A week after a group of Jewish students submitted a complaint with a federal civil rights office alleging widespread antisemitism at American University, the school on Thursday unveiled a new set of policies meant to counter antisemitism and promote civil discourse on the Washington, D.C., campus.

The three new policies are content-neutral: Rather than specifically referring to antisemitism, they are meant to “support the sense of belonging on campus, promote safety, address the immediate challenges at hand and help build broader community for all,” said the email, authored by American President Sylvia Burwell and several other administrators. But an email sent to the university community made clear that the policies were created in response to recent events that “have made Jewish students feel unsafe and unwelcome.” 

Arab civil society leaders who gathered on Thursday for a Holocaust memorial event emphasized the importance of remembering the Holocaust and its lessons at a time of rising global hate.

Thursday’s virtual event, organized by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Saturday, is the museum’s third consecutive yearly event focused on Holocaust education, following gatherings in Cairo and Abu Dhabi. A similar in-person event could not be organized in the Middle East this year amid the war in Gaza.

In its first endorsement of a non-incumbent this election cycle, AIPAC’s political action committee is backing Westchester County Executive George Latimer, a formidable primary challenger to Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) in the northern suburbs of New York City, a spokesperson for the pro-Israel group confirmed to Jewish Insider on Wednesday. 

The new endorsement, which was added to an online political portal in recent days, formalizes AIPAC’s widely acknowledged support for a high-profile candidate viewed as one of its top congressional recruits. Before he entered the primary last month, AIPAC had privately urged Latimer, a veteran Democrat and former state legislator, to challenge Bowman, a Squad member who is among the most outspoken critics of Israel in the House. But the group had yet to confirm if it would officially get behind his campaign until now.

Nearly every Senate Democrat joined legislation from Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) affirming that it is U.S. policy to support a negotiated two-state solution.

The legislation, which will be formally introduced as an amendment to the supplemental aid bill for Israel and other U.S. allies, is largely a messaging matter; Schatz told reporters he does not plan to seek a vote on it as part of the supplemental deliberations — although he may push for a vote on the language as a standalone resolution at a later date.

On a gray, chilly morning on the edge of Washington D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood, around 200 members of the D.C.-area Jewish community, toting U.S. and Israeli flags, the now-familiar hostage posters and a few handmade signs, gathered outside the Qatari Embassy to push for the release of the hostages being held by Hamas.

Interspersed with vigorous chants of “bring them home,” speakers, including Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Glenn Ivey (D-MD), Virginia Democratic congressional candidate Eileen Filler-Corn and former Cuba hostage Alan Gross urged Qatar to apply more pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages — while also expressing gratitude for the role Qatar played in the initial round of hostage releases.

As students at Cornell University returned to campus on Monday after the winter recess, some freshmen in a writing seminar learned their course instructor canceled class for the day “in solidarity with collective calls for a Global Strike for Palestine,” Jewish Insider has learned. 

Alyiah Gonzales, a course instructor in Cornell’s College of Arts and Science, canceled the first day of “ENGL 1160: FWS Intersections: Race, Writing, and Power.” 

Anyone trying to follow Harvard’s efforts to address rising antisemitism on campus has had to decipher a labyrinthine turn of events that have left even those close to the university questioning what, exactly, the strategy is. 

The critical response to a co-chair of the university’s new antisemitism task force, announced last week, is just the latest unforced error for Harvard, which since the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel has been mired in a series of PR missteps amid widespread public scrutiny of its actions.

A bipartisan group of 210 House lawmakers sent a letter on Tuesday condemning South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice as “grossly unfounded and defamatory.”

The letter, led by Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Kathy Manning (D-NC) and addressed to Secretary of State Tony Blinken, expresses the lawmakers’ “disgust at this filing, which perpetrates false and dangerous allegations against the Jewish state.”