ANTI-SEMITISM/EDUCATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration is changing how the Education Department investigates allegations of discrimination against Jewish students, backing an approach that is favored by pro-Israel groups but that critics worry will stifle free speech and criticism of Israel on campus. The policy change was outlined in a letter last month by Kenneth Marcus, who leads the department’s Office for Civil Rights, in which he re-opened a 2011 investigation into Rutgers University in connection with alleged discrimination against Jewish students. The letter was obtained by POLITICO. Marcus wrote in the letter that the Education Department, in its investigations into discrimination, would use the ‘working definition’ of anti-Semitism that is ‘widely used by governmental agencies’ including the State Department. That definition includes examples in which delegitimizing Israel, or holding it to a double standard not expected of other democratic nations, are deemed anti-Semitic…But some civil liberties organizations and advocates for Palestinian rights believe that the definition is so broad that it would label criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic.”
–Michael Stratford, “Trump administration adopts new definition of anti-Semitism in schools,” Politico, September 11, 2018 11:54 pm