The following announcement was sent to the Louis D. Brandeis Center by our colleagues at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). USHMM works to being international engagement on topics concerning the Holocaust, genocide, and ethnic cleansing to different countries and communities around the world. This event, “The Police and The Holocaust: The Role of Police Forces in the Genocide of Jews and Roma,” will take place on May 30th and May 31st in Guatemala City, Guatemala. More details can be found below.

The Police and the Holocaust: The Role of Police Forces in the Genocide of Jews and Roma

May 30-31, 2018 | Guatemala City, Guatemala

Co-organizers: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Yahad – In Unum, and the Museo del Holocausto Guatemala

This conference brings together scholars to address the role of the police in the Holocaust, particularly in the organized murder of Jews and Roma. The Nazi state and their allies involved police at every stage of the genocidal process, from the arrest and looting of the victims to their deportation and killing. During Nazi occupation, non-German police units—some already in existence, some newly created—performed a range of key functions in pursuit of German goals, but also based on their own interests. Participants will address how and why the police—as an executive agency of the state as well as an organized group of decision-making individuals—took part in the genocidal process across Europe, and examine the extent of their participation in different countries and contexts.

The conference agenda is available at ushmm.org/police-holocaust-conference

The conference is free and open to the public. Simultaneous translation between Spanish and English will be provided. Please register here.

William Jacobson
Legal Insurrection

Kenneth Marcus is the nominee to lead the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education.

Marcus is uniquely qualified for the position, we wrote when he was nominated in October 2017:

Marcus is extraordinarily qualified for the job, and is an excellent pick for leading the Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

He’s got considerable experience on the issues at stake for the OCR, having previously been the staff director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights for four years during the George W. Bush administration and, prior to that post, serving as deputy assistant secretary for civil rights at the DoE.

In terms of the fight against the boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS) movement and rising antisemitism on American colleges and universities, Marcus has been a leading voice for years (he’s argued that some efforts to boycott Israel’s academia are “illegal”, antithetical to the “mission and values of academia” and “really thinly veiled anti-Semitism” because only Israel is “singled out for boycott”).

He currently serves as the director of the initiative on antisemitism at the Institute for Jewish Community Research in San Francisco, and was the Lillie and Nathan Ackerman Chair in Equality and Justice in America at the City of New York’s Baruch College (School of Public Affairs).

He’s also written extensively on the topic of antisemitism.

Despite his stellar credentials, Marcus was the target of a vicious smear campaign by a coalition of anti-Israel groups, joined by fellow travelers from progressive “civil rights” groups. We documented this attempt to stop the nomination in our December 2017 post, Action Alert: Anti-Israel Lobby intensifies campaign against nomination of anti-Semitism scholar Ken Marcus:

After Trump announced Marcus’ appointment on October 26th, virulently anti-Israel organizations and activists, including Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), If Not Now, Palestine Legal, the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), the U.S. Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI), and the Arab American Institute, mobilized against Marcus.

Initially, they focused on falsely accusing Marcus of suppressing the criticism of Israel on campus and warning that, if confirmed, he would continue to repress college students from organizing for Palestinian rights…

That is, before the December 5th Senate HELP committee hearing, the smear campaign against Marcus was almost entirely centered on delegitimizing him as an “anti-Palestinian crusader”—someone who opposes Palestinian rights because he allegedly “bullies students and faculty who advocate for Palestinian rights”, “undermines pro-Palestinian activism on campus”, tries to get “student activists disciplined” and works to “defund” university Middle East Studies program.

Multiple statements, Action Alerts, petitions, videos, and editorials (see, for example, here and here) were written and produced during this time centering on the free speech of Palestinian student activists and the ways in which Marcus would supposedly trample on it….

In recent weeks, this ugly smear campaign has expanded from just opposing Marcus on account of his position on BDS and antisemitism—the central messaging before the December 5th confirmation hearing—to an effort over the last several weeks aimed at destroying his civil rights record in general.

Basically, his application of civil rights protections for other minority groups is now coming under attack.

Code Pink’s Ariel Gold, a viciously anti-Israel activist who disrupted prayers at the Western Walland snuck a Palestinian activist who embraces using children to confront soldiers into a third-grade classroom, is among the leaders of the campaign against Marcus:

By tracking the social media of JVP, Palestine Legal, and USCPR, for example, you can literally see how the messaging shifted after the Senate hearing earlier this month, during which Marcus’ opposition to the Israeli boycott didn’t come up at all in the questioning.

That’s probably the main reason that the attacks against Marcus are now addressing a wider range of civil rights issues that are of interest to the HELP Committee.

Because Marcus, and dozens of other Trump nominees, did not receive a vote by year end 2017, and Democrats refused the courtesy of rolling over the nominations, Marcus had to be renominated in early January.

Marcus eventually was voted out of the HELP Committee in mid-January 2018, on a strict party-line vote:

Marcus was voted out of Committee on a straight party line vote, 12-11. All Republicans voted in favor, all Democrats against.

Republicans

Chairman Lamar Alexander(Republican – TN)
Michael B. Enzi (Republican – WY)
Richard Burr (Republican – NC)
Johnny Isakson(Republican – GA)
Rand Paul(Republican – KY)
Susan Collins(Republican – ME)
Bill Cassidy, M.D. (Republican – LA)
Todd Young (Republican – IN)
Orrin Hatch (Republican – UT)
Pat Roberts (Republican – KS)
Lisa Murkowski (Republican – AK)
Tim Scott (Republican – SC)

Democrats

Ranking Member Patty Murray (Democratic – WA)
Bernie Sanders (Democratic – VT)
Robert P. Casey, Jr (Democratic – PA)
Michael F. Bennet (Democratic – CO)
Tammy Baldwin (Democratic – WI)
Christopher S. Murphy (Democratic – CT)
Elizabeth Warren (Democratic – MA)
Tim Kaine (Democrat – VA)
Maggie Hassan (Democrat – NH)
Tina Smith (Democrat – MN)
Doug Jones (Democrat – AL)

Despite clearing the committee in January, Marcus’s nomination languished awaiting a floor vote. In part it was Democrat opposition to him personally, in part general Democrat stall tactics against all Trump nominees.

Finally, Marcus has been cleared for a floor vote, by a May 23 unanimous consent agreement, with debate and vote to be determined.

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Bill Aims to Stem Rising Anti-Semitism in U.S. Schools

Washington, D.C., May 24: The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law (LDB) today applauded the introduction of bipartisan legislation to help tackle the rising anti-Semitism plaguing U.S. schools.  While anti-Semitism is on the rise across the U.S., the problem is particularly rampant on college campuses.

“The spike in anti-Semitic incidents in schools has forced Jewish students to face prejudice on their campuses, swastikas in their dorms and danger on their school grounds.  No student should ever be singled-out or harassed due to their religious beliefs,” stated Alyza Lewin, LDB’s chief operating officer and director of policy. “However, while educators, legislators, and civil rights advocates all recognize the problem and are deeply alarmed, those tasked with investigating incidents have been left without the tools to properly address it.  This bill provides the Department of Education with the guidance it needs to properly identify today’s manifestations of anti-Semitism, particularly those incidents that cross the line from protected anti-Israel expression to blatant anti-Semitic acts.”

The bipartisan bill was introduced by Representatives Peter Roskam (R-IL), Ted Deutch (D-FL), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Doug Collins (R-GA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Senators Tim Scott (R-SC) and Bob Casey (D-PA) in the U.S. Senate.  A similar bill was unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate in 2016.

According to the FBI’s Hate Crime Report, Jewish hate crime victims, outnumber victims of all other religious groups combined. And the problem is most serious in U.S. schools. A Brandeis Center/Trinity College study found that 54% of Jewish college students reported experiencing or witnessing anti-Semitism in 2014. And a February ADL report found that anti-Semitic incidents in K-12 schools and on college campuses nearly doubled between 2016 and 2017.

In addition, a U.S. Department of Education report, released just last month, which at the urging of the Brandeis Center, for the first time, included statistics on religiously-motivated bullying and harassment in K-12 schools, found an alarming 10,848 incidents based on religion in 2015-2016. Recent incidents motivated by anti-Semitism include: a Jewish boy in Florida who was pinned down while a swastika and a fake concentration camp number were drawn on his arm; in New York, a Jewish boy who was verbally harassed and had hot wax poured on his skin; and in Maryland, two Jewish students who were followed by two suspects shouting, “F*** the Jews” and then punched in the face.

Until a dozen years ago, the Department of Education declined jurisdiction in cases involving claims of anti-Semitism since statues only covered such traits as race, color, national origin, sex, age and disability.  In 2004, then head of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and now president of LDB, Kenneth L. Marcus, drafted a policy ensuring that Jewish, Sikh and Muslim students were protected from ethnic and ancestral discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  However, unlike in policies under which federal authorities investigate civil rights claims such as sexual harassment, this policy did not include a definition of anti-Semitism, leaving authorities ill-equipped to properly recognize anti-Semitism.

The Brandeis Center has been advocating for many years to have Congress address this obstacle, and the legislation, introduced late yesterday, aims to do just that.  It provides federal authorizes with a clear and uniform definition to recognize anti-Jewish bigotry. The definition included in the bill is the global “gold standard” used to define anti-Semitism, and is used by the U.S. federal government to assess incidents that occur abroad. It is substantially similar to the definition that has been supported by the 31 governments that are members of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance; all 50 countries, except for Russia, that make up the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe; and the governments of the United Kingdom, Romania, Austria, Germany and Bulgaria.  It has also been adopted by the United Kingdom to use in colleges and universities.

Contrary to misunderstandings about the bill, the legislation does nothing to infringe on First Amendment rights. The bill will not regulate or restrict free speech or academic freedom by any means.  It simply provides federal authorities with a definition of anti-Semitism to be used to investigate behaviors that are not protected by the First Amendment, including assault, battery and vandalism.

The Brandeis Center helped pass a similar law recently in South Carolina, and is working with other states to pass legislation to combat rising anti-Semitism in U.S. schools.

The bill is also supported by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Simon Wiesenthal Center and the American Jewish Committee (AJC.)

The Jewish Press

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law (LDB) on Thursday applauded the introduction of bipartisan legislation to help tackle the rising anti-Semitism plaguing US schools.

“The spike in anti-Semitic incidents in schools has forced Jewish students to face prejudice on their campuses, swastikas in their dorms and danger on their school grounds,” Alyza Lewin, LDB’s chief operating officer and director of policy said in a statement.

“No student should ever be singled-out or harassed due to their religious beliefs,” she continued. “However, while educators, legislators, and civil rights advocates all recognize the problem and are deeply alarmed, those tasked with investigating incidents have been left without the tools to properly address it. This bill provides the Department of Education with the guidance it needs to properly identify today’s manifestations of anti-Semitism, particularly those incidents that cross the line from protected anti-Israel expression to blatant anti-Semitic acts.”

The bipartisan bill was introduced by Representatives Peter Roskam (R-IL), Ted Deutch (D-FL), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Doug Collins (R-GA) in the US House of Representatives, and Senators Tim Scott (R-SC) and Bob Casey (D-PA) in the US Senate. A similar bill was unanimously approved by the US Senate in 2016.

According to the FBI’s Hate Crime Report, Jewish hate crime victims outnumber victims of all other religious groups combined. And the problem is most serious in US schools. A Brandeis Center/Trinity College study found that 54% of Jewish college students reported experiencing or witnessing anti-Semitism in 2014. And a February ADL report found that anti-Semitic incidents in K-12 schools and on college campuses nearly doubled between 2016 and 2017.

In addition, a US Department of Education report, released just last month, which at the urging of the Brandeis Center, for the first time, included statistics on religiously-motivated bullying and harassment in K-12 schools, found an alarming 10,848 incidents based on religion in 2015-2016. Recent incidents motivated by anti-Semitism include: a Jewish boy in Florida who was pinned down while a swastika and a fake concentration camp number were drawn on his arm; in New York, a Jewish boy who was verbally harassed and had hot wax poured on his skin; and in Florida, two Jewish students who were followed by two suspects shouting, “[Expletive] the Jews” and then punched in the face.

Until a dozen years ago, the Department of Education declined jurisdiction in cases involving claims of anti-Semitism since statues only covered such traits as race, color, national origin, sex, age and disability. In 2004, then head of the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and now president of LDB, Kenneth L. Marcus, drafted a policy ensuring that Jewish, Sikh and Muslim students were protected from ethnic and ancestral discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, unlike in policies under which federal authorities investigate civil rights claims such as sexual harassment, this policy did not include a definition of anti-Semitism, leaving authorities ill-equipped to properly recognize anti-Semitism.

The Brandeis Center has been advocating for many years to have Congress address this obstacle, and the legislation, introduced late yesterday, aims to do just that. It provides federal authorizes with a clear and uniform definition to recognize anti-Jewish bigotry. The definition included in the bill is the global “gold standard” used to define anti-Semitism, and is used by the US federal government to assess incidents that occur abroad. It is substantially similar to the definition that has been supported by the 31 governments that are members of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance; all 50 countries, except for Russia, that make up the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe; and the governments of the United Kingdom, Romania, Austria, Germany and Bulgaria. It has also been adopted by the United Kingdom to use in colleges and universities.

Contrary to misunderstandings about the bill, the legislation does nothing to infringe on First Amendment rights. The bill will not regulate or restrict free speech or academic freedom by any means. It simply provides federal authorities with a definition of anti-Semitism to be used to investigate behaviors that are not protected by the First Amendment, including assault, battery and vandalism.

The Brandeis Center helped pass a similar law recently in South Carolina, and is working with other states to pass legislation to combat rising anti-Semitism in US schools.

The bill is also supported by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Simon Wiesenthal Center and the American Jewish Committee (AJC.)