By Mike Wagenheim
The U.S. Department of Justice plans to form a new advisory body to fight Jew-hatred nationwide, it said on Tuesday.
The Antisemitism Advisory Committee will provide recommendations to the attorney general and Justice Department leaders about responding to what the department called the “rising tide” of Jew-hatred across the United States.
Todd Blanche, acting U.S. attorney general, stated that U.S. President Donald Trump “has made combating antisemitism a top priority for this administration,” and praised Leo Terrell, chair of the U.S. Justice Department’s task force on Jew-hatred, for his leadership on the issue.
Terrell will lead the new committee, which the department said will consist of “citizen leaders dedicated to combating antisemitism,” subject to Trump’s approval. Members will come from a range of backgrounds but share “a common goal of developing innovative solutions to address antisemitism across the country,” the department said.
The initiative builds on the Trump administration’s broader efforts to fight Jew-hatred, including an executive order directing federal agencies to use all available legal tools to protect Jewish Americans from discrimination, threats and violence.
“Protecting civil rights of every American remains a core responsibility of the Department of Justice,” Blanche stated.
Stanley Woodward, an associate attorney general who oversees the department’s cases involving religious-liberty protections, stated that the administration “is using every tool available to confront antisemitic threats, support local communities and ensure that radical activists and violent extremists do not intimidate law-abiding Americans.”