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Meeting a deadline, Education Department briefs Jewish groups on new efforts to combat campus antisemitism

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Top Education Department officials met their own deadline in responding to a spike of antisemitism on college campuses by holding a virtual hourlong briefing on Monday with Jewish organizational leaders.
Some of those leaders offered praise that the department was sticking to its promise to draft a plan for campus antisemitism within two weeks, while others said they were frustrated by the pace of progress.
The virtual hour-long briefing on Monday came two weeks after Miguel Cardona, the secretary of education, met in person with Jewish leaders alarmed by reports of antisemitic attacks and harassment on campuses following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s military response.
“It was a continuation of their efforts to be transparent about what they’re doing to address antisemitism, both in K through 12 schools and in higher education institutions,” said Talya Steinberg, the associate director for government relations at the National Council of Jewish Women.
Participants said they appreciated the attention; Cardona himself briefly introduced the proceeding and two of his top officials, Cindy Marten, the deputy secretary, and Catherine Lhamon, the assistant secretary for the Office of Civil Rights, ran the session.
Officials described the outsized volume of complaints they had received since Oct. 7 and their continuing visits to campuses to meet with Jewish students. They reviewed reminders they sent to federally funded colleges last week that they have a legal obligation to address complaints of antisemitism, and they reported that they would meet this week in Washington with leaders of federally funded colleges and K-12 schools to discuss the issue.
At least two Jewish officials present said the presentation was welcome but they were concerned that the department was not being proactive enough.
“We appreciated that the secretary, the deputy secretary, and everybody else on the team is taking this seriously,” said Nathan Diament, the Washington director of the Orthodox Union. “They realize this is a crisis. But we’re still looking to them to match their actions to the moment in terms of being as aggressive as possible and as proactive as possible.”
Kenneth Marcus, the chairman of the Brandeis Center, a Jewish civil rights group with an emphasis on campuses, said there were further specific steps the Biden administration could take, including identifying cases of discrimination when they hit the news and not waiting for reports from Jewish groups.
“They shouldn’t have to wait for us,” said Marcus, who held Lhamon’s job in previous Republican administrations. “We’re all overstretched.” Among other measures, he recommended that the department’s Office of Civil Rights initiate investigations based on publicly available news and information “rather than simply waiting for complaints to roll in.”
A number of those who attended said they appreciated that the process would necessarily be deliberate, as each complaint is assessed and investigated and every accused institution and individual gets due process.
Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, a national public policy group, said it was unreasonable to expect the department to accelerate complaints about antisemitism over other complaints.
“It’s important to actually follow the process because there should be one transparent standard for any Title VI complaint no matter the student’s background,” she said, referring to the section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that bars discrimination. “And so that means going through that process, it means investigating, it means requiring if there is a violation found they can seek voluntary action before removing funds and then if necessary, removing the funds.”
Cardona said last week that removing federal funding from schools that fail to address antisemitism is an option, and Lhamon wrote a letter to federally funded colleges reminding them that they are obligated under the law to address complaints of antisemitism and other forms of religious bigotry.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, who directs T’ruah, a rabbinic human rights group, said campuses should provide Jewish students with immediate relief but added that the federal government needed to be judicious in how it applied the penalties available to it.
“A student on campus might want something to happen immediately and the campuses do have responsibilities to make sure that students feel safe,” she said. “That’s largely the responsibility of adults on any given campus. But that doesn’t mean that the [Biden] administration needs to jump in and just pull money without even investigating and finding out what the facts are.”
Some 30 officials from an array of organizations, including the Jewish Federations of North America, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Hillel, the Reform, Orthodox and Conservative movements, and Jewish civil rights groups, attended the meeting over Zoom.
Steinberg said that it was evident that the complaints, filed through the Office of Civil Rights website, had spiked. “They just really stressed they’re going to continue to do investigations of cases,” she said. “They kind of focused on the great amount of cases that are coming in. Especially after Oct. 7, it’s been an influx of submissions.”
The Education Department’s media office did not reply to a request for comment.
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The post Meeting a deadline, Education Department briefs Jewish groups on new efforts to combat campus antisemitism appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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FBI Investigating ‘Targeted Terror Attack’ in Boulder, Colorado, Director Says

FILE PHOTO: FBI Director Kash Patel testifies before the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on President Trump’s proposed budget request for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
FBI Director Kash Patel said on Sunday the agency was aware of and fully investigating a targeted terror attack in Boulder, Colorado.
While he did not provide further details, Patel said in a social media post: “Our agents and local law enforcement are on the scene already, and we will share updates as more information becomes available.”
According to CBS News, which cited witnesses at the scene, a suspect attacked people with Molotov cocktails who were participating in a walk to remember the Israeli hostages who remain in Gaza.
The Boulder Police Department said it was responding to a report of an attack in the city involving several victims. It has not released further details but a press conference was expected at 4 p.m. Mountain Time (2200 GMT).
The attack comes just weeks after a Chicago-born man was arrested in the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington, D.C. Someone opened fire on a group of people leaving an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee, an advocacy group that fights antisemitism and supports Israel.
The shooting fueled polarization in the United States over the war in Gaza between supporters of Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
The post FBI Investigating ‘Targeted Terror Attack’ in Boulder, Colorado, Director Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Terrorist Responsible for Death of 21 Soldiers Eliminated

An Israeli F-35I “Adir” fighter jet. Photo: IDF
i24 News – Khalil Abd al-Nasser Mohammed Khatib, the terrorist who commanded the terrorist cell that killed 21 soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip on January 22, 2024, was killed by an Israeli airstrike, the IDF said on Sunday.
In a joint operation between the military and the Shin Bet security agency, the terrorist was spotted in a reconnaissance mission. The troops called up an aircraft to target him, and he was eliminated.
Khatib planned and took part in many other terrorist plots against Israeli soldiers.
i24NEWS’ Hebrew channel interviewed Dor Almog, the sole survivor of the mass casualty disaster, who was informed on live TV about the death of the commander responsible for the killing his brothers-in-arms.
“I was sure this day would come – I was a soldier and I know what happens at the end,” said Almog. “The IDF will do everything to bring back the abductees and to topple Hamas, to the last one man.”
The post Terrorist Responsible for Death of 21 Soldiers Eliminated first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Stanley Fischer, Former Fed Vice Chair and Bank of Israel Chief, Dies at 81

FILE PHOTO: Vice Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve System Stanley Fischer arrives to hear Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney delivering the Michel Camdessus Central Banking Lecture at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, U.S., September 18, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo
Stanley Fischer, who helped shape modern economic theory during a career that included heading the Bank of Israel and serving as vice chair of the US Federal Reserve, has died at the age of 81.
The Bank of Israel said he died on Saturday night but did not give a cause of death. Fischer was born in Zambia and had dual US-Israeli citizenship.
As an academic at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Fischer trained many of the people who went on to be top central bankers, including former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as well as Mario Draghi, the former European Central Bank president.
Fischer served as chief economist at the World Bank, and first deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund during the Asian financial crisis and was then vice chairman at Citigroup from 2002 to 2005.
During an eight-year stint as Israel’s central bank chief from 2005-2013, Fischer helped the country weather the 2008 global financial crisis with minimal economic damage, elevating Israel’s economy on the global stage, while creating a monetary policy committee to decide on interest rates like in other advanced economies.
He was vice chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2017 and served as a director at Bank Hapoalim in 2020 and 2021.
Current Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron praised Fischer’s contribution to the Bank of Israel and to advancing Israel’s economy as “truly significant.”
The soft-spoken Fischer – who played a role in Israel’s economic stabilization plan in 1985 during a period of hyperinflation – was chosen by then Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as central bank chief.
Netanyahu, now prime minister, called Fischer a “great Zionist” for leaving the United States and moving to Israel to take on the top job at Israel’s central bank.
“He was an outstanding economist. In the framework of his role as governor, he greatly contributed to the Israeli economy, especially to the return of stability during the global economic crisis,” Netanyahu said, adding that Stanley – as he was known in Israel – proudly represented Israel and its economy worldwide.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog also paid tribute.
“He played a huge role in strengthening Israel’s economy, its remarkable resilience, and its strong reputation around the world,” Herzog said. “He was a world-class professional, a man of integrity, with a heart of gold. A true lover of peace.”
The post Stanley Fischer, Former Fed Vice Chair and Bank of Israel Chief, Dies at 81 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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