Leading Jewish groups boycott Education Dept. antisemitism meeting
Several Jewish organizations bowed out of a meeting about campus antisemitism with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona after more progressive groups were invited to participate. Photo by Getty Images
By Arno Rosenfeld May 3, 2024
Several prominent Jewish organizations declined to attend a roundtable on campus antisemitism at the Education Department on Friday morning.
The Anti-Defamation League, Hillel International, the Jewish Federations of North America and the Orthodox Union bowed out after several progressive organizations were invited to participate, according to several people familiar with the situation.
The meeting with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona took place as planned with a smaller group.
Kevin Rachlin, director of the Nexus Leadership Project, which seeks to defend some criticism of Israel from claims of antisemitism, said that those present discussed the need to increase funding for the department’s civil rights office, which investigates reports of antisemitic discrimination on college campuses.
“It would have been great to see some of those groups who boycotted stand next to groups like ours, who are dedicated to fighting antisemitism with practical measures,” Rachlin said.
The Education Department scheduled a new meeting for the groups that did not participate in the morning meeting, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid damaging relations with the department.
According to JTA, the boycott was hastily organized by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the message arrived late to some of those who were invited: “I have to leave” Kenneth Marcus, director of the Brandeis Center, a right-leaning civil rights group, wrote in the Zoom chat shortly after joining the meeting.
The department has dozens of open investigations into complaints of antisemitism on college campuses but says that underfunding means that each investigator is forced to handle up to 50 cases, which means they often take many months or years to resolve. The delay has generated frustration among many of the groups that see the complaint process as a key tactic to fight antisemitism and anti-Zionism on campus.
Representatives for the organizations who bowed out of the original meeting did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday, nor did a spokesperson for the Education Department.
The more left-leaning groups that participated in the meeting included J Street U, Bend the Arc, T’ruah, the National Council of Jewish Women and Diaspora Alliance. Centrist groups including the Reform movement, American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs also joined. Agudath Israel, an Orthodox advocacy group, which is often more conservative on issues related to Israel and antisemitism attended as well.
The meeting comes in the midst of often raucous pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campus and the proliferation of encampments of students demanding their universities divest from Israel. The movement in recent weeks has resulted in the arrest of more than 2,000 people.
Some groups that bowed out of Friday’s meeting have cheered the clearing of encampments.
Jamie Beran, chief executive of Bend the Arc, said that she believed the Education Department was taking a better approach to fighting campus antisemitism than school administrators who are relying on the police.
“This is a time of high emotion and things are raw and there is a natural instinct to retreat into our individual camps and paint with broad brushes,” Beran said. “We need deescalation.”
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