Last week, Douglas Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, spoke to Cohen by phone.Įmhoff, who is Jewish, “wanted to check in on me and our Jewish students and offer his support,” Cohen said. The whole administration has done that and continues to do that.” He has spoken out with moral clarity on the need to condemn antisemitism. Said Ziskend: “The president has forcefully condemned antisemitism and hate. The Department’s Office for Civil Rights is committed to actively investigating complaints from those who feel their institution is not protecting their civil rights.” In a prepared statement, he said: “As the nation’s secretary of education, I am incredibly concerned by the reports we are hearing about antisemitic hate being directed at students. The Education Department did not make Cardona available for comment. Universities around the country are spiraling out of control and that’s not good for anybody connected to higher education.” I don’t think the Department of Education is working fast enough. “The universities aren’t acting fast enough. “Something needs to give,” said Brian Cohen of the Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life at Columbia/Barnard Hillel. Herbie Ziskend, White House deputy communications director, said that electoral considerations don’t drive the president’s actions. “The joke is that the two-state solution is Michigan and Pennsylvania.” “They want to get re-elected, and they’re afraid of what’s going to happen in the swing states,” Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., said of team Biden. In this volatile atmosphere, any position Biden takes is bound to alienate someone - and has. At Columbia last week, one Jewish student stood near an encampment that has cropped up in the shadow of Butler Library and told NBC News he had quietly celebrated Passover inside the tents with other protesters. Plenty of Jewish Americans across the country oppose Israel’s conduct of the war and have joined with protesters in demanding a cease-fire and an end to U.S.

The breakdown in support is not so tidy, though. At the same time, some Jewish students and their defenders are displeased that the Biden administration isn’t showing more resolve in stamping out antisemitic harassment on campus.

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