U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and other federal officials, including Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice, met with a group of Jewish communal leaders on May 1. The participating organizations were not named in a DOJ statement.
Garland emphasized the priority of federal prosecutions against those motivated by Jew-hatred.
Other government officials in attendance included representatives from the FBI; Community Relations Service; Office of Justice Programs; Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties; Community Oriented Policing Service; Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; as well as from the Departments of Education, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, and Homeland Security.
The federal organizations heard from the Jewish leaders regarding concerns about hate-crime reporting, campus safety and employment discrimination.
DOJ noted the “precipitous increase in the volume and frequency of threats against Jewish communities across the country” and vowed that “combating hate crimes and incidents is among the department’s top priorities.”