New Trump order: first steps in combating anti-Semitism in universities
On January 30, 2025, US President Donald Trump took a decisive step by signing an Executive Order to combat anti-Semitism. This order became not just a formal document, but a real manifesto against radical forces supporting HAMAS, and left-wing extremists who, after the terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, unleashed a wave of intimidation, vandalism, and violence on the streets and campuses of America.
The first practical step taken in the implementation of this order was the initiation of an investigation by the US Department of Education into the persecution of Jewish students at five universities. Among them are Columbia University in New York, Northwestern University in Chicago, the University of California in Berkeley, the University of Portland (Oregon), and the University of Minnesota.
Over the last sixteen months, American campuses have turned into arenas of fierce anti-Israel and anti-Semitic demonstrations, accompanied by direct threats and systematic persecution of Jewish students.
Recall that as early as December 2023, the US Congress held hearings dedicated to the surge of anti-Semitic incidents in university campuses. Presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were called to testify. When asked, “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate the university’s code of conduct?”, none of the leaders could provide a definitive answer, evasively stating that much depends on the context.
