Amid Surge in Antisemitism, US Education Secretary Discusses Efforts to Combat Anti-Jewish Hate

The following is an article that I wrote, which appeared in the February 15, 2024, edition of the Washington Jewish Week:

As antisemitism increases to frightening levels across the nation, much of the focus is on the anti-Jewish hatred that has become prevalent on college campuses and in elementary and secondary schools around the United States.

Against that backdrop, U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona held a briefing on Feb. 6, which was attended by several media outlets, including the Washington Jewish Week, where he addressed the issue of antisemitism and Islamophobia in the education arena.

Noting that he approaches this issue not only as secretary of education but also as a father of a high schooler and a college student, Cardona said he thinks about “the responsibility we have to ensure a safe learning environment for all students, and the role that we have as educators and education leaders to make sure that we’re standing up for our students and their right to learn in a safe environment.”

Citing his visits to different schools, Cardona spoke about how the students’ words had a profound impact on him, stating that students communicated to him “that antisemitism in some parts of our country has become normalized.”

U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
Photo credit: wikimedia.org: U.S. Department of
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona

Cardona recounted an interaction he had with a Jewish student at Towson University, who told him about an incident where he was walking to class and took a different route because he was afraid he would be harassed and saw a swastika drawn on a wall. Cardona said the student told him, “I was happy I went that way because that’s no big deal,” referring to the swastika. Cardona recalled saying, “what do you mean it’s no big deal,” noting that even that student was normalizing seeing a swastika on campus. “That really bothered me because no child, no student should ever feel that they’re going to a learning environment where people are openly spewing hate and creating an environment where they don’t feel safe walking through their campuses.”

“At the Department of Education this became an all-hands-on-deck moment. After the terrorist attacks, we really recognized that we had to step up,” Cardona said as he discussed his department’s response to the events of Oct. 7 and their aftermath. According to Cardona, the education department worked on “building capacity and helping college presidents, helping K-12 leaders understand what their role is and what their legal responsibility is, and giving them tools on how to make sure that they’re providing safe learning environments.”

In addition to making information available on its website, Cardona said his department also held a webinar about Title VI that was attended by over 1,000 people on what to do and what resources are available. “I also fought to make sure that we have funding that we need to make sure that our Office for Civil Rights has the tools that they need,” he said, referring to the office that enforces Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which serves to protect students from discrimination.

When asked about some of the Title VI cases that have been filed with the department’s Office of Civil Rights, Cardona declined to discuss the specifics, instead speaking generally about the process and his department’s role. “We need to start with the students feeling safe on campus – that’s the starting point,” he said.

Addressing the fact that school administrators are dealing with some students who are saying “this is antisemitism” while other students are saying “these are my free speech rights,” which makes an already difficult situation more complex, Cardona said school leaders “want to do what’s right.”

“I’ve heard from presidents who have told me that at the staff level they have work to do to make sure that the working environment is one that’s conducive to teaching students how to communicate what they want to communicate, have freedom of speech, while not crossing the line and making an unsafe learning environment,” he said. “There are presidents that have shared with me the need to increase the level of professional development around the resources that are available around Title VI. I think ultimately, they’re sharing that it is challenging because there’s a lot of emotion and that they want to do what’s right. And they want to make sure students feel safe, but also balance the ability for students to disagree, even if that makes people feel uncomfortable.”

When Cardona was asked whether a student saying or writing “from the river to the sea” creates a hostile environment and serves as a call to genocide, he didn’t directly answer the question, speaking instead in a general sense about school leaders’ needs to act.

“Any calls for genocide is something that we should be very clear is not tolerable,” Cardona said. “That to me is a very clear line for the leader to call out calls for genocide and make it very clear to condemn those statements and address it, not only with the student or students that said that, but with the student who felt that they’re being the subject of that.”

University presidents testifying before Congress about antisemitism on college campuses in Dec. 2023. Photo credit: wikimedia.org: 2023 Congress Hearing on Antisemitism

When pressed on the “from the river to the sea” issue, which was noted could mean different things to different people, Cardona again demurred. “We investigate each case and it’s difficult for me to make a statement here about that. If students are feeling unsafe with that, it’s a responsibility of leadership.”

Citing the increased number of students across the U.S. who are feeling unsafe on campus, the Washington Jewish Week asked Cardona if he believes the average college student has a good understanding of the technical aspects of making a complaint to either their university or the education department’s Office of Civil Rights if they endure what they perceive to be intimidation or threatening rhetoric.

Noting that students may have a trusted adult they can turn to at their university if they’re feeling uncomfortable or threatened and that adult should know how to guide the student accordingly, Cardona acknowledged that the average student likely doesn’t know what the Office of Civil Rights does.

“Unfortunately, that information sometimes gets learned after something happens that they have to then respond. But it is the responsibility of the school to have an infrastructure where they’re communicating with students,” he said.

“After Oct. 7, with the rise in antisemitism that we saw in this country, I believe any college leader should have used that as an opportunity to make sure their leaders, their deans, their student support services, were more visible and communicating more directly and proactively with students. If you feel a certain way, you can call this number or you can text here or you can come visit this student support services center to get that message out. I do believe that has increased … I think ultimately, part of it is giving them a platform to communicate and to express how they feel, but also communicating with them what options they have if they’re feeling threatened or under attack,” he added.

While Cardona acknowledged there has been a spike in antisemitism since Oct. 7, he pointed out that “it was bad before Oct. 7.”

In addition to a rise in antisemitism, Cardona noted that there has also been a rise in Islamophobia and said, “we want to make sure that Title VI expectations exist for all students.”

“If you look at the resources that we put out there, the guidance that we put out there, it has been helpful. It has created better learning environments for students. It has helped build capacity in K-12 institutions, higher ed institutions. It’s given school leaders an opportunity to learn from school leaders’ successes and triumphs, but also challenges. So, I do believe it has happened. And to be honest with you, as an educator, as a father, it helped where I believe it counts – preventive maintenance – making sure that we have safe environments, because the tools are out there. Making sure that leaders know who they can call on, who’s going to pick up the phone at the Department of Education to provide support. I do believe that has made a difference and has helped create safer learning environments.”

Cardona said his department has seen an “elevated” number of cases since Oct. 7 and has opened 60 shared ancestry investigations over the past four months (compared to 27 investigations opened by the previous administration), which include claims of antisemitism and Islamophobia.

When asked if he believes that anti-Zionism is antisemitic, Cardona said “I believe antisemitism can include anti-Zionist statements … we take that into account when looking at cases.”

While much of the focus of the meeting was on universities, Cardona also spoke about what middle school and high school students are experiencing.

“What I heard from younger students is ‘I have to hide who I am so that I don’t have to deal with what is being said or what is being done,’” he said. “They might hide the sticker of the Israeli flag on their computer, or they might tuck in the Star of David, where before they didn’t … As an educational leader, I’m very concerned when students can’t be who they are unapologetically because of the conditions on campus. That to me is an unsafe learning environment … From the younger students, that’s what I hear – that it’s easier just to hide. But to me, that’s very alarming that students feel like they have to disassociate with who they are in order to learn in a safe environment.”

In response to a question from the Washington Jewish Week whether university leaders are doing enough to address antisemitism and to create a safe space for their students on campus, Cardona responded that he thinks “more can be done,” noting that we’ve “seen some college leaders who have done really well” and “some who haven’t done well.”

“I believe what we saw highlighted soon after Oct. 7 is what happens when we’re not in front of it in some cases … I still think we can continue to do more, not only to promote safe learning environments, but to also make sure students feel comfortable in their own skin. That they don’t have to change who they are, that they don’t have to hide their identity.”

The WJW Podcast: A Conversation With Moshe Lavi, Relative of an Israeli Hostage (2/15/24)

Moshe Lavi, a former captain in the Israel Defense Forces, is the brother-in-law of Omri Miran. On Oct. 7, Omri was at home in Kibbutz Nachal Oz in southern Israel with his wife, Lishay, who is Moshe’s sister, and his two young daughters, when Hamas terrorists overran the kibbutz and entered their home. Omri was taken hostage by Hamas, and now, four months later, he remains in captivity.

Ever since that day, Moshe has been a strong and outspoken advocate not just for his brother-in-law, Omri, but for all the hostages that were kidnapped by Hamas.

On the WJW Podcast, Moshe discussed the events of Oct. 7 and what took place in his family’s home, as well as how his sister is coping with her two small children while her husband, their father, remains in captivity. Moshe also talked about the importance of his advocacy efforts on behalf of Omri and the other hostages and how those efforts are making a difference in the ongoing quest to bring the hostages home safely and swiftly.

‘Israel is focus of today’s Jews-hatreds’

The following is an article that I wrote, which appeared in the February 8, 2024, edition of the Washington Jewish Week:

In this month’s installment of “Remember When,” we look back at our coverage from Feb. 19-25, 1976, which included an article by Shlomo Avineri titled ‘Israel is focus of today’s Jew-hatreds’ in which he examined “contemporary forms of anti-Semitism.”

Avineri, who was born in Poland in 1933 and immigrated to pre-state Israel with his family in 1939, was a leading Israeli political scientist and a longtime professor at Hebrew University. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin appointed Avineri as director-general of Israel’s foreign ministry in 1975, a position he held until Prime Minister Menachem Begin came to power in 1977.

“Today, the Diaspora Jew is not, as such, the target of anti-Jewish criticism; it is a criticism of Israel – its very existence, its legitimacy, its policies, its links of Diaspora Jews to it – which are the main targets of this new wave of attacks on the Jewish people. The sad irony is obvious, and the natural tendency is to deny or belittle the significance of this phenomenon. Yet, it cannot be escaped that it is Israel, and especially its post-1967 successes and post-1973 agonies, that appear to have granted a new appearance of legitimacy to a criticism of Jews; and if this criticism starts with Israel, it sometimes very quickly reverts to some of the traditional anti-Semitic patterns.”

Forty-eight years later, Avineri’s words seem almost prophetic. Today we are witnessing the same sort of “phenomenon” that he described. We see people marching in the streets, waving Palestinian and Hamas flags, yelling “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and decrying the state of Israel. The heated anti-Israel demonstrations and the rhetoric being used are ostensibly meant to criticize Israel, yet they very easily cross over to antisemitism. Jews are being collectively blamed for what they call Israel’s aggression against the people of Gaza, despite the fact that Israel was the target of a savage attack on Oct. 7 that resulted in Israel having to defend itself and its people yet again from terrorists intent on destroying the Jewish state. As Avineri said, if the criticism starts with Israel, “it sometimes very quickly reverts to some of the traditional anti-Semitic patterns.”

The WJW Podcast: A Conversation With Former Senator Joe Lieberman (2/8/24)

Joe Lieberman spent four decades of his life as an elected official, including 24 years representing the state of Connecticut in the United States Senate. He was the Democratic candidate for vice president of the United States in 2000, thereby becoming the first Jewish-American vice presidential nominee.

Lieberman is also the founding chairman of No Labels, a political organization whose membership is comprised of individuals from different political parties that is working to bring people together in order to solve some of the big challenges facing our nation.

On the WJW Podcast, Lieberman discussed the role of No Labels in the upcoming presidential election, including the possibility that the group may put forth a bipartisan third-party presidential ticket. In addition, Lieberman, a prominent Jewish political leader, spoke about several aspects relating to the rise in antisemitism in the United States.

A Q&A With Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel’s Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and a Former Member of the Knesset

The following is an interview that I conducted with Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel’s Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and a former Member of the Knesset, which appeared in the February 1, 2024, edition of the Washington Jewish Week:

Courtesy of Michal Cotler-Wunsh

There are still currently 136 hostages being held by Hamas. There’s no question that the families of the hostages desperately want their loved ones to return home. How do you assess the current situation and how can Israel ensure that the hostages are returned safely to their families?

 

In the language of international law, it’s a standing violation of international law, meaning every second of every minute of every hour of every week of every month that has passed by is an additional affront to international law and an additional violation of international law … The very institutions, whether it be the Red Cross, whether it be the UN, that are mandated to condemn, to ensure, to act for the immediate and unconditional return of those who were stolen literally from their homes by a genocidal terror organization … in an affront to international law, have failed to do so … This is an international issue. There should be Western countries and all those organizations and all those institutions and all those mechanisms created to ensure that international law is upheld equally and consistently, including when there are Jews that have been the ones that have been abducted or Jewish women who are the ones that have been raped.

We know that Hamas, just like it uses its own people as human shields, sacrifices and weapons … abducted 240, and now 136 civilians, holding them in the underground terror dungeon city that they have built with international humanitarian aid. So here we have this continued theme of a violation of international law, even while receiving support from the international, legal infrastructure in the form of, for example, humanitarian aid.

When you ask me, how will Israel secure the return of these hostages, you have to know that in [the pocket of] every one of the IDF soldiers that are defending Israel and Israelis, there is a picture of one of the hostages. That is the commitment to … do what we must, which is ensure that Hamas, that actually declared the intent to commit 10/7, not once and not three times, but a million times again and again [is held responsible for its actions]. And simultaneously, that commitment that drives those soldiers is finding and returning the hostages stolen from their homes, from their families, from their communities.

 

South Africa, brought a case in the International Court of Justice against Israel, accusing it of genocide. Israel has vigorously defended itself against those charges. How do you see that ICJ situation playing out?

In many ways, it is the ICJ that is currently on trial. And in many ways the ICJ will decide … if it is in fact a court of justice, as in the case of the Eichmann trial, or a court of injustice, as in the case of the Dreyfus affair. And what I mean by that, is that the very Orwellian inversion, in fact and in law, that has enabled South Africa, not only with a corrupt and inept government, but South Africa, that housed the Hamas genocidal terrorists, welcomed them just days after 10/7, and who meets regularly with leaders that perpetrate genocide as we speak … of all countries would co-opt and weaponize the international law mechanisms created … the Convention for the Prevention and the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which was written in the blood and the ash of six million Jews … The preposterous, usurping, co-opting and weaponization of that convention to accuse the state of Israel, even as war crimes and crimes against humanity and the intent to commit genocide were perpetrated against Israelis on 10/7, is … an Orwellian inversion, in fact and in law, that we could not have imagined … And here we are, we’ve come full circle, and what we will see at the ICJ devastatingly may very well be the final nail in the coffin of that infrastructure that was created in order to ensure that ‘never again’ is to anybody, and so it is part of this never again is right now moment that I believe that we’re living in.

 

We just talked about the International Court of Justice. I want to turn a little bit to the court of public opinion. As you’ve alluded to, Israel is taking a beating, so to speak, on the global stage and in the court of public opinion from people who say that Israel’s response to the atrocities that took place on Oct. 7, is excessive, and they’re calling for a cease-fire. Israel has attempted to justify its efforts as a way of eliminating Hamas, which it considers to be an existential threat. What do you think Israel can do to address this issue and to try and improve it standing in the court of public opinion and on the global stage?

 

After a series of conventional wars actually failed to annihilate the state of Israel between 1948 and 1973, after the return of Jews, a prototypical indigenous people, to our ancestral homeland after millennia of exile and of persecution, we understand that there is another kind of war that could be waged, and it is precisely what you’ve just noted, the unconventional war for public opinion and it has been raging for decades … We would have to understand that what has happened actually, over time, is not only the co-opting and the weaponization of that infrastructure that I described before, to demonize to delegitimize and apply double standards, but in the aftermath of 10/7, when the worst atrocities perpetrated against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, when entire families were burned, and women were raped so badly that their legs couldn’t be straightened for burial, and people who were dancing at a peace festival were hunted down and mutilated and murdered and massacred, and when hundreds of others were abducted, as we discussed before, if that cannot be unequivocally condemned, having been perpetrated by a genocidal terror organization that declares its intent for ‘the final solution.’

We would be remiss if we did not understand that at this moment in time, if we fail to condemn 10/7 and what it showed us in that barbaric, savage perpetration of those atrocities, war crimes and crimes against humanity, if that can become flipped onto Israel in its self-defense ‘perpetrating genocide,’ then this is a wake-up call or a rude awakening for all democracies, in this moment, as we prosecute the wars of this genocidal intent not just to annihilate the state of Israel, but to actually destroy civilization as we have built it and build on the rubble of our civilization and alternative reality in which none of us wants to live.

It is not just about Israel … I often think about what we understand about all other forms of hatred. We would never tell anybody who is experiencing any form of bigotry or racism that they have to fight that racism or bigotry alone. They can’t … We know that what is required is that everybody fights against that form of hate. Only when it comes to antisemitism, including in its modern mutated strain that is anti-Zionism or the targeting or the barring of the very existence of a state of Israel, or of its right to exist … do we ask ourselves, how is Israel going to be able to combat antisemitism? And my answer is, there is no way Jews or Israel or Zionists … will be able to combat this scourge, this hate, alone, just like in the case of any other form of bigotry and racism.

This will require a concerted, united commitment to identify and combat all strains of an ever-mutating virus. Jew hatred is ever-mutating – it has come in all kinds of shapes and forms over the thousands of years of its mutation. And this strain of antisemitism that presented itself not only in the atrocities of 10/7, but in the responses to the atrocities of 10/7 that have been silent, that have denied, that have justified, that have supported and that have attacked Jews, for the perpetuation of these atrocities against Israel and Jews on 10/7 … If we do not acknowledge that this is not just about the nation-state of the Jewish people, or about Jews around the world that are being attacked in its wake, but in fact is an attack on our shared humanity and on our shared civilization, that Israel will not be able to tackle it alone.

Prominent DC Rabbi Is Assaulted by Lyft Driver

The following is an article that I wrote, which appeared in the February 1, 2024, edition of the Washington Jewish Week:

A prominent Orthodox rabbi was physically and verbally assaulted by a Lyft driver in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, Jan. 28. After the incident, the driver fled the scene.

Rabbi Menachem Shemtov, director of Chabad Georgetown and rabbi at the Pentagon, ordered a ride through the Lyft app on Sunday morning. Shortly after Shemtov entered the car, the driver told Shemtov that he didn’t like his “energy” and demanded that he exit the vehicle. After Shemtov got out of the car, the driver also got out and “struck V-1 [Shemtov] about the face multiple times with his hands,” according to the Metropolitan Police Department’s Public Incident Report.

The incident, which took place on Connecticut Avenue NW, was witnessed by several passerby. Videos from the scene that were taken by Shemtov and at least one witness show the driver striking Shemtov in the face multiple times while holding his car key and seemingly using it as a weapon.

“Maybe like 30 seconds after I get in the car, he tells me that he doesn’t like my ‘energy’ and he wants me to exit the vehicle … I asked him ‘I didn’t say anything, I didn’t do anything, why are you telling me to exit the vehicle?’ … and he was like ‘from the moment you got into the car, I didn’t like your energy,’ … he was just saying ridiculous stuff as an excuse or reason to get me out of the vehicle,” Shemtov told the Washington Jewish Week.

Shemtov said the driver chased him up the street, began swearing at him and then hit Shemtov across the face, knocking his yarmulke off. After Shemtov walked back to the car to try and keep the driver from leaving the scene until the police arrived, Shemtov said the driver hit him in the face “multiple times again.”

It was “nothing I said, nothing I did – he was just kind of offended by my ‘energy’ … I’m not really sure what energy he’d be referring to,” Shemtov said.

As a result of the assault, Shemtov sustained several cuts on his face. “He slashed me with his keys about an inch below my eyeball,” Shemtov said.

“Lyft unequivocally condemns this behavior. Upon learning of this incident, we deactivated the driver and we’ve been in touch with the rider,” a Lyft spokesperson said in a written statement sent to the Washington Jewish Week. “We encourage riders and drivers to report harassment, discrimination, or safety concerns in the Lyft app.”

The company also stated that it stands ready to assist law enforcement with any investigation.

In addition, the company noted that its “community guidelines and terms of service prohibit harassment or discrimination on the basis of religion, national origin, race, gender, gender identity or expression, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, age or sexual orientation.”

In a written statement sent to the Washington Jewish Week on Jan. 30, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Department noted that “This offense is actively being investigated by detectives,” adding that they have no further updates at this time.

‘Terrorism draws strength from world’s apathy’

The following is an article that I wrote, which appeared in the January 11, 2024, edition of the Washington Jewish Week:

“To be a Jew is to know that over and above history is the task of memory.” Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks wrote those words to stress the importance of remembering our past and conveying the lessons of yesterday to the next generation so that the “great chain of learning and wisdom” remains intact tomorrow.

Having been the Jewish newspaper of record in the nation’s capital since 1930, the Washington Jewish Week has reported on countless stories about our local and global Jewish community, and our pages have been filled with essential information about an array of thought-provoking topics. We are therefore pleased to launch a new monthly feature, “Remember When,” in which we look back at some of our coverage from previous years so that we can remember the past and learn from it as we look ahead to the future.

In January 1975, we published an opinion piece by Rabbi Israel Miller titled, “Terrorism draws strength from world’s apathy.”

“Arab terror breeds from the climate of support it receives in Arab capitals, just as it draws from the ambivalence, double-standards and apathy that the international community has displayed toward it for so long … Their energies are spent in distributing hate material preaching not only Israel’s sovereign destruction but outright antisemitism as Jewish organizations the world over have appealed and protested against their presence with few results … The terrorists may now and then succeed in their murderous enterprise, but they will never win.”

Miller’s words that were written 49 years ago are eerily reminiscent of the current situation. In the wake of the horrific Hamas terrorist attacks of Oct. 7 and as we witness a significant increase in global antisemitism, we once again are faced with a situation in which too many in the international community have chosen to vilify Israel and failed to take adequate steps to combat antisemitism. Yet, as Miller wrote, the terrorists may occasionally succeed, but in the long run, the state of Israel and the Jewish community will prevail.