President Joe Biden has announced new measures that will sanction antisemitism actions, including those on college campuses, after seeing a rise in the incidents that show discrimination towards the Jews following the terror attacks in Israel last October.
On Holocaust Remembrance Day on Tuesday, the President explicitly condemned antisemitic acts, such as threats and chants, thrown at Jewish students including those who also support Israel regardless of nationality. Along with the commemoration of the Holocaust, new measures were rolled out by the White House that will further curb antisemitic acts on campuses, The Hill reported.
The President has been doing a tough balancing act when it comes to supporting Israel following the horrific Oct. 7 Hamas attack, which was regarded worldwide by the Jews as the deadliest day for them since the Holocaust, and the government's efforts to simply constrain its war in Gaza.
According to the White House, the new actions that will further strengthen efforts to counter antisemitism will be the "most comprehensive and ambitious U.S. government effort to counter Antisemitism in American history." Different departments have been tapped to ensure that the new measures will be effectively carried out.
"It has involved actions by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to provide greater security to Jewish institutions, as well as actions by the Department of Education to address antisemitism and by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to further support education around Jewish history," the White House press release stated.
One example of the steps that the administration took was to provide new guidance from the Education Department's Office of Civil Rights. This will be distribute to every school district and college, and it will provide examples of discrimination towards Jewish people, as well as any form of hate, which shall pave the way for an investigation of a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
To put this into action and ensure proper implementation, it will require the Department of Homeland Security to work closely with partners in order to build a guide that will thresh out online campus safety, as well as provide assistance on campuses in just a single portal.
The Office of the State Department's special envoy will be convening tech firms to find out how to efficiently handle antisemitic content.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also disseminated an updated "hate crimes threat response guide" in order to let Americans know the steps they can take in case they are threatened. The guide has been published on the agency's hate crimes resource page, and has been shared with organizations across the country. Campus liaisons of the FBI also took measures to further enhance dissemination of the information on campuses.
