Trump Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism Announces Visits to Columbia, Nine Other Schools

The Trump administration’s task force to combat anti-Semitism will visit Columbia University and nine other schools that have faced anti-Semitic incidents following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack, the Department of Justice announced Friday.

The task force’s head, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights Leo Terrell, on Thursday notified the 10 universities that they may have violated federal law by failing to protect Jewish students and faculty from illegal discrimination, according to the Justice Department. Terrell said the multi-agency task force will meet with university leadership, impacted students and staff, local law enforcement, and community members to gather information about incidents. He’ll also consider whether any disciplinary actions are needed.

"The President, Attorney General Pamela Bondi, and the entire Administration are committed to ensuring that no one should feel unsafe or unwelcome on campus because of their religion," Terrell said. "The Task Force’s mandate is to bring the full force of the federal government to bear in our effort to eradicate Anti-Semitism, particularly in schools. These visits are just one of many steps this Administration is taking to deliver on that commitment."

The Justice Department launched the task force earlier this month "to root out anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses." It stems from an executive order President Donald Trump signed in January intended to take "forceful and unprecedented steps to combat anti-Semitism."

Four of the schools that the task force is visiting—Columbia, the University of California, Berkeley, Northwestern University, and the University of Minnesota—are also facing investigations from the Department of Education, which launched probes into "widespread antisemitic harassment" at the schools just two weeks into Trump’s second term. A fifth school, Portland State University, is also part of the investigation but isn’t included in the task force’s visits.

Columbia, in particular, has faced ongoing anti-Semitic incidents. On Wednesday, two anti-Semitic student groups—Columbia University Apartheid Divest and Columbia’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter—led a mob of student radicals who stormed a campus building at Columbia’s sister school, Barnard College. They clashed with security guards, sending one to the hospital, held a dean captive, covered up security cameras, broke into an office, vandalized walls, and forced class cancellations. The culprits got off scot-free after the administration vowed not to pursue disciplinary action, shielded them from police as they exited the building after occupying it for over six hours, and agreed to continue negotiations the next day in a private meeting.

The student radicals were aiming to pressure the Barnard administration to reverse its decision to expel two students who were involved in another anti-Semitic incident at Columbia. The pair were among a group of pro-Hamas agitators who rushed into an Israeli history class and targeted Jewish students with anti-Semitic flyers.

A week later, anti-Israel student radicals dumped cement into a campus building’s sewage system.

At Berkeley, meanwhile, a violent protest last year erupted over a scheduled speech by an Israeli lawyer, Ran Bar-Yoshafat. During the event, which was canceled due to the violence, mobs of anti-Israel students choked a female student attendee, spit in another’s face, and shouted, "Jew, Jew, Jew."

During the anti-Israel protests at Northwestern last year, demonstrators defaced the Star of David and chanted that Jews should "go back to Germany," among other anti-Semitic incidents. Northwestern is also providing free legal defense to a group of anti-Israel radicals who orchestrated a blockade at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, highlighting a perceived inconsistency in addressing discriminatory practices on campus.

At the University of Minnesota, anti-Israel student radicals stormed a campus building in October, used furniture to barricade exit doors, trapped staff inside, and demanded divestment from the Jewish state.

Harvard University and the University of California, Los Angeles are also among the universities the task force is visiting.

Jewish students at Harvard accused the Ivy League university of becoming a "bastion of anti-Semitism" in a January 2024 lawsuit. The day after Trump’s inauguration, the school settled the lawsuit, agreeing to discipline students who target "Zionists" and adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism. In November, anti-Israel protesters chanted, "Zionists are not welcome here," outside of Harvard’s Hillel when it hosted a speech by former Israel Defense Forces spokesman Ronen Manelis. The university also refused to cooperate with law enforcement investigating an assault on a Jewish student last September.

At UCLA, the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter vandalized the home of a Jewish University of California regent on Feb. 5. The university has also faced accusations that it was allowing anti-Semitism to run rampant. In August, a federal judge slammed the university for standing by as anti-Israel activists prevented Jewish students from accessing portions of campus.

The task force is also visiting George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, New York University, and the University of Southern California.

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