The DOJ Is Going on an “Anti-Semitism” Tour

The Justice Department (DOJ) is going on a 15-city antisemitism tour, an unusual move for the nation’s top law enforcement agency.

“The nationwide initiative reflects President Donald Trump’s unprecedented campaign to confront antisemitism across America,” says a press announcement for the tour. As the press release points out, this move aligns with executive orders Trump signed, one in January 2025, another in 2019, purportedly written to combat anti-Jewish bigotry. Critics believe it will have the opposite effect.

If this “tour” sounds like an odd thing for the DOJ to do, that’s because it is. While the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division routinely handles enforcement, prosecutions, data collection, and outreach related to so-called hate crimes and discrimination complaints, it has never gone on a full-blown anti-bigotry tour focused on one form of racism. It has held “listening sessions” and roundtables, and the Joe Biden administration focused on anti-black racism, much of which was overhyped. But this appears to be something new.

The Goal

The press release does not say which 15 cities the department will be visiting, but it does hint at what the agency intends to accomplish. The DOJ wants to increase reports of antisemitic incidents by local officials; bolster collaboration between local law enforcement, federal agencies, and Jewish communities; strengthen interfaith opposition to antisemitism; and address antisemitism in K-12 schools and teachers unions “to ensure students are protected from discrimination and harassment.”

The tour will be led by Leo Terrell, who is chair of the DOJ Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. Terrell, it just so happens, also has a history of tax evasion. At one point, he owed $400,000 in unpaid federal taxes.

Terrell recently told Fox News, “There is antisemitism going on, but where is the prosecution of hate crimes?” He said there is antisemitic education curricula pushed or supported by teachers unions in Los Angeles and Boston. “This tour, this committee, is designed to fight antisemitism at the local level so that we at the federal level can work together,” he added.

What Is Antisemitism?

A big question is: What exactly is antisemitism? Just as there were attempts to redefine “racism” during the peak of Black Lives Matter influence, it appears there is a similar attempt to expand the meaning of anti-Jewish bigotry.

Based on a report by the American Jewish Committee, the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) endorsed materials that “evoked language and images that were violent, defamatory, and antisemitic.” Some of those materials pointed out that the U.S. has given $133 billion to Israel since 1949. The MTA also endorsed resources that sided with the Palestinians over the Israeli army, and detailed the violent way in which 1940s Israelis displaced the people who were already there for the purpose of establishing modern Israel. The resources also included a poster “depicting a person wearing a keffiyeh and carrying an assault weapon beside the words, ‘What was taken by force can only be returned by force,’” the report noted.

California Lawsuit

In Pasadena, California, a group of Jewish parents and teachers are asking a 9th Circuit panel “to reinstate their lawsuit claiming the Los Angeles Unified School District is allowing the surreptitious introduction of antisemitic ethnic studies curriculum into classrooms,” according to reports. They claim the curriculum “describes Zionism as a ‘settler colonial ideology that justifies ethnic cleansing’ and Israel as a ‘fascist dictatorship.’” This, in turn, “is creating a hostile environment for Jewish children and teachers at LA’s public schools.”

In 2024, a federal judge threw out the lawsuit out on the basis that it hadn’t been implemented and that education is not harmful. The judge, appointed by Barack Obama, said:

The essence of plaintiffs’ alleged injuries appears to be that they are aware of the challenged curriculum, disagree with it, and fear it will be adopted or used in LAUSD classrooms. But it is far from clear that learning about Israel and Palestine or encountering teaching materials with which one disagrees constitutes an injury.

Using the Law to Censor Facts

If the DOJ considers this behavior worthy of legal repercussions, it confirms critics’ concerns that the government is trying to use the mighty hammer of the law to quash not necessarily bigotry (which it is not its place to do, anyway), but criticism of a foreign nation and America’s relationship with that foreign nation. It seems a major goal here is to censor criticism and objective facts, information that even Israeli officials and media point out.

The U.S. is indeed giving billions in aid to Israel. It shouldn’t be giving money to any country, especially since the national debt just surpassed 100 percent of GDP. That view aligns with that of the United States Framers and millions of Americans.

And modern Israel, like most countries, was indeed born out of violence. The Israeli army did displace the people who were already there. Pointing this out isn’t bigoted, it’s fact. If it’s truly a concern, the DOJ would have to be consistent. It would have to launch a tour to quash anti-American bigotry in university curricula that points out that the U.S. displaced some Native American tribes as it established modern-day America. Moreover, is Jewish media antisemitic for pointing out what its founding generation did, as Israeli newspaper Haaretz did? It published report in February titled “’Terror Was Needed to Make Arabs Leave’: What the Israeli Army Did in 1948, Revealed.”

Anti-Jewish Sentiment on the Rise?

To whatever extent the Anti-Defamation League can be taken seriously, it alleges that the number of antisemitic incidents in 2024 was the third-highest total since it began keeping track in 1970. According to the FBI, antisemitic incidents made up about 70 percent of religious hate crimes and 16 percent of all hate-crime victims.

Anti-Jewish bigotry is indeed likely on the rise. Israel’s response to the tragedy of October 7 in Gaza, coupled with the more recent attacks in Lebanon, all of which have caused an enormous number of civilian deaths and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, has not helped. But anyone who develops hateful views of an entire group of people based on the actions of a few falls into the old collectivist trap. There are many Jews, American and Israeli, who oppose the Israeli military’s campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon. And, as we pointed out above, there are Jews who acknowledge that modern Israel had to kick out the Arabs who were already there to establish their country.

Censorship Not the Answer

Silencing people with the law is not the answer. It will only inflame hate. Moreover, it gives the government more permission to interfere with protected speech and the personal beliefs of its citizens. This creates dangerous precedents that may provide future justifications for censorship. Today’s illegal bigotry may become tomorrow’s illegal criticism.