The Biden administration announced on Sept. 28 that it is instructing eight cabinet departments to extend civil rights protections to victims of antisemitism and other forms of religious bigotry, JTA.org reported. The decision marks a broad expansion of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
In addition, the administration is launching a listening tour of schools and colleges this fall to hear from Jewish students about hostility on campus, which Jewish groups say often comes from the anti-Israel left. The Sept. 28 launch of the listening tour in San Francisco included a meeting between the deputy secretary of education and representatives of the city’s Hillel chapter.
Under the 1964 act’s Title VI, which the White House release cites, any program or activity receiving federal funding cannot discriminate based on race, color or national origin. The White House statement said that staff at the Departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Treasury, and Transportation will be told the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act bans discrimination based on antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of religious bias.
