Trump expected to sign order to foster probes of anti-Semitism on campus

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order Wednesday that defines the Jewish people as a nationality for purposes of federal civil rights law, an effort to step up enforcement against episodes of anti-Semitism on college campuses, two administration officials said.

Defining Jewish people as an ethnic group and not just a religious one allows the government to consider discrimination against the group as a violation of a key civil rights law. That means schools could lose federal funding if they fail to combat discrimination against Jewish students.

"There's been a lot of unclarity surrounding the application of Title VI to Jewishness, basically, because of a question of about whether Jewishness is primarily a religion - in which case Title VI would not apply to anti-Semitic discrimination - or whether it's a race or national origin," a senior administration official told reporters. "This EO will clarify that Title VI applies to anti-Semitism."

Trump's plan to sign the order was first reported by the New York Times.

The order comes at a time when anti-Israel sentiments are strong on many college campuses and amid support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions - BDS -movement against Israel. The officials who described plans to sign the executive order spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the order.

The Education Department enforces Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity or national origin by schools that receive federal money. The law does not cover religious discrimination, so defining Jews as a national group is necessary if the agency is to have jurisdiction over incidents in which anti-Semitism is alleged.

Already, the Education Department had begun using this broader definition on its own, so the practical effect of Trump's order is muted. Last year, the agency's Office for Civil Rights revived an investigation into allegations of anti-Semitism at Rutgers University and in doing so, said it would view discrimination against Jews as part of its mandate.

The Obama administration had closed the Rutgers case in 2014 without finding wrongdoing by the university. But Kenneth Marcus, the Education Department's assistant education secretary for civil rights under President Trump, revived it.

In doing so, the department said it would rely on a definition of anti-Semitism from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. That definition includes "claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor"; applying a double standard to Israel by requiring of it "behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation"; and comparing "contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis."

One administration official said the order was spurred by the work of Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser.

This is the latest effort by the administration to side with students who detect anti-Israel bias at their universities.

Over the summer, the Education Department accused a Middle East studies program of promoting a positive view of Islam while virtually ignoring Judaism, Christianity and other religions.

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