The White House said Monday it is trying to combat an “alarming rise” of antisemitic incidents at schools and colleges as President Biden faces pressure to push back on pro-Palestinian chants and protests viewed as attacks on Jewish people or Israel’s right to exist.
The administration said the departments of Homeland Security and Justice are including campus police agencies in threat assessments, and federal security advisers and cybersecurity experts are offering help to colleges.
The Department of Education is speeding up its intake of complaints under provisions of the Civil Rights Act.
“For the first time, this intake process will make it clear in the complaint form that discrimination on the basis of national origin in federally funded programs or activities — including ethnic or ancestral slurs or stereotypes against students who are for example Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, or Hindu — are forms of prohibited discrimination under this law,” a White House fact sheet said.
The administration offers webinars to help people who want to file complaints under Title VI of the civil rights law.
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, will address antisemitism with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Monday.
Mr. Biden faces pressure to speak out about antisemitism after student groups at Harvard University and other institutions blamed Israel for the Oct. 7 terror attacks by the Palestinian militant group Hamas that killed more than 1,200 in southern Israeli towns.
Republican leaders say the White House has been silent in the face of rising reports of anti-Israel behavior, including slogans that were projected on the wall of a George Washington University building in Washington that called for a free Palestinian state from “the river to the sea.”
“For anyone unfamiliar with Israel’s geography, that is a call for the destruction of the Jewish state,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said in a recent floor speech.
Mr. Biden faces competing pressure to ensure that Muslim Americans are not discriminated against as Israel responds to the Hamas attacks with an intense barrage in the Gaza Strip that is killing civilians, including children.
The White House in recent days has cited Islamophobia as abhorrent alongside antisemitism.
Mr. Emhoff, the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president, will be joined by Education Secretary Miguel Cardona at the event with Jewish organizations on Monday.
Later this week, Mr. Cardona and White House Domestic Policy Adviser Neera Tanden will visit an unspecified university to address antisemitism. The White House said the Education Department made similar visits to San Francisco, St. Louis and Maine.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.