President Joe Biden will announce on Tuesday, Holocaust Remembrance Day, new actions to counter the “abhorrent rise of antisemitism” in the United States. President Biden will make the announcement from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
As part of the new actions, the White House said President Biden will direct the Department of Education to send a “Dear Colleague Letter” to every school district and college in the country to provide examples of antisemitic discrimination. The Biden administration will also have the Department of Homeland Security build an online campus safety resources guide and “develop and share best practices for community-based targeted violence and terrorism prevention to reduce these assaults and attacks.”
The announcement comes as several universities, including USC and Columbia, have canceled commencement activities due to unrest caused by pro-Palestinian protesters.
A White House official told Scripps News that President Biden will make “never again” the theme of his address. The president will discuss the importance of recounting the crimes of the Holocaust and the events that led to it as the world watched with indifference, an official said.
The White House also said President Biden will address the atrocities of the Oct. 7 attack committed against Israel, marking the deadliest attack against Jewish people since the Holocaust, and how too many people are downplaying both events.
President Biden is also expected to address the “unacceptable acts of antisemitism” on campuses and across the country, an official said.
The comments come nearly a week after President Biden gave his most extensive comments to date on the college protests.
“Peaceful protests are in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues,” President Biden said on May 2. “But, neither are we a lawless country. We’re a civil society and order must prevail.”