The Trump administration on Thursday opened a new front in its ongoing political battle with Chicago and other Democratic-led cities: alleged antisemitism at schools and on college campuses.
A new Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism led by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi notified Mayor Brandon Johnson and his counterparts in New York, Boston and Los Angeles that it wanted to meet soon to discuss their responses to incidents of antisemitism over the last two years.
“Too many elected officials chose not to stand up to a rising tide of antisemitism” after the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023, Bondi was quoted as saying in a Justice Department news release.
The mayors were told the task force is aware of allegations their cities may have failed to protect Jewish students from unlawful discrimination, which would violate federal law.
“Actions have consequences — inaction does, too,” Bondi said in the release.
Jason Lee, a senior adviser to Johnson, was not surprised at the Justice Department’s initiative, noting the task force is targeting three of the same cities whose mayors were summoned to Washington to defend their sanctuary city status before a congressional committee.
“The same cities are going to be scrutinized across every front. Based on the political climate that we’re in, there will be things that we will have to deal with,” Lee said. “Residents of Chicago can draw and have drawn their conclusions as to why we may be the target of certain actions.”
Trump has had Chicago in his sights many times over the years, despite having a skyscraper here, with his name on it, along the Chicago River. His usual target is crime in the city, though he often gets his facts wrong.
Speaking in Chicago to the International Association of Chiefs of Police in 2019, Trump again repeated a false claim about the city having the nation’s strictest gun laws, compared violence in Chicago to Afghanistan and contended reductions in crime here are failing to keep pace with those being made nationally.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (third from left) as well as (from left) New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Denver Mayor Michael Johnston, and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu were called to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform earlier this month to defend their cities’ sanctuary laws.
Saul Loeb/Getty
Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration on Thursday also criticized the task force’s efforts.
“If the Department of Justice was actually interested in combating antisemitism, they would expand their scope beyond just a politicized effort in a few select blue cities and states,” spokesman Alex Gough said. “Protesting, even if it’s something you disagree with, is a critical part of the protections under the First Amendment and in no instance should we allow the federal government to infringe upon that right.”
Despite Johnson’s strained relationship with Chicago’s Jewish community, Lee argued that the mayor has been “strongly outspoken against antisemitism.”
Asked if Johnson did all he could to protect Jewish students at Chicago Public Schools and at the city’s colleges and universities, Lee said he was “not sure what the claim of responsibility is.”
He said university presidents, including Northwestern University’s Michael Schill, testified before a congressional committee last year on that subject.
“These were issues that schools and school leadership were supposed to address one way or another. The idea that cities and mayors would be named — I don’t know what the culpability is,” Lee said. “What I can say is that this mayor has been strongly outspoken against antisemitism in its various forms. When there have been incidents of violence or anything that could be called out, it’s been called out.”
Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th), the City Council’s one Jewish member, strongly disagreed with Lee’s assessment.
Jewish students at DePaul and Northwestern “do not feel safe going to school,” Silverstein said, and that same sense of fear and intimidation has “trickled down” to CPS students.
Johnson “clearly” hasn’t done enough to protect Jewish students, Silverstein said.
“He started by praising them for walking out when we had the biased, one-sided ceasefire resolution. It started a while ago and nothing really has changed,” she said.
David Goldenberg, regional director for the Anti-Defamation League Midwest, said the group has “raised concerns for a year-and-a-half” about allegations of antisemitism at CPS.
“That includes things members of the school board have said and also some within CTU leadership,” Goldenberg said, referring to Johnson’s former co-workers at the Chicago Teachers Union.
“These concerns have largely fallen on deaf ears. The result is that Jewish students, faculty and staff have felt less safe.”
In a statement released Thursday evening, CTU Executive Vice President Jackson Potter said the union has “made significant efforts to combat antisemitism and Islamophobia by incorporating these issues into our collective bargaining agreements, professional development programs, and lessons we teach.
“Although the ADL has never contacted the CTU to express concerns, we are not surprised that they have chosen to align with this administration during such a troubling time — history will ultimately judge their decisions,” Potter continued.
The Anti-Defamation League this month released a Campus Antisemitism Report Card, in which DePaul University received an “F” for campus climate and climate concerns, while the University of Chicago received a “D” over its administrative actions.
At DePaul, the report cited the level of severe antisemitic and anti-Zionist incidents, hostile anti-Zionist student government activity and hostile anti-Zionist staff and faculty activity. But the report says the university has publicly condemned violence against Jewish students and has committed to establishing a bias education and response team, and has been meeting regularly with Jewish groups.
At the University of Chicago, the report rated life for Jewish students on campus as “excellent,” campus conduct and climate concerns at “medium,” and publicly disclosed administrative actions as “below expectations.” But the ADL noted that the university received a commendation in June 2024 “for its swift action to address campus encampments.”
Statewide, an ADL audit showed listed 211 antisemitic incidents in 2023. That ranked Illinois 12th nationally. That same report noted a big increase in antisemitic incidents on college and university campuses — 922 last year, which was 10% of all incidents, and a 321% increase over the 219 incidents recorded in 2022.
Johnson’s relationship with many Jewish leaders has been strained ever since he cast the tie-breaking vote on that cease-fire resolution.
The relationship was further strained by Johnson’s refusal to fire his chief lobbyist, Kennedy Bartley, and remove 33rd Ward Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez as chair of the City Council’s Committee on Health and Human Relations for their social media posts viewed by Jewish leaders as antisemitic.
The mayor initially defended his appointment of the Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson as president of the Chicago Board of Education, only to have the clergyman resign the next day after antisemitic comments were found on his social media pages.
But his law department also has pursued charges against dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters who blocked I-90 to O’Hare International Airport, forcing air travelers to get out of their vehicles and walk with their suitcases to the terminal.
Johnson’s record for handling the ongoing pro-Palestinian protests is mixed. Last year, the Chicago Police Department cleared out protesters at DePaul University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, but ignored a request from the University of Chicago to do the same on that campus.
