Opinion: President Trump leading on antisemitism response

Yahoo

05-03-2025

If there's one takeaway from the 1-month-old Trump administration, it's this: President Donald Trump and his team are determined to move fast and hard on a range of issues they view as Biden administration failures.
It took Trump's administration less than three weeks to meet the exploding antisemitism crisis with the kind of high-profile, all-of-government response it deserves. In a sign of his top priorities, Trump issued a Jan. 29 executive order expanding his first-term order, declaring the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism as executive branch policy in all cabinet agencies. He also directed the Departments of Justice, Education and Homeland Security to report back in 60 days what new steps they can take to fight Jew-hatred.
In the subsequent weeks, the Department of Education launched antisemitism investigations into five universities, the Department of Health and Human Services opened investigations at four medical schools and the Department of Justice stood up a new multi-agency task force to ready more action.
It is striking that the new university investigations were not opened in response to students filing complaints — as the Biden team did — but were launched proactively by the new administration. That alone sends a strong message to university leaders that there's a new sheriff in town and a new era of enforcement in the White House.
Universities seem to be getting the message. Anti-Israel extremists on campus are now facing disciplinary action from schools. Six months ago, these same universities responded to antisemitic vandalism and intimidation with cowardly statements or a free pass.
American Jews across the board welcome this level of energy and attention to our ongoing crisis. While former President Joe Biden and his team took important steps to combat antisemitism, including developing the first-ever National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism, he never responded with the appropriate urgency to the cascade of crises that followed the terrible events of Oct. 7, 2023.
I and other Jewish community leaders met with Biden's attorney general, education secretary and others many times and asked them to meet the unprecedented crisis with an unprecedented response. They never really did.
In contrast, that appears to be precisely what Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, senior leaders at the Department of Education and others are determined to do.
But there is more action we petitioned the Biden administration to take last year, and that we now hope this new direction by Trump will make real.
First, the fight against antisemitism must extend beyond the campuses. The Justice Department should use the full force of the law to prosecute raucous 'protesters' in residential Jewish neighborhoods. These protests are designed to intimidate Jews as they attend synagogue and interfere with citizens' right to enjoy basic constitutional rights. They are criminal and should be treated as much.
Second, antisemitic activists and their enablers hide behind invocations of 'free speech rights' as they act. But the First Amendment does not protect threats of violence and intimidation. The DOJ's Civil Rights Division should issue clear guidance and educate the public about what is and is not protected free speech.
Third, the Department of Homeland Security, DOJ and Treasury should investigate and take action against the flood of foreign funding fomenting antisemitism across America. From expensive encampment tents to pro-terrorist student groups like Students for Justice in Palestine, there is little transparency over the web of money behind these pro-Hamas efforts.
A new poll conducted by the American Jewish Committee shows American Jews — a longstanding pillar of the Democratic Party — have more confidence in how Republicans are responding to the antisemitism crisis. We certainly don't want antisemitism to become a political football. But our community is entitled to judge politicians by how they deliver on our needs. It's still early, but Trump and his team are moving with the right level of energy and action in the fight against antisemitism.