CIA analysts and operations officers have quit or been forced out; alliances with friendly intelligence services have weakened. … Intelligence cooperation is close to hardwired among the U.S., Britain and the other three English-speaking ‘Five Eyes’ partners. But even some of the Five Eyes services are moderating what they tell Washington, U.S. intelligence officials believe. What worries intelligence veterans is that Trump is balking at countering a real Russian drive to subjugate Ukraine and sabotage NATO — and focusing instead on military strikes against drug cartels and [Venezuelan President Nicolás] Maduro.” [WashPost]
‘Laugh-Washing’ in Saudi?: In The Wall Street Journal, former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Michael Ratney responds to pushback against comedians performing at the recent Riyadh Comedy Festival over the country’s human rights record. “It is a conservative nation with a legal system that has yet to catch up with the country’s modern and global ambitions. Spend some time there and you will see the dissonance: an explosion of creative expression even while political speech is curtailed. … But life for Saudis is undeniably better than it was a few years ago, especially for women, who have more control over their lives than at any point since the founding of the modern Saudi state. In my experience, average Saudis care more about their country’s current transformation than its shortcomings. Most foreign visitors to Saudi Arabia I met, particularly those who remember it from a decade ago, say the country seems happier, healthier and more energized. For the Saudi leadership, those are more important gauges of success than the judgments of foreigners who know little of their kingdom and, in the Saudi view, hold their country to someone else’s standards and someone else’s values.” [WSJ]
Word on the Street
In his recently published interview with Time magazine, President Donald Trump suggested he could lean on Israel to release imprisoned Palestinian senior official Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences for his role in terror attacks that have killed Israelis…
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which suspended its aid distribution efforts in Gaza following the implementation of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, is in discussions with U.S. and Israeli officials about a potential role in a postwar Gaza…
The Wall Street Journal reports on Hamas’ efforts to fight its dismantlement — one of the key points of Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war…
Trump‘s run-in last month at a Washington restaurant with members of the radical Code Pink group prompted conversations between administration officials and Secret Service over the president’s security…
Politico looks at the influx of high-profile Democratic surrogates to Virginia and New Jersey ahead of both states’ gubernatorial elections, amid a broader debate over the future direction of the party…
Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner hired a new campaign manager and in-house attorney and is having staff sign non-disclosure agreements following the departure of his previous campaign manager amid controversy over Platner’s tattoo of a Nazi symbol and recently uncovered homophobic Reddit posts…
A poll from the University of New Hampshire that was fielded amid Platner’s controversies showed the hard-left Democrat leading Gov. Janet Mills, who entered the race last week, by 34 points…
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who dropped his reelection bid last month, endorsed former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is mounting an independent bid after falling short in the primary; the endorsement came two days before the start of early voting…
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) appeared at a fundraiser for Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) in Monsey, N.Y., on Thursday evening, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…
The editor of Portland, Ore., newspaper The Jewish Review said his outlet was blocked from attending a recent virtual press conference, organized by the Portland chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, on Israel; Rockne Roll, the only staff member of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland-owned publication, said he was removed from the press conference and not allowed to reenter…
Former Harvard President Larry Summers clashed with university administrators during the removal of an anti-Israel installation on the Cambridge campus…
University of Michigan police arrested three individuals — who were not affiliated with the university — for resisting and obstructing police, disorderly conduct and other charges during a protest outside an on-campus event hosted by the campus’ chapter of Students Supporting Israel…
The New York Times profiles Israeli-American mentalist Oz Pearlman…
The Trump administration is facing increasing pressure to secure the release of a Palestinian-American teenager who was arrested in the West Bank in February and charged with throwing rocks at soldiers…
Former Israeli hostage Eliya Cohen, who was released earlier this year after more than 500 days in captivity, got engaged to his longtime girlfriend, Ziv Aboud, who survived the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on the Nova music festival; Cohen had previously said he would not propose until hostages Alon Ohel and Elkana Bohbot, who were released from captivity last week, were freed…
Israel’s “Eretz Nehederet” sketch comedy show parodied the relationship between President Donald Trump and senior Israeli officials…
The Wall Street Journal reports on the resurgence of the Islamic State in Syria following the fall of the Assad regime and the U.S.’ lessening troop presence in the country…
Michael Smuss, the last surviving fighter of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, died at 99…
Manhattan restaurateur Shelly Fireman, who popularized Italian-American cuisine in his restaurants, which included Bond 45 and Cafe Fiorello, died at 93…
Pic of the Day
Well-wishers welcomed former Israel hostage Alon Ohel back to his home in northern Israel today after he was released from hospital. During the two years that Ohel was held by Hamas in Gaza, his eye injury, caused by shrapnel on Oct. 7, 2023, when he was abducted from the Nova music festival, was left untreated.
Birthdays
Staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, her 2019 novel Fleishman Is In Trouble hit the best-seller lists, Taffy Brodesser-Akner turns 50 on Sunday…
FRIDAY: Genealogist who specializes in the research of Jewish roots in Poland and the former Soviet Union, Miriam Weiner turns 83… Writer and adjunct instructor at Queensborough Community College, Ira Greenfest… Stock market analyst who has published books and appears regularly on CNBC and Bloomberg TV, Charles Biderman turns 79… Retired Pentagon official, Judy Gleklen Kopff… Financial planner and president of Laredo, Texas-based International Asset Management, Joseph Rothstein… Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Southern California since 1997, Brad Sherman turns 71… Retired executive editor of The Washington Post, Martin “Marty” Baron turns 71… Chattanooga, Tenn.-based billionaire and CEO of Mohawk Industries, the world’s largest flooring company, Jeffrey S. Lorberbaum turns 71… U.S. senator (R-SD), Mike Rounds turns 71… U.S. senator (D-OR), Jeff Merkley turns 69… Program director at the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation, Alan Divack… Co-founder and former CEO of Sirius Satellite Radio (now Sirius XM Radio), he made aliyah in 2002, David Margolese turns 68… Producer of CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Henry Schuster… Russian-Ukrainian businessman, he is a supporter of Jewish initiatives in Europe and a co-founder of the Genesis Prize, German Khan turns 64… Professor and chair of politics at the University of Hull in the U.K. for 18 years until this past June, Raphael Cohen-Almagor turns 64… Political correspondent for The New York Times and author of (((Semitism))): Being Jewish in America in the Age of Trump, Jonathan Weisman… Russian businessman and former owner of the Premier League’s Chelsea Football Club, Roman Abramovich turns 59… Co-founder of the Ira Sohn Conference Foundation, focused on pediatric cancer research and care, Evan Sohn… Political communications consultant, Tovah Ravitz Meehan… Israeli author and editor of science fiction and fantasy, Vered Tochterman turns 55… Businesswoman, model, actress and television personality, she has appeared on more than 250 magazine covers, Caprice Bourret turns 54… Fashion designer, Zac Posen turns 45… Founding partner of Be Clear Communications, Matt Lehrich… Rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor, born to a Jewish mother in Toronto, he celebrated his bar mitzvah, Aubrey Drake Graham now known as Drake turns 39… Executive director at Flatbush Community Fund, Yitzy Weinberg… Director of community engagement at Friends of the IDF, Yehuda Joel Friedman…
SATURDAY: Senior U.S. District Court judge based in Brooklyn, appointed by President Reagan, Judge Edward R. Korman turns 83… Former chief policy and strategy officer of Oscar Insurance, following stints as a Supreme Court clerk, White House counsel, chancellor of the NYC schools and EVP at News Corporation, Joel Klein turns 79… Board chair of the Israel Policy Forum from 2016 until 2023, she also serves as president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, Susie Gelman turns 71… President of Dallas-based SPR Ventures, he serves on the boards of Texas Capital Bancshares and Cinemark, Steven Rosenberg… Acting deputy secretary of state during the latter part of the Biden administration, her family name was Nudelman, Victoria Jane Nuland turns 64… Television personality and author of 16 books, Bruce Feiler turns 61… Voice actress and singer, best known for voicing Asajj Ventress in “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” Nika Futterman turns 56… Actor, he is currently starring on the CBS show “The Equalizer,” Adam Charles Goldberg turns 55… Television screenwriter, showrunner, executive producer and director, best known for running the television medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy,” Krista Vernoff turns 54… Actress, she has appeared as various characters on the FX anthology series “American Horror Story,” Leslie Erin Grossman turns 54… State Department official, she is married to Rep. Brad Sherman, Lisa Nicola Kaplan… Physician, author and public speaker on health issues, Michael Herschel Greger, MD turns 53… Sharon Iancu… Rapper and songwriter, known professionally as The Alchemist, Daniel Alan Maman turns 48… Director of the Chabad House at Princeton University, Rabbi Eitan Yaakov Webb… Singer and songwriter who competed in the ninth season of “American Idol” (2010), Vered “Didi” Benami turns 39… Singer and model, she has released three albums and toured internationally, Hannah Cohen turns 39… Program officer at San Francisco’s Koret Foundation, Rachel Elana Schonwetter… Director of community relations at the Baltimore Jewish Council, Josh Sherman… Musician, known professionally by the mononym “Grandson,” Jordan Edward Benjamin turns 32… Budding public intellectual, Cole S. Aronson turns 29… Executive director of FairTest, Harry Feder…
SUNDAY: Former chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, the first woman to serve in that position, Deborah Tobias Poritz turns 89… South African judge who led the 2009 U.N. Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict of that year, Richard Goldstone turns 87… Veteran Israeli war correspondent, winner of the 2018 Israel Prize, Ron Ben-Yishai turns 82… Actress best known as one of “Charlie’s Angels,” she now develops and markets her own brands of clothing and perfume, Jaclyn Smith (family name was Kupferschmidt) turns 80… Chiropractor in White Plains, N.Y., Leonard Linder, DC… Certified life coach and hypnotherapist, Evie Sullivan… CEO at MDI Real Estate Services in Grand Blanc, Mich., Gary Hurand… Former secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton turns 78… Media critic at The Baltimore Sun, assistant professor at Goucher College and the author of The Jews of Prime Time, David Lee Zurawik turns 76… Aventura, Fla., resident, Cecilia Kleiman… Illustrator and graphic memoirist, he is an emeritus professor at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, Martin Lemelman turns 75… Rabbi of Congregation K.I.N.S. and Dean of Ida Crown Jewish Academy, both in Chicago, he is a past president of the Rabbinical Council of America, Leonard Matanky, Ph.D. turns 67… Senior counsel in the antitrust division of the USDOJ, Perry Howard Apelbaum turns 67… Director of communications at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Jeffrey Rubin… Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Stacy Madeleine Schiff turns 64… Cultural commentator and mathematician, Eric Ross Weinstein turns 60… Founding partner and president of Global Strategy Group, Jefrey Pollock… Screenwriter, director, producer and editor, Jessica Sharzer turns 53… Canadian-born television and film actor, David Julian Hirsh turns 52… Author and broadcast journalist for NBC, Katherine Bear Tur turns 42… Figure skater who won a 2006 Olympic silver medal, plus three World Championship medals and the 2006 U.S. Championship, Alexandra Pauline “Sasha” Cohen turns 41… Executive director of product management at Politico, Danielle Feldman… Head coach for the NHL’s San Jose Sharks, he is the youngest head coach in the NHL and the league’s first Jewish head coach in over 30 years, Ryan Warsofsky turns 38… Journalist for The Wall Street Journal, recently freed after being unlawfully detained in a Russian prison, Evan Gershkovich turns 34… Tel Aviv resident, Dr. Alberto Calo…
In an interview with JI, the senior DOJ official said that while combating antisemitism is a priority, the Justice Department is focused on the Trump administration’s battle with DEI
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon prepares for her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on February 26, 2025 in Washington, DC.
When Harmeet Dhillon started her role as assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Justice Department in April, she refocused the division’s priorities to explicitly follow the aims of President Donald Trump: rooting out antisemitism, eradicating diversity, equity and inclusion programs and ending the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports.
The move was met with controversy among the civil rights division’s staff, many of whom are civil servants, not political appointees. About half of the division’s lawyers have quit since she was sworn in.
But while Dhillon, a Republican operative and civil rights attorney from San Francisco, is committed to rigorously carrying out Trump’s agenda, she is attempting to do so while also remaining committed to protecting free speech. In an interview at the Justice Department on Thursday, Dhillon told Jewish Insider that she does not intend to crack down on free speech despite the prevalence of antisemitism at American universities — a position that she said diverged from what some members of Congress and Jewish activists have asked of her.
“People in the Jewish community have pressured me to issue guidance to outlaw certain kinds of speech on the campus, and I haven’t gone that far. I don’t think that’s appropriate,” Dhillon said on Thursday in her office. “I think that you can criticize Israel. Many Jews criticize Israel. You can criticize the United States’ role. You can support the aspirations of the Palestinian people. You can even support Hamas, to a degree.”
Unless, she noted, the person who is espousing support for Hamas is an international student. “If you’re here as a foreign student and you’re supporting terrorism or what happened on Oct. 7, you may not be entitled to stay in this country. So those are all personal choices people are making, and those personal choices have consequences,” said Dhillon.
As a partner at her own law firm, Dhillon took on several notable cases representing conservative clients who felt their rights had been trampled in liberal jurisdictions. In 2017, she sued the University of California, Berkeley, on First Amendment grounds, on behalf of the Berkeley College Republicans after a speaker the group brought to campus was canceled by the university. She filed numerous lawsuits in 2020 challenging California’s COVID-19 policies. In 2023, her firm filed a case on behalf of a person who sought to reverse their gender transition.
A former board member of the northern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, Dhillon outlined her approach to determining when free speech crosses the line into unlawful behavior.
“I am a firm believer in free speech, and I think the way I see it on a campus setting is that a campus is not just an ‘open free speech’ zone,” Dhillon explained. “Where someone’s so-called free speech is obstructing the main purpose of the facility or the area, and obstructing the right of students and employees of the university to be able to get to their classes, teach their classes, enjoy their classes, or there’s a level of othering and obstruction and picketing and misery that makes it impossible for people to enjoy a peaceful educational setting — that’s where it becomes problematic.”
It’s the onus of the universities to “police this,” she said, because they receive federal funding.
“It’s complicated, and so each case is different,” said Dhillon. “You have to do the analysis of where this is and where it’s happening. Blocking access to a dormitory — that’s not a limited purpose public forum. It’s a private space, actually, so you don’t have the same free speech rights there as you do on the college green.”
While antisemitism has factored heavily in the Justice Department’s work in recent months, Dhillon said it is secondary to DEI in terms of the extent of each problem.
“Antisemitism is just one of the many issues. DEI is a bigger issue. There’s sports issues, Title IX issues, women’s privacy issues,” said Dhillon. “You don’t see antisemitism at every school. You see DEI at every school.”
Trump administration officials and other opponents of DEI argue that diversity, equity and inclusion programs promote discrimination by prioritizing identity over merit, while critics of that view say eliminating them will roll back decades of progress on equal opportunity. DEI initiatives, which expanded rapidly in universities and corporations after the George Floyd protests and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, have recently faced pushback and retrenchment — as institutions from the federal government to major companies and universities scale back their programs.
Much of the department’s work under Dhillon has centered on conservative priorities and targeted left-wing causes. That doesn’t mean the DOJ is ignoring antisemitism from the right, said Dhillon, noting she does “not apply a political lens to our work.” But she is not worried about harmful speech alone.
“Where protesters have blocked access to Hillel or Chabad on campuses, those are FACE Act cases. People need to bring me the facts, and we will work them up and see if we can bring a prosecution on those cases, civil or criminal,” Dhillon said.
“I see a lot of noise online. I see some conservative commentators, including some people who’ve been friends of mine or I agreed with in the past, taking some radical views on some of these issues. And I mean, okay, the marketplace of free ideas in America means I don’t have to follow them or listen to them,” she said. “It’s disturbing, but that’s free speech. So the antidote to speech we don’t like in America is more speech. [But] where you’re talking about somebody attacking a house of worship, attacking people of the Jewish faith because of their faith or because of their support of the victims of Oct. 7, those are hate crimes, and that’s what we deal with.”
The Justice Department filed a lawsuit in September against anti-Israel protesters who demonstrated outside a New Jersey synagogue, alleging their actions were meant to keep congregants from exercising their religion. The suit relied on the FACE Act, a Clinton-era statute that has typically been applied to violent protesters outside abortion clinics, but which also has a provision about houses of worship. Dhillon intends to file more cases in that vein.
“Where protesters have blocked access to Hillel or Chabad on campuses, those are FACE Act cases. People need to bring me the facts, and we will work them up and see if we can bring a prosecution on those cases, civil or criminal,” she said.
While the department does research into which cases to bring, Dhillon said her team acts “as almost a customer-service bureau, if you will, to complaints from the public.” Some of it comes across her desk online. She is active on X, where she regularly responds to news stories and commentary. “Not good,” she wrote on Tuesday in response to a post from a Seattle talk radio host who was calling attention to DEI programs at the University of Washington.
At the heart of the Trump administration’s aggressive approach is a willingness to demand that all entities that receive federal funding — nearly every university in America, as well as many municipalities, school districts and more — are committed to upholding civil rights in the way the administration has interpreted that pillar of American democracy.
“We’re not in the business of micromanaging universities. We’re in the business of ensuring that our federal civil rights laws are being followed,” Dhillon said. “We have the right, as the DOJ, under this agreement [with UVA], to go back in immediately and open up new investigations if the facts merit that.”
The result has been the withholding of billions of dollars of funds from several prominent universities and, more recently, settlements with a number of those schools, including Columbia, Brown and, this week, the University of Virginia.
That’s a function that in the past may have been reserved for the Education Department. But with Trump’s desire to eliminate the Education Department entirely, more of those responsibilities now fall under Dhillon’s purview. Despite the heavy-handed approach, Dhillon said the government mostly intends to leave implementation of the agreements up to the schools, so long as they know they are not off the hook for future violations.
“We’re not in the business of micromanaging universities. We’re in the business of ensuring that our federal civil rights laws are being followed,” Dhillon said. “We have the right, as the DOJ, under this agreement [with UVA], to go back in immediately and open up new investigations if the facts merit that.”
That threat of legal action has led to change on college campuses, Dhillon said.
“That’s the effect of a watchdog, aggressive DOJ, and it has been very effective so far,” said Dhillon. “I don’t think any school in America thinks they can get away with discriminating against Jews and not letting them get to class without seeing a tweet from me followed by a lawsuit from me.”
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