The Justice Department announced on Tuesday that Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights and chair of the Department of Justice’s antisemitism task force, will oversee the creation of the DOJ’s Antisemitism Advisory Committee. As part of the role, Terrell will embark on a 15-city nationwide tour to connect with local faith leaders and law enforcement officials about combating antisemitism. 

The department described the panel in a press release on Tuesday as “a new advisory body” that will recommend strategies to the attorney general and other department leadership “on coordinated, timely, and effective responses to antisemitism.” 

The committee “will consist of citizen leaders dedicated to combatting antisemitism” and individuals nominated to serve will be “subject to approval by the president,” the release said. (The task force, by contrast, is solely composed of DOJ officials.)

“Members will come from a wide range of backgrounds but share a common goal of developing innovative solutions to address antisemitism across the country,” the department said of the “forthcoming launch” of the panel.

Terrell told Jewish Insider in an interview late Tuesday that he had submitted a list of nominees to President Donald Trump after receiving the green light from acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to launch both initiatives and was awaiting approval from the White House. 

The tour, described by the department in a second press release as a “National Awareness & Action Tour to combat antisemitism,” will involve Terrell meeting with “individuals and local communities impacted by antisemitism” and “working to identify practical solutions to combat antisemitism at the local level.”

“This national tour is an important step in ensuring communities across the country know the federal government stands ready to work with them to confront antisemitic threats, protect public safety, and uphold civil rights,” Blanche said in a statement.

Terrell has not determined yet if the tour will include public appearances to engage with Jewish leaders. His schedule is in the process of being finalized, and the senior DOJ official told JI he is open to extending the number of cities beyond the initial 15 stops on the agenda.

As for who he will meet during his travels, Terrell acknowledged that he did not expect to receive much engagement from many leading Democratic officials in major cities, such as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson or Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Instead, he said he hopes to engage directly with Jewish community stakeholders in these places and urge Jewish Americans to get involved in local elections.

“We’re talking about going to Jewish communities, first of all, to light a fire under them, but also to ask how we resolve these issues when sometimes you’ve got an absentee district attorney, with an absentee mayor, with an absentee school board, with an absentee school superintendent?” Terrell said. “Most importantly, there’s going to be a great emphasis on taking back these school districts and local prosecutor jobs in elections. There’s going to be a focus on putting pressure on some of these politicians in local cities in towns.”

He told JI that his primary objective with both initiatives is to determine what solutions the Trump administration can implement to combat domestic antisemitism on a federal level, as well as ascertain what the federal government should encourage state and local officials to do to address the problem closer to home. 

“My position is that antisemitism is a local issue. What I mean by that is, we see the results of failures to address it at the local level — in the cities, in the school districts and areas like that,” Terrell said. “Not all of the solutions are in Washington. The solutions are in Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, in big cities, small cities, mid-sized cities in the South.”

“How do we get prosecutors in local cities to address antisemitic content that is being ignored and protected under the umbrella of free speech? How do we stop the curriculum problems that are developing in K-12 schools by teachers’ unions that support antisemitic misconduct?” he added. “How do we stop the issues caused by what I call the ‘Jewish tax,’ where Jewish citizens have to pay exorbitant security fees in order to worship or to have events? These are things that are happening at the local level.” 

Terrell said he is “wide open” to considering ideas from Jewish leaders across the country about solutions to the domestic antisemitism scourge, arguing that he believed “out-of-the-box thinking” was required at this moment. 

Terrell said that he viewed the success of the federal programs he hopes to enact over the remainder of the second Trump administration as a necessity, arguing that those initiatives yielding tangible results would make it difficult for a future president to shut down. 

“With this advisory committee, we’re going to work on the problem of antisemitism. We’re not going to be just talking, having hearings and things of that sort. This is not an advisory council that’s going to write a report that collects dust. I’m not in for that, I’m in for finding working solutions,” Terrell told JI. “Recognizing the problem is one thing. What to do is another.”

“I think that’s going to be the task of the commission, because I believe guardrails need to be put up before this president’s term in office is over,” he continued. “The president, in my opinion, has been the best friend that the Jewish American community has had in the White House. He’s committed. My biggest concern from here at DOJ is getting some guardrails up so the next president or the next White House will continue these programs.”

Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights, said he is intent on eliminating what he called “the Jewish tax” in an address on Sunday to hundreds of Jewish college students gathered for the Israel on Campus Coalition’s three-day annual leadership summit held in Washington.

“For those who don’t know what the Jewish tax is — for you to have this convention, for you to walk your child to a synagogue down the street — you have to pay for extra security,” said Terrell, who heads the Department of Justice’s antisemitism task force. “It makes no sense. It’s unfair. It’s wrong. I find it offensive that it’s being allowed throughout this country. I’m doing everything I can to eliminate it.” 

Terrell’s comments came as the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced last month that it had awarded $94.4 million in security grant funding to a total of 512 Jewish organizations nationwide. 

Terrell, who wore a baseball cap embroidered with the name “Hadar Goldin,” an IDF soldier abducted and killed by Hamas in 2014 whose body remains held by the terrorist group, shared that he has faced “fights and arguments” with some colleagues over how to strategically address antisemitism. He said that some colleagues have called to “cut a deal, to move on,” an apparent reference to the Trump administration’s recent settlement with Columbia University following a monthslong battle over the Ivy League university’s record dealing with antisemitism. 

“I will not compromise,” Terrell said. “No, how can you ask a group [to] compromise freedom? There is no compromise on your equality, your freedom, you have the right to go to schools, to walk down the streets and not be worried and not be afraid.” 

Terrell, a former civil rights attorney and a conservative media personality, told the crowd that eradicating antisemitism is a “full-time commitment,” one that he’s decided to take on in part due to Jewish involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. 

“I’m not a Jewish American. I’m a Black American. I also understand the history of this great country. Before becoming a lawyer, I was a school teacher. I grew up in the ‘60s,” Terrell said. “I remember Jewish Americans walking hand in hand with Black Americans making sure they got their civil rights.”