Press Room

No sooner had President Trump nominated Kenneth Marcus, president of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights under the Law, to be assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education than extremist anti-Israel groups mounted an aggressive campaign to derail the appointment.

The Trump administration has lent some support to the old adage that even a busted watch will tell the time correctly twice a day, actually appointing someone eminently qualified to a high-ranking position in the U.S. Department of Education.

Last Sunday, a crowd of 70 attended “What’s Up at College: How Anti-Semitism is Affecting College Life,” a panel discussion at Congregation Shirat Hayam. The event was sponsored by the nonprofit Campus Anti-Semitism Task Force of the North Shore in order to raise awareness among area high school teenagers in light of increased anti-Semitism on college campuses across the country.

Kenneth L. Marcus, an attorney who has championed the use of the 1964 federal civil rights act to investigate allegations of antisemitism on campus, has been appointed assistant secretary for civil rights in the Department of Education.

The man President Trump has tapped for the critical job of chief of civil rights in the Education Department is the president of a Jewish center for human rights who has been critical of campus supporters of a Palestinian-led campaign to divest from Israel and who previously served in the George W. Bush administration.

The head of a prominent Jewish human rights group has been chosen for the top civil rights post at the US Department of Education, the White House announced on Thursday.