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The U.S. Division of Training opened 5 investigations of alleged Jew-hatred on Monday, at Columbia College, Northwestern College, Portland State College, College of California, Berkeley and College of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
The investigations, below Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, come shortly after U.S. President Trump instructed the federal authorities to answer Jew-hatred “vigorously.”
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“Too many universities have tolerated widespread antisemitic harassment and the unlawful encampments that paralyzed campus life final yr, driving Jewish life and non secular expression underground,” said Craig Trainor, performing assistant secretary of schooling for civil rights.
“The Biden Administration’s toothless decision agreements did shamefully little to carry these establishments accountable,” Trainor stated. “At this time, the division is placing universities, faculties and Okay-12 faculties on discover: this administration won’t tolerate continued institutional indifference to the wellbeing of Jewish college students on American campuses, nor will it stand by idly if universities fail to fight Je= hatred and the illegal harassment and violence it animates.”
Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), chair of the Home Training and Workforce Committee, said that “for the previous two years, our committee has uncovered an appalling quantity of antisemitism happening on faculty campuses.”
“We’ve additionally heard heartbreaking testimony from Jewish faculty college students who had been excited to attend their dream college solely to face threats and harassment from their very own classmates and academics,” he stated. “I’m glad that we lastly have an administration who’s taking motion to guard Jewish college students and maintain faculties like Columbia, Northwestern, and UC Berkeley accountable for his or her failures.”
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Kenneth Marcus, founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Heart for Human Rights Beneath Regulation, said that “that is precisely the proper step to be taking and the proper time to be taking it.”
“The administration is sending a transparent message to the upper schooling group that the U.S. Division of Training is prioritizing the present antisemitism disaster,” said Marcus, a former U.S. assistant secretary of schooling for civil rights.
“Moderately than sitting again and ready for complaints to pile up, federal investigators are lastly doing their jobs: figuring out faculties that should be investigated and taking agency, public measures the place wanted. The cavalry has arrived,” he added. “The Brandeis Heart has been urging this strategy since Oct. 7, 2023, and we had been repeatedly disillusioned that the prior administration failed to simply accept our suggestion.”
The Trump administration is sending a “clear signal” that it’s going to “reply to campus antisemitism with the boldness, vigor and seriousness it deserves,” Marcus said.
“This announcement is a win for anybody who cares about civil rights,” he added. “The Division of Training is exhibiting us at present that it could actually, and can, construct on the White Home’s daring government orders with enforcement and motion across the nation.”
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