Biden Department of Education gives schools new guidance on campus antisemitism

President Joe Biden is trying to demonstrate his support of the Jewish community, with his Department of Education providing more guidance to schools and colleges regarding how to deal with antisemitism on campus under Title VI.

The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights circulated the guidance in a “Dear Colleague Letter” on Tuesday, coinciding with Biden’s address during the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s annual Days of Remembrance and the pro-Palestinian protests such as those at Columbia University during the past couple of weeks. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, no person should “be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination” as part of any federally funded program or activity on the basis of race, color, or national origin.

“This guidance is meant to ensure that colleges and universities do a better job of protecting both Jewish students and all of their students,” the White House said in a statement.

An example in the guidance is of “widespread incidents of harassment in one semester,” including “anti-war” protest signs that “list specific Jewish students by name and use epithets that stereotype all Jewish people as racist murderers.”

“Jewish students find flyers posted throughout campus advocating for the genocide of Jewish
people and calling them Nazis,” the Education Department wrote. “Several Jewish students are prevented from attending class because protesters state that ‘no Zionists can pass through’ and the protesters accuse any student who they believe is Jewish of supporting genocide.”

“Although political protest on its own does not typically implicate Title VI, protest signs in this instance allegedly also targeted specific Jewish students using ethnic stereotypes, so OCR could find that the protesters engaged in harassing conduct based on race, color, or national origin, including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics,” the department said. “If confirmed by OCR’s investigation, OCR could find that several incidents, in one semester, of subjectively and objectively offensive harassing conduct based on Jewish students’ shared ancestry, that is so severe or pervasive that it limited or
denied their access to the school’s programs or activities, created a hostile environment.”

Biden’s Tuesday address is expected to underscore the “crimes” of the Holocaust, the “atrocities” of Hamas‘s terrorist attack on Oct. 7 last year in Israel, and the “unacceptable acts of antisemitism we’re seeing on campuses and across the country,” according to the White House.

The White House also announced on Tuesday that the Department of Homeland Security, with interagency partners, will build an online campus safety resources guide. More broadly, DHS will develop and communicate best practices concerning community-based violence and terrorism, in addition to the Department of State working with technology firms with respect to antisemitic content on the internet.

The House last week passed a bipartisan proposal that would expand the Title VI definition of antisemitism to the “targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity,” though critics contend it could have a chilling effect on free speech. The bill has been sent to the Senate.

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Columbia University this week canceled its universitywide commencement ceremony on May 15 and will, instead, hold smaller, school-based events after police last week were called to respond to protest encampments on campus. The university also canceled in-person classes last week because of the demonstrations, which resulted in more than 200 people being arrested.