Jewish leaders to Biden officials: ‘We’ve never seen anything like this ever’

Several prominent Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, gave Biden administration officials recommendations for increasing safety at schools after a spike in antisemitism on college campuses.

During a closed-press meeting on Monday, a dozen Jewish leaders met in Education Secretary Miguel Cardona’s Washington office to discuss steps the Biden administration is taking to counter antisemitism within K-12 and higher education communities. Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, Deputy Education Secretary Cindy Marten and Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, were also in attendance.

The meeting comes as the Biden administration looks for its role in addressing student demonstrations around the Hamas-Israel conflict that have roiled college campuses, and as groups say they’ve seen an uptick in antisemitism and Islamophobia.

“We've seen hundreds of pro-Hamas events across the United States. So one of the things that struck me from this meeting is you heard multiple people from the Jewish community say we've never seen anything like this ever," said Jonathan Greenblatt, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, who attended the meeting.

“The level of anxiety expressed by many different people from our community was something I think the secretary and the deputy simply had not heard before," he said.

Several people commended Cardona’s leadership in the meeting and noted that he directed his team to write down and take action on some of the recommendations made by the groups.

“It was clear that this wasn't just a meeting to talk about what the Department of Education could do,” said Julie Rayman, managing director of American Jewish Committee, who also attended the meeting. “It was a recognition that the administration sees that Jewish students are feeling vulnerable, that there are real security concerns, and that there's a united front in both care and action."

Details of the recommendations: The recommendations included a “Dear Colleague” letter that strongly supports Jewish students on campus and has a similar forcefulness as the Biden administration's national strategy on combating antisemitism, and a nationwide compliance initiative from the department that would preempt waiting for civil rights complaints to be filed.

The groups also recommended the department examine actions from student groups on campuses supporting the Hamas attacks because they could be “engaging in material support for terrorism, which would be a criminal matter,” according to an attendee who spoke on background. They also want the department to consider training for K-12 educators on antisemitism.

Greenblatt, whose group tracks antisemitic incidents, said in the weeks following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks the number of anti-Jewish acts across the country jumped by 388 percent.

“That's a massive spike when you consider the fact that prior to Oct. 7, we had already seen historic levels of antisemitism in this country,” he said.

Several groups said Cardona said the right things in the meeting but want the Biden administration to make sure the meeting is followed with action. Cardona acknowledged the uptick in antisemitism was unprecedented, according to several attendees, and he told the groups that when the problem is unprecedented, the response also has to be unprecedented.

Biden administration’s response: Jewish leaders commended the Biden administration for taking meetings on campuses with Jewish students, Hillels and other Jewish student organizations. Cardona and White House domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden are also slated to visit a college campus and hold a roundtable with Jewish students this week, NBC News reported.

“Mr. Emhoff and Secretary Cardona unequivocally denounced Antisemitism and all other forms of hate,” the White House said in a readout of the meeting. “They also reaffirmed the administration’s support for Israel and the right for Israel to defend itself against terrorism."

Additionally, the White House said the administration announced new actions to combat antisemitism on campuses. The Biden administration has directed the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to make sure that campus law enforcement “is included in engagements with state and local law enforcement.” The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights also expedited its update of the process for discrimination complaints to say that antisemitism is prohibited under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.