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US Justice Department Forms Antisemitism Task Force Following Trump Executive Order
A woman walks past the US Department of Justice Building, in Washington, DC, Dec. 15, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Al Drago
The US Department of Justice announced on Monday that it is has created a “multi-agency” Task Force to Combat Antisemitism to fulfill an executive order issued last week by President Donald Trump.
“The Task Force’s first priority will be to root out antisemitic harassment in schools and on college campuses,” the department said in a press release, which noted that the group will be housed inside the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and include representatives from the departments of education and health and human services.
“Antisemitism in any environment is repugnant to this nation’s ideals,” said Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights who has been appointed to lead the initiative, said in a statement. “The department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found. The Task Force to Combat Antisemitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump’s renewed commitment to ending antisemitism in our schools.”
The announcement came less than a week after Trump directed federal agencies to combat campus antisemitism and hold pro-terror extremists accountable for the harassment of Jewish students, fulfilling a promise he made while campaigning for a second term in office. Continuing work started started during his first administration — when Trump issued Executive Order 13899 to ensure that civil rights law apply equally Jews — the new executive order, titled, “Additional Measures to Combat Antisemitism” calls for “using all appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise … hold to account perpetrators of unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence.”
Additionally, the order initiates a full review of the explosion of campus antisemitism on US colleges across the country after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, a convulsive moment in American history to which the previous administration struggled to respond during the final year and a half of its tenure.
Jewish activists and civil rights groups praised Monday’s announcement for being responsive to the Jewish community’s concerns about rising hatred and a perceived refusal to condemn discrimination when its perpetrators are left-wing progressives.
“ADL long advocated for the creation of an interagency task force to combat antisemitism,” the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said in a statement posted on X/Twitter. “We welcome this important step by [the president] and the Justice Department and look forward to working together to tackle antisemitism on college campuses and beyond.”
Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Harvard University graduate student who is currently suing the school for allegedly neglecting to punish antisemites, said, “American Jewish students: help is on the way,” while Eyal Yakoby, a University of Pennsylvania alumnus who sounded the alarm that antisemitism at the institution had reached crisis levels following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, proclaimed, “Promises made, promises kept.”
Campus antisemitism was the subject of a major recent report by several committees of the US House of Representatives that accused college officials of choosing to protect their brands over fighting anti-Jewish hatred.
“The committee found that so-called university leaders deliberately chose to withhold support from Jewish communities on campus, demonstrating a refusal to address the hostile environments at their institutions,” the report said. “Jewish students, faculty, and staff often felt abandoned by administrators’ passive and muted responses to the explosion of antisemitic hate on campus. The committee’s investigation found that these failures to act were not mere oversights but intentional decisions.”
The report added that some schools, such as the University of Pennsylvania, pantomimed corrective action to disruptive behavior, assuring the public that it took rules violations, including the commandeering of campus property with “Gaza Solidarity Encampments,” seriously — but it punished very few students for misconduct and those it did were given slaps on the wrist, according to critics.
Egregious conduct which prompted civil litigation evaded disciplinary action, it continued, explaining that nearly 100 students who participated in an encampment which barred Jewish students from accessing sections of campus at the University of California, Los Angeles “signed resolution agreements allowing them to escape disciplinary consequences” and “none were disciplined.”
In last week’s executive order, Trump denounced his predecessor, former president Joe Biden, for refusing to handle the problem.
“This failure is unacceptable and ends today,” he said. “It shall be the policy of the United States to combat antisemitism vigorously, using all appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post US Justice Department Forms Antisemitism Task Force Following Trump Executive Order first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Netflix Premieres Adult Animated Comedy Series About Jewish Family
A scene from “Long Story Short.” Photo: Screenshot
Netflix premiered on Friday an adult animated comedy series from “BoJack Horseman” creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg that follows a Jewish family over the course of several decades.
“Long Story Short” revolves around Naomi Schwartz (Lisa Edelstein), Elliot Cooper (Paul Reiser), and their three children – Avi (Ben Feldman), Shira (Abbi Jacobson), and Yoshi (Max Greenfield). The series jumps between time, and viewers follow the Schwooper siblings “from childhood to adulthood and back again, chronicling their triumphs, disappointments, joys, and compromises,” according to a synopsis provided by Netflix.
The extended cast includes Nicole Byer as Shira’s partner and Angelique Cabral. Dave Franco and Michaela Dietz are recurring guest stars. The first episode starts in 1996 and focuses on Avi bringing his girlfriend home to meet his family the same weekend as Yoshi’s bar mitzvah celebration. The episode also addresses Jewish-related topics such as the laws of kosher and the Holocaust.
“I think the show in some ways is about Jewish joy, and I think a lot of Jews will enjoy having a place for the Jews, and I think a lot of antisemites might learn a thing or two,” Bob-Waksberg told Variety on Monday at the show’s premiere at the Tudum Theater in Hollywood, California.
“Long Story Short” – which is Bob-Waksberg’s fourth animated show (“BoJack Horseman,” “Undone,” and “Tuca & Bertie”) and his third with Netflix – was renewed for a second season ahead of its season one premiere. The showrunner told The Hollywood Reporter that “Long Story Short” is “absolutely the most explicitly Jewish thing by a wide margin.”
The show is already facing antisemitic criticism.
“We’ve never not had antisemitism,” he told Variety. “The harassment is already there. I don’t think there’s a Jew in Hollywood, a public, a visible person that doesn’t get constantly harassed on Instagram all day long. An article came out this morning, it was a profile of the show, and I stupidly skimmed the first few comments and they were all … just nothing I want to repeat. But it’s just a buzzkill.”
“People are going to want to talk about the greater global geopolitical issues that are happening around this show, but this show is not about that,” he added.
“Long Story Short” is also from “Samurai Jack” creator Genndy Tartakovsky and “Rick and Morty” writer Matt Roller. Bob-Waksberg is an executive producer alongside Noel Bright and Steven A. Cohen. Corey Campodonico and Alex Bulkley are co-executive producers.
Watch the trailer for “Long Story Short” below.
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Iran, European Powers Agree to Resume Nuclear, Sanctions Talks Next Week
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi speaks during a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Tehran, Iran, July 12, 2025. Photo: Hamid Forootan/Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and his French, British, and German counterparts agreed on Friday to resume talks next week on nuclear and sanctions issues, Iranian state media reported.
The three major European powers have threatened to re-activate United Nations sanctions on Iran under a “snapback” mechanism if Tehran does not return to negotiations on a deal to curb its disputed uranium enrichment program.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul confirmed talks next week and warned Iran that sanctions would snap back into effect unless it reached a verifiable and durable deal to defuse concerns about its nuclear ambitions. He reiterated that time was very short and Iran needed to engage substantively.
Iranian state media said Araqchi and the British, French, and German foreign ministers agreed during a phone call for deputy foreign ministers to continue the talks on Tuesday.
During the call, Araqchi “emphasized the legal and moral incompetence of these countries to resort to the [snapback] mechanism, and warned of the consequences of such an action,” Iranian media reported.
The European trio, along with the US, contend that Iran is using the nuclear energy program to potentially develop weapons capability in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran says it seeks only civilian nuclear power.
The Islamic Republic suspended nuclear negotiations with the United States, which were aimed at curbing its accelerating enrichment program, after the US and Israel bombed its nuclear sites during a 12-day war in June.
Since then, inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, have been unable to access Iran‘s nuclear installations, despite IAEA chief Rafael Grossi stating that inspections remain essential.
Iran and the three European powers last convened in Geneva on June 20, while the war was still raging, and there were few signs of progress.
Iran‘s state broadcaster said an Iranian delegation was due to travel to Vienna on Friday to meet with IAEA officials. It gave no further details.
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German Government Calls Recognition of Palestinian State ‘Counterproductive’
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attends a joint press conference with Finnish Prime Minister in Turku, Finland, on May 27, 2025. Photo: Lehtikuva/Roni Rekomaa via REUTERS
A German government spokesman said on Friday that Berlin has no current plans to recognize a Palestinian state because that would undermine any efforts to reach a negotiated two-state solution with Israel.
“A negotiated two-state solution remains our goal, even if it seems a long way off today … The recognition of Palestine is more likely to come at the end of such a process, and such decisions would now be rather counterproductive,” the spokesperson said during a press conference.
Countries including Australia, United Kingdom, France, and Canada have recently said they would recognize a Palestinian state under different conditions.
Israel has responded that such recognition would be a “reward” for terrorism following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel. During the ensuing war in Gaza, Hamas has embedded its weapons and military operation centers among civilian sites, a strategy that critics have decried as employing the use of “human shields” against Israel.