The U.S. Department of Education announced on Monday that it has entered an agreement with Temple University, a public school in Philadelphia, to resolve an investigation into potential violations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Among the complaints against Temple from 2022 to 2024 were “at least 50 reports of shared ancestry discrimination and harassment, including incidents of antisemitic, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian conduct,” the department stated.

John Fry, the university president, stated on Monday that the investigation was about Temple’s “handling of reported incidents of harassment based on national origin (shared Jewish ancestry) under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.”

“More than 100 colleges and universities have undergone or are currently undergoing such a review,” he wrote, per Temple News, a student publication.

“Today, I am pleased to share that Temple has resolved the investigation through a voluntary resolution agreement” with the Education Department, Fry added. “Importantly, this agreement includes no findings of noncompliance or wrongdoing by the university. This resolution allows us to focus on our essential work in addressing all complaints of discrimination and harassment, including antisemitic, anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim and all unlawful discriminatory incidents that create a hostile environment for members of our community.”

Catherine Lhamon, assistant U.S. secretary for civil rights at the Education Department, stated that the resolution “is designed to improve university practices to ensure full compliance with federal civil rights protections against discrimination.”

The Education Department cited Temple’s “proactive and responsive” efforts to address harassment based on “shared ancestry” and said that it thas “robust processes for addressing reports of discrimination and harassment.” 

It also noted that Temple created a 2022 “Blue Ribbon Commission on Antisemitism and University Responses to address what it deemed a pattern of rising antisemitism in American society and on college campuses nationwide, and in December 2022, it hired a special adviser on antisemitism to assist the university with addressing reports of antisemitism, discrimination or harassment based on shared Jewish ancestry.”

The Education Department stated that despite those efforts, it “identified Title VI compliance concerns, because the university’s actions did not consistently include taking steps to assess whether incidents of which it had notice individually or cumulatively created a hostile environment for students, faculty or staff and did not take steps reasonably calculated to end the hostile environment as required by Title VI.”

The federal government “also identified concerns with the university’s handling of these reports, because they were addressed in isolation by multiple campus departments and offices with little to no information sharing among them,” it stated. “This in turn resulted in an apparent failure to assess whether the incidents cumulatively created a hostile environment for university students, faculty and staff.”

As part of the agreement, Temple will commit to review complaints from the past two years and “take remedial actions, if required,” to share complaints about discrimination based on shared ancestry for the current and next academic year with the Education Department and provide relevant faculty and staff training.

The annual International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries (Kinus Hashluchim) concluded with a closing ceremony celebrating the tapestry of Jewish life worldwide and reaffirming Chabad’s unwavering dedication to reaching every Jew, everywhere, no matter the obstacles. The gala banquet, held on Sunday afternoon in Edison, N.J., united thousands of emissaries and their guests from countries near and far.

This year’s gathering in New York City took on new meaning, taking place just a week after the murder of Zvi Kogan, 28, a Chabad rabbi stationed in the United Arab Emirates. The ceremony commenced with a heartfelt tribute to him. Rabbi Levi Duchman, chief rabbi of the UAE and director of Chabad-Lubavitch of the United Arab Emirates, addressed the assembly with deep emotion.

Nevertheless, he and his colleagues expressed a commitment to continue their vital work. “That is what Zvi would have wanted,” affirmed Rabbi Yehuda Marasow, a Chabad emissary in Abu Dhabi. “We are all now tasked with carrying forward his mission.”

In a touching display of solidarity, the conference connected live with Kogan’s family in Jerusalem, who were in mourning. Thousands stood together, sharing traditional words of comfort, demonstrating unity and support for the grieving family.

The conference also honored the life of Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, who spearheaded the Kinus for the last four decades and dedicated his life to actualizing the Rebbe’s vision. His son, Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, who recently undertook his father’s role as director of the conference, took the stage in his father’s place.

"My father always reiterated the Rebbe’s call to reach out to those who might seem beyond our reach,” he said. “Take a moment to think of one more person in your life—a neighbor, a colleague—someone others might deem impossible to connect with—and take action.”

He highlighted one of his father’s final initiatives: a campaign to inspire 120 million mitzvot, or “good deeds.” To achieve this ambitious goal, they launched OneMitzvah.org, a platform designed to encourage everyone to involve friends and family in acts of kindness. “Engage your network because that’s how we’ll make a real impact and usher in an era of peace and redemption,” he emphasized.

One of the most moving moments of the evening came when Rabbi Yehoshua Soudakoff, Chabad emissary to the Jewish Deaf Community, took the stage. Addressing the assembly in American Sign Language (ASL), his speech was simultaneously translated for all to understand.

“For a deaf person, finding a place within the community can be challenging,” he expressed through his interpreter. “But we are here to change that narrative.”

He shared personal anecdotes about the isolation many deaf individuals feel within the broader Jewish community, emphasizing the importance of accessibility and inclusion.

“Our mission is to ensure that every Jew, regardless of ability, feels a sense of belonging,” he declared. “Let’s continue our sacred work to reach every single one of them and inspire them, just as I was once inspired.” As he concluded, the entire assembly rose in a standing ovation, the applause resonating throughout the hall. The emotion was palpable, with many attendees visibly moved by his message.

Another video shown at the gala highlighted Chabad’s work on Israel’s frontlines after 14 months of war. Rabbi Gershon Shnur of Chabad of Ganei Tikvah spoke about serving as an emissary while fulfilling his duties as an army reservist. Rabbi Shalom Ber Hertzel, serving in Israel’s far north since recent conflicts began, discussed the nation’s challenges and his role in providing spiritual support.

After the presentation, they led the assembly in a heartfelt recitation of Tehillim, praying for peace and protection for the people of Israel.

A universal language

The annual ceremony highlighting Chabad’s international reach took on a new multilingual twist as shluchim representing different regions were welcomed in their native languages: Rabbi Leibel Fajnland of Chabad of Reston and Herndon, Va., welcomed the audience in English. Rabbi Shmuel Bistritzky of Chabad of Savyon, Israel, addressed the crowd in Hebrew. Rabbi Yoel Migdal of Chabad on Campus in Buenos Aires spoke in Spanish. Rabbi Mendy Mottal of Beit Lubavitch Sèvres Centre in Paris delivered his greeting in French. Rabbi Zalman Lent of Chabad of Ireland greeted the audience in Gaelic, announcing new initiatives in Dublin aimed at young professionals and college students.

Each shared updates on their outreach efforts, emphasizing the collective impact of Chabad’s global network. The iconic roll call served as a testament to the movement’s expansive reach, touching lives in communities large and small across the globe.

Attendees also heard from Rabbi Osher Deren of Chabad of the West Coast in Cape Town, South Africa, who delivered Torah insights.

Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch—the educational arm of the movement—addressed the gathering via video message. He expressed deep sorrow over Kogan’s passing and offered heartfelt condolences to his family and the entire emissary community.

Kalman Ber, chief rabbi of Israel, addressed the crowd, reiterating support for the shluchim’s mission and emphasizing the collective responsibility to fill the void left by Kogan’s passing. “We are now all shluchim,” he declared.

A special video presentation featured Dr. Brian Levin, a urologist from Maryland, who shared his journey of reconnecting with Judaism through Chabad. Inspired by his local emissary—Rabbi Nochum Katsenelenbogen of Chabad of Owings Mills, Md.—Levin began incorporating mitzvot into his daily routine and even encouraged his patients to do the same.

“Each of us has the potential to impact our surroundings,” he reflected. “By wearing my kippah at work, I realized I could inspire others and bring more kindness into the world.”

Some 80 people gathered outside of the headquarters of the United Nations in New York City on Monday morning to demand that U.N. Women take action for female hostages in Gaza.

Dana Cwaigrach, co-director of the New York branch of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which organized the gathering, told JNS that the protest marked International Women Human Rights Defenders Day on Nov. 29 and highlighted the inaction of U.N. Women, which is part of the global body.

“The United Nations can condemn and acknowledge what Hamas has done to female hostages in Gaza,” Cwaigrach said. “U.N. Women has not said a single thing—not the organization, not the executive director, have made a single statement about what happened on Oct. 7 and about the fact that there are still 13 women held hostage in Gaza who are enduring sexual threats every day.”

“We know for certain there was sexual violence that occurred during captivity, and U.N. Women has done absolutely nothing,” she added.

U.N. Women commented publicly last December about the right of Israeli women, among others, to live in safety free of violence and about "accounts of gender-based atrocities and sexual violence" during the Oct. 7 attacks.

Liana Weinstein, a relative of Israeli hostage Arbel Yehoud, who was abducted from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, told attendees that they must continue to call on international organizations to advocate for Israeli women. 

“We are gathered here because silence is not an option right now, when at this very moment women in Gaza are enduring unspeakable horror, abuse, starvation and deprivation of their very humanity,” she said. 

After several chants of “bring them home,” protesters held a moment of silence for Omer Neutra, a Long Island native and lone soldier. Israel said on Monday that Neutra, whose body remains in Gaza, was killed on Oct. 7.

Cwaigrach told JNS that news of Neutra’s death was a devastating blow to the New York Jewish community. 

“This is a very difficult day,” she said. “Omer was a Long Island native, and his entire family has been part of our efforts to advocate for the hostages since day one. Just yesterday, they were at our weekly protest in Central Park optimistic that their son might return through a negotiated deal.”

“We will continue to stand by their side as their son’s body is still held hostage,” she said.

Orna Simkhai, a resident of Manhattan and a dual Israeli-American citizen, told JNS that she joined the protest because she cannot relax as Israelis remain captives in Gaza.

“I’m not going to celebrate life until all the hostages are home,” she said. “It’s very important for our voice to be heard as women in the United States. We need to do something to help.”

Daniella Abbott of San Diego told JNS that she joined the demonstration to express her disappointment in the lack of U.N. action in helping to free the hostages.

“It’s important, as a non-governmental organization, to be talking about things in a nonpartisan way, which is just not what the U.N. has been doing,” she said.

“This is not a political issue,” she added. “It’s about people wanting to go home to their family, whether alive or dead at this point, which is horrible and unfortunate, but you can still speak up. It’s not too late.”  

When I began exercising with a trainer more than a decade ago, the trainer asked me what my goals for improved health were. I explained to her that I was at the high end of my historical weight and wanted to lose at least 15 pounds. She replied that this would be fairly easy to achieve. All I had to do was cut my food intake by one-third, eliminate bread and all sugary foods, only eat between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., and exercise at a gym at least three times a week.

“Wow, that’s so simple,” I replied sarcastically. As anyone who has tried to lose weight will tell you, losing weight and maintaining weight loss involves a variety of behavioral and lifestyle changes. Sustaining that lower level of weight is anything but simple.

The same can be said about sustaining and growing day-school enrollment. There is really no single tool, initiative or intervention that can be employed to successfully and sustainably grow a school’s enrollment. There are, in fact, a rather wide variety of factors and variables that are likely to impact student enrollment and retention. While the price of tuition is often one of these variables, parents weigh many other considerations when making enrollment decisions for their child in a Jewish day school. These may include perceptions of academic excellence, school leadership, class sizes, the socio-religious composition of students and families, and school location. The interplay of tuition pricing with these myriad other variables is what we term the value proposition. The key to increased student enrollment is improvement in a school’s value proposition.

Back in the early 2000s, many Jewish day schools with declining enrollments believed that they could increase and sustain their student populations simply by lowering tuition for some or all their students. They erroneously believed that lowering their tuition prices was a cure-all for the enrollment challenges they were facing. Most of these day schools were disappointed and perplexed when tuition reductions failed to lead to material growth in student enrollment or retention.

With improvements in data collection and analysis, the day-school field has come to understand that it is the interplay between tuition price and school excellence (or perceptions of excellence) that drives improvements in value perception among existing and potential parents. Simply put, efforts to use a lower tuition price will not succeed in sustainably raising enrollment numbers unless a school’s academic reputation is already strong or poised for improvement.

There is abundant evidence to support this assertion. For starters, nearly every successful community-based affordability initiative contains funding for school excellence. These include well-established affordability initiatives in Montreal, Toronto and Greater MetroWest, N.J. These also include newer community-based efforts currently underway in Chicago, Seattle and Atlanta.

All three of these latter communities mandate that schools use some of the funding provided to them for affordability to reinvest in school programs that build on school excellence. These might include investments in STEM or STEAM labs, funding for arts or theater programs, or hiring of additional teachers or other staff. Each of the three communities noted above has reported gains in both new student enrollment and student retention, to varying degrees.

The same can be said for individual school efforts as well. New tuition models at Toronto’s Tannenbaum CHAT High School and San Diego Jewish Academy were all preceded or accompanied by significant investments in school excellence. Both have seen meaningful increases in enrollment since the inception of these programs. So has Los Angeles’s Pressman Academy, thanks to a recently introduced tuition discount program for the children of Jewish communal professionals.

The picture in the Orthodox world is more nuanced. Because day-school enrollment among Orthodox families is already high, lowering tuition prices doesn’t always result in enrollment growth. One prominent Orthodox school in the Southeast introduced a middle-income cap program several years ago in an effort to spur enrollment. The effort failed to achieve its objective and was discontinued a year or two after its introduction. At the same time, low-cost, blended-learning schools that serve the Orthodox community appear to be successfully growing their enrollments. Yeshivat He’atid in Bergen County, N.J., has seen a rapid increase in its enrollment since it opened in 2012; more than 600 students now attend the school, with forecasts for continued growth.

Based on all the evidence we’ve seen, affordability is clearly an important factor impacting enrollment growth. It simply isn’t the only factor. Schools with stable professional leadership tend to exhibit stronger enrollment trends than schools without this leadership stability. Schools that respond to parental concerns with timeliness and sensitivity tend to exhibit stronger enrollment trends than schools that do not. Schools that offer a vision of Judaism and Jewishness that aligns with the lifestyles of its families are more likely to exhibit stronger enrollment trends than ones that do not.

As with weight-loss programs, efforts to increase enrollment require much more than quick fixes, such as tuition reduction or a great advertisement campaign. In the long run, a whole-of-school approach that aims to strengthen educational excellence and leadership, alongside tuition initiatives, stands the best chance of recruiting and retaining students and their families.

Will historians look back at the end of 2024, with Iran defenseless against an American and Israeli attack, as the great missed opportunity to have stopped a nuclear Iran?

Iran paid a heavy price for initiating two massive ballistic strikes against Israel in April and October; however, their nuclear program was never targeted and has progressed unscathed despite pushing past one nuclear redline after another.

Logically, Iran should be rushing over the next two months of Biden’s term to advance its nuclear weaponization program, including computer modeling, the development of neutron initiators and the conversion of uranium gas to metal for an atomic bomb.

President Joe Biden wants to leave office with the window-dressing victory of a weak ceasefire with Iran’s proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon and wouldn’t like—no matter how much Iran escalates its weaponization program in the next eight weeks—to do anything to upset that legacy applecart.

Weaponization, unlike enrichment and ballistic missiles, is easy to hide, especially in a country as large as Iran. Knowing President-elect Donald Trump wants to avoid any kinetic actions in the Middle East, the remainder of Biden’s lame-duck term is a golden opportunity for Iran to accelerate its nuclear program and come within a razor edge of a nuclear bomb.

Having already enriched enough uranium for many atomic bombs and possessing the ballistic missiles to hit anywhere in Israel, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC’s message to America, the Arab world and the Jewish state is that we can have many atomic weapons whenever we want, in short order.

Hundreds of ballistic missiles can overwhelm defensive systems like the Thadd, Arrow, Patriot and David’s Sling. If just 5% carried nuclear weapons, in the case of Israel, that would be game over. Does anyone think the world would do anything more than worthless verbal censures on Iran for a nuclear attack on Israel?

This brings us to today, with less than eight weeks until Trump is inaugurated as president. The Trump team is expected to be laser-focused on its ambitious domestic agenda. Any foreign diversion would be a significant distraction to overhauling the American economy and government. It’s one thing for Trump to target the Iranian terrorist mastermind Qassem Suleimani for killing U.S. soldiers; it’s another to go to war to stop Iran from becoming a threshold nuclear state.

Iran is smart; it will likely not cross the red line now with a nuclear detonation. However, they will signal to the world that it is days away from an actual nuclear weapon, and for America wanting to avoid another Middle East entanglement, the fact Iran has not turned the final screw of an active atomic device will likely be good enough for the United States to do effectively nothing.

If the new administration engages in talks, crafty Iranian negotiators will likely negotiate down tough sanctions reimposed on Iran’s economy. However, Iran will negotiate from a new position of strength with significant leverage, as it will be closer to a threshold nuclear state.

This brings us back to now, when the Islamic Republic of Iran is defenseless to missile strikes on its nuclear program. Within a year or two, Iran will rebuild its anti-missile system, perhaps convincing its Russian ally to share the more advanced S-400 anti-missile system, which would be a more significant challenge for Israel’s F-35 stealth jets.

If Iran inches its way to the nuclear rubicon, the only way out will be regime change, with the hope that the next regime will be more willing to have a peaceful civilian nuclear program. Is that a plan, or is that a prayer?

Suppose the Trump administration decides that regime change is American policy. In that case, the best way to achieve regional stability and advance American interests is to prioritize a comprehensive transformation plan based on reimposing, increasing and enforcing consequences on those nations that breach U.S. sanctions. That is a reasonable approach to begin with, assuming the Supreme Leader and IRGC are convinced that America would be willing to use military force if Iran races towards a bomb.

Iran likely plans to bide its time, hoping the Trump administration’s rhetoric doesn’t lead to kinetic actions. That will mean a return in 2025 of Israel’s shadow wars, with Iranian proxies being rearmed and the Islamic Republic choosing soft Jewish and Israeli targets that it believes will not merit an Israeli response on Iranian soil.

Sadly, we have seen this movie before, with the goal of the proverbial “kicking the can down the road,” “mowing the grass,” and hoping that this third Lebanon war will give Israel 17 years of relative quiet on its northern border, as it received after the 2006 Second Lebanon War.  

John Kirby, the White House national security communications advisor, defended U.S. President Joe Biden, who was photographed carrying an anti-Israel book as he exited a bookstore in Nantucket, Mass., over the weekend.

During a press gaggle aboard Air Force One, as Biden traveled to Luanda, Angola, on Monday, a reporter asked Kirby and Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, about the president's decision to carry The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi as he left the bookstore.

"Over the Thanksgiving holiday, the president was seen exiting a bookshop with a copy of a book by a Columbia historian, Rashid Khalidi, who has referred to the Palestinian conflict essentially as being an ethnic cleansing operation," the reporter asked. "Why did the president choose to read that book at this point in his presidency?"

Kirby said, "When you say something like that, it reminds me of what Mark Twain said, that a man who refuses to read good books has no advantage over a man who cannot or won't read those books."

"I can't speak to why the president made that particular purchase. Wasn't with him, haven't had a chance to ask," he said. "But he reads broadly, and he's fascinated by history and the lessons of history, and where that can take us going forward."

"So that doesn't surprise me that he would go into a bookstore and get a book of history, particularly about the Middle East, to try to imbibe and keep learning," Kirby added. "He really does believe in speaking, learning, thinking broadly, and that's what that tells me."

"He's actually reading it?" the reporter asked.

"I don't know," Kirby said.

Argentina’s Defense Minister Luis Alfonso Petri is in Israel to strengthen the strategic-security partnership between the countries.

Petri met with his Israeli counterpart Israel Katz at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv over the weekend, along with top Israeli officials from the defense establishment.

The meetings revolved around key strategic issues, including “Iran’s destabilizing activities in the Middle East and Latin America,” Israel’s Defense Ministry spokesperson said in a statement.

“This visit is a testament to Argentina’s unwavering support for Israel in the current war, strengthening the deep and strategic partnership between the nations,” the spokesperson continued.

“Minister Petri delivered a message from Argentine President Dr. Javier Milei, reaffirming Argentina’s steadfast support for Israel’s right to self-defense.”

Milei “emphasized that Israel’s current struggle represents not only a national fight but also the free world’s collective battle against terrorism and civilization’s stand against barbarism,” the statement read.

The ministry further stated that the parties agreed to expand defense cooperation, focusing on shared projects in “cyber defense, unmanned aerial vehicles, border protection, satellite communications, and future government-to-government (G2G) contracts in light arms, light munitions, radios and related equipment.”

Petri is expected to meet Israeli families of hostages and of those murdered in the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

He is further projected to meet with Argentine-Israeli soldiers who are living in Israel.

The minister’s visit comes in the wake of Milei’s signing of a historic memorandum of understanding between the two countries “in defense of freedom and democracy [and] against terrorism and dictatorships.”

The alliance was announced last month at an Argentina-Israel business meeting in Buenos Aires.

The Argentine president said that Israel is under “constant threat of being destroyed by the enemies of the free world” and confirmed that Jerusalem and Washington are the “most important geopolitical partners” for Argentina.

In September, Milei criticized the United Nations for its anti-Israel bias, speaking during a fiery address at the annual general debate of the General Assembly in New York.

He called out the world body for systematically voting against the Jewish state, “the only democracy in the Middle East, which protects liberal democracy,” adding that the United Nations has “simultaneously shown a total inability to respond to the scourge of terrorism.”

The libertarian leader observed that “in this same house, that purports to defend human rights, we have also included bloody dictatorships in the Human Rights Council, including Cuba and Venezuela, without reproach.”

American "hearts are heavy today" as the news came out that terrorists killed Omer Neutra, a U.S. citizen, during the Oct. 7 attacks and that Hamas continues to hold his body in Gaza, U.S. President Joe Biden stated on Monday.

"Omer was just 21 years old when he was taken by Hamas. He was serving as a tank commander in an Israel Defense Forces unit that was among the first to respond to Hamas’s campaign of cruelty—risking his life to save the lives of others," Biden stated.

"A Long Island native, Omer planned to return to the United States for college. He dreamed of dedicating himself to building peace," the U.S. president added, noting that he met less than a month ago with Omer's parents at the White House.

Theirs is "pain no parent should ever know," Biden stated. "They told me how Omer’s grandparents were Holocaust survivors and how their family’s strength and resilience has been carried through the generations."

"During this dark hour—as our nation joins Omer’s parents, brother and family in grieving this tragic loss—we pray to find strength and resilience," Biden added. "To all the families of those still held hostage: We see you. We are with you, and I will not stop working to bring your loved ones back home where they belong."

Current and former U.S. officials and lawmakers also commented on the news.

"We just learned that this prayer couldn't be answered for the family of Omer Neutra," stated New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat. "Omer was barbarically murdered by Hamas in the October 7 attacks. We pray that his body can be returned to his family, who have been speaking out for him and all hostages since that horrific day."

“Our hearts are broken for the Neutra family,” wrote House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). “For over 420 days, Ronen and Orna Neutra have been tireless advocates for their son and the many others who have been held hostage in the wake of Oct. 7.”

“Please join us in praying for the Neutra family, as we continue to seek justice against Hamas and the return of Omer’s body,” Johnson said.

Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) stated that “I am devastated and heartbroken to learn Omer Neutra was killed by Hamas on Oct. 7.”

“He was 21. From Long Island. I’ve met with his family. They’re incredible people who fought with determination for Omer,” Schumer wrote. “I won’t stop fighting to bring Omer’s remains and the 101 hostages home.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) stated that "over the past year, I have come to know Orna and Ronen Neutra very well and have spent countless hours with them as they fought to bring Omer home."

"Their love, resilience, strength, courage and faith was extraordinary," Lawler stated. "This news is devastating and my heart breaks for this family and their beloved Omer. May his memory always be a blessing to them and us."

Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) stated that "sadly, it was confirmed this morning that Omer Neutra of Plainview was killed on Oct. 7, 2023. My heartfelt condolences to my friends Ronen and Orna and Omer’s brother Daniel."

"This family has soldiered on through alternating deep sorrow and hopefulness, crushing anxiety and steely determination… now they must face the deep grief of the loss of their son and brother," Suozzi stated. "I have prayed for Omer and his family, and I ask all of you to join me in holding the Neutra family close as they seek to find peace and meaning in this tragedy."

Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for U.S. ambassador to Israel, wrote that it is "so sad to hear that U.S. citizen Omer Neutra, taken hostage by the savages of Hamas Oct. 7, 2023 is confirmed dead."

"I got to know his parents on a flight to Israel in December of 2023," Huckabee wrote. "I wore a dog tag with Omer's name as reminder of Americans held hostage. Heartbroken for his parents."

Lee Zeldin, a former U.S. congressman and Trump’s nominee for Environmental Protection Agency administrator, wrote that “since Oct. 7, 2023, we have been praying for Long Islander Omer Neutra’s safe return home to his loving family.”

“This morning, we woke up to heartbreaking news that Omer was killed by Hamas that horrific Oct. 7 day. May he rest in peace,” he added.

Occidental College seemingly waved the white flag last week in its efforts to defend itself against charges of tolerating antisemitism on its Los Angeles campus. The school agreed to a “sweeping settlement” with the Anti-Defamation League and the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law that acknowledged the ongoing hardships, harassment and discrimination faced by Jewish students since the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Occidental’s apathy to all this, which was little different from what has been happening at dozens if not hundreds of other American institutions of higher learning, violated its obligations to prohibit such discrimination under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

But for many observers, the context for the agreement was not so much a belated interest by one school to address the wrongs suffered by its Jewish students. Rather, it was the fact that it came a few weeks after the election victory of Donald Trump. As one headline in a news article about the settlement put it, “College settles antisemitism claims before Trump can make good on accreditation threats.”

Trump repeatedly made clear during the 2024 election campaign that the educational establishment would be as much a target for his second administration as the denizens of the Washington “swamp” such as the liberal-dominated federal bureaucracy that did so much to sabotage and obstruct his first four years in the White House.

More will hinge, however, on whether he makes good on this promise than the fate of school administrators or even the safety of Jewish students.

Trump’s war on woke

The president-elect vowed to punish colleges and universities that tolerated not just the sort of antisemitism that went on at Occidental and so many other schools. He’s also determined to rid American higher education of the plague of “woke” ideology. That’s a term that refers to the way left-wing ideologues have conquered academia and imposed toxic ideas like critical race theory and intersectionality that divide humanity into two permanently warring groups of “white” oppressors and “people of color” who are their victims. The left’s long march through U.S. institutions—and that includes the arts, corporate America and government—has involved the indoctrination of a generation of students in the woke catechism of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) that trashes equal opportunity (the opposite of “equity”) and includes only certain approved minorities while excluding everyone else, including minorities like Jews.

Seen in that context, antisemitism is just one aspect of the broad damage that the adoption of this new secular religion by those in charge of education has been doing to America. It’s also fueling a surge in racial divisiveness and a war on the canon of Western civilization that is the foundation of a society grounded in the rule of law, which made America a great nation as well as one that was particularly hospitable to religious minorities.

That means the stakes involved in whether or not Trump keeps his vow to reform education and to turn the antisemites out are as important as any involving his second-term agenda. It represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reverse the left’s conquest of academia. If he and/or his appointees falter in their resolve, the consequences for the country as a whole and for Jews will be incalculable.

But as the coverage of the issue in liberal legacy corporate media like The New York Times and The Guardian indicates, the educational establishment and their allies on the political left and the press are determined to oppose Trump’s goals. They have already begun a campaign to obfuscate the issue and demonize efforts to roll back the woke orthodoxy as part of what they routinely and falsely describe as the next administration’s putative authoritarian putsch. The truth is just the opposite since the real authoritarians are the bureaucrats and “educators” who have been imposing their distorted neo-Marxist vision on the country while also fomenting and enabling a new wave of antisemitism.

Ironically, the legal settlement with Occidental, which was celebrated by both the ADL and the Brandeis Institute as a victory in the effort to push back against campus antisemitism, was an indication of just how feeble the effort to counteract woke antisemitism has been up until now.

The agreement involved some elements that are necessary such as efforts to train school administrators to be more aware of antisemitism and to take into account the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s working definition of antisemitism when dealing with instances of Jew-hatred.

But the lawyerly document Occidental signed leaves plenty of leeway for it to evade responsibility for future violations. It can be defended as probably as much as could be achieved in such a negotiation at this point in time.

Title VI antisemitism complaints to the U.S. Department of Education—the primary mode of carrying on the fight against this scourge in recent years—involves a lengthy process that has, to date, never resulted in any real punishment for even the most egregious violators of the rights of Jewish students. Stripping a university of its federal funding—something that is a given for any institution that engaged in open discrimination against African-Americans or Hispanics—is the sole remedy that could, if fully implemented, mean a much-needed fundamental change in the way American higher education operates.

And as long as schools retain their woke administrators and faculty, as well as curricula that discard traditional standards and help fuel antisemitism, agreements like the one with Occidental are almost certain to fail to create the kind of change that is needed.

Draining the swamp

That is why Trump’s scorched-earth approach is so necessary, even as it is being denounced by the same people who are responsible for creating or perpetuating the current mess as too extreme or even needed at all.

Trump’s stated intention of “draining the swamp” throughout the federal government is being depicted as evidence of his supposed authoritarian impulses and racism. But this is exactly the sort of argument based on a high-handed dismissal of genuine concerns and problems that have caused so many Americans to lose faith both in our educational system and in Washington.

His threats can seem crude to those accustomed to politicians being guarded in their remarks. Yet the events of the last few years—starting with the moral panic about race behind the Black Lives Matter riots and then on to the post-Oct. 7 surge in antisemitism—demonstrated that a restrained “business as usual” approach won’t cut it when the collapse of our most cherished institutions is at stake. Their transformation into purveyors of neo-Marxist indoctrination and toxic ideas that enable hatred for both the West and Jews is a crisis of enormous proportions. It is happening at both the college and graduate levels, as well as in K-12 schools where leftist teachers’ unions have also imposed the indoctrination of critical race theory.

The only reasonable response to this disaster is exactly the kind of tough-minded purge that Trump has envisioned. And far from this being an uninformed or extreme approach, Trump and his transition team are consulting with experts like Christopher Rufo, author of an authoritative and essential book on the woke plague—America’s Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything—and incorporating the ideas of “Project Esther,” a serious plan for dealing with campus antisemitism produced by The Heritage Foundation.

All of this has produced panic on the left and even among mainstream liberals who have been conditioned by partisan political rhetoric to believe that Trump is a second Hitler. They worry that he is already going too far in seeking accountability for institutions that engage in racial discrimination and tolerate antisemitism under the guise of DEI “anti-racist” policies, believing that somehow this will destroy academic freedom. What his critics fail to recognize is that American education is already enduring a catastrophic transformation that has silenced dissent against woke doctrines that seek to trash the Western canon.

A necessary sledgehammer

The only way to fix it is with the same sort of Trumpian sledgehammer that tossed aside failed ideas about the Middle East in his first term that enabled him, among other important policy changes, to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and forge the Abraham Accords. If that means executive orders reversing President Joe Biden’s DEI orders that created woke commissars in every federal agency and department, that should be welcomed. If it means closing the largely useless and counter-productive Department of Education and enacting far-reaching reforms that will defund institutions clinging to discriminatory ideas and actions, then that should be cheered by those who cherish the values of equal opportunity, merit and zero tolerance for hatred and discrimination.

More to the point, it will mean that policing antisemitism on campus will be shifted away from the ineffectual Title VI complaints to federal education bureaucrats to a campaign of lawsuits conducted not just by groups like the Deborah Project, valuable though they may be, but by the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, with all of the vast resources at its command. In this manner, a message can be sent that will likely motivate the vast majority of college administrations to discard DEI and the tolerance of hate for Jews that accompanies it.

It is impossible to know whether the new administration will succeed. But rather than worrying that he is the wrong instrument to carry out this effort or wasting time decrying his rhetoric, it’s likely that only an outlier like Trump could contemplate such a bold project or have the will to see it to its logical end. Indeed, so grave is the threat that DEI and other leftist ideas pose to the country’s future that anything short of what he has discussed would be inadequate. Instead of expressing concerns or horror at his determination to enact real change, fair-minded Americans of all faiths and in both major political parties should be rooting for him to keep his word and to do everything he promised to punish colleges and universities, in addition to any other entity that promotes the sort of woke hate that has made life for Jewish students and anyone else who dissents against the new secular orthodoxy so difficult.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate). Follow him @jonathans_tobin.