The Biden administration failed to address nearly 200 anti-Semitism complaints filed with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), even as threats against Jewish students skyrocketed after the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023. The revelation underscores a stark contrast between the Biden and Trump administrations’ handling of campus anti-Semitism.
Over 150 of the ignored complaints were submitted in the wake of Hamas’s assault, which left 1,200 Israelis dead. Rather than respond to these urgent reports, the Biden-era OCR diverted resources toward gender identity cases, including those involving pronoun usage and so-called “book bans” related to sexually explicit content in school libraries.
Julie Hartman, spokesperson for the Trump Department of Education, confirmed the scale of neglect. “The Biden administration placed an undue burden on OCR by stretching the scope of civil rights law beyond its statutory purview,” she told Fox News.
The Trump administration has since shifted priorities. President Donald Trump revoked or paused billions in federal funding from universities that failed to protect Jewish students and curb campus demonstrations that featured pro-Hamas and anti-Israel rhetoric. Under his leadership, the OCR now focuses on enforcing the law as written and rooting out systemic failures to safeguard Jewish students.
Hartman added, “The Trump OCR is cleaning that up daily. By enforcing the law as it is written, the Trump administration’s OCR is using its personnel and resources responsibly and eliminating wasteful and unfounded investigations.”
Anti-Semitic incidents have sharply increased across U.S. campuses since the Israel-Hamas war began. Students have reported harassment, threats, and intimidation, often from peers participating in anti-Israel protests. Despite this hostile environment, the Biden administration opted to expand Title IX protections for gender identity rather than confront mounting evidence of anti-Jewish discrimination.
President Trump’s crackdown on campus anti-Semitism aligns with his broader push to protect religious freedom and ensure that taxpayer-funded institutions uphold constitutional rights.
