The U.S. Justice Department announced on Monday that following U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order on “Additional Measures to Combat Antisemitism,” it had formed a multi-agency task force to respond to Jew-hatred.
Trump’s order called on every federal agency to submit a report to the president within 60 days about efforts to combat Jew-hatred following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights, who has been tapped to lead the task force, called antisemitism “repugnant to this nation’s ideals.”
“The department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found,” Terrell stated. “The Task Force to Combat Antisemitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump’s renewed commitment to ending antisemitism in our schools.”
Terrell, who is black and Christian, is a civil rights attorney and former talk radio host. who has repeatedly spoken out in media appearances about the failure of the federal government to properly defend Jews in the aftermath of Oct. 7.
In a Sept. 2024 interview on Fox News, Terrell said that the domestic and foreign policy of the Biden administration involved Jews being “thrown under the bus” in pursuit of Muslim and Arab votes in Michigan.
“The federal government could step in and stop this,” Terrell said of antisemitic protests on college campuses. “Where’s the Department of Justice? Where’s the FBI? Where are the federal arrests of all this hatred towards Jewish Americans? It does not exist.”
According to the Justice Department, the task force’s “first priority” will be to counter Jew-hatred in the education system.
“The Task Force will include representatives from the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and other agencies as it develops,” per the department.
