On a recent Thursday, the Trump administration expanded its political skirmish with Chicago and other cities governed by the Democratic party, launching accusations of antisemitism within their schools and universities. A previously formed Federal Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, headed by American Attorney General Pam Bondi, reached out to Mayor Brandon Johnson and mayors from cities including New York, Boston, and Los Angeles. The task force expressed a desire to converse about their respective reactions to antisemitic incidents in the previous two years.
“Several public officials failed to oppose the upsurge of antisemitism” following the assault by Hamas in Israel in October 2023, Bondi lamented. Mayors were informed of the task force’s knowledge of potential omissions by their cities to defend Jewish students from unlawful discrimination, transgressions that could infringe federal laws. Bondi further emphasized that both ‘actions and non-actions bear consequences.’
Jason Lee, a key advisor to Mayor Johnson, pointed out that the task force appears to specifically target the same cities that have been previously called to the nation’s capital to justify their sanctuary city statuses before a congressional board. Johnson’s advisor highlighted that Chicago citizens have already formed their interpretations regarding why they might be the focal point of such activities. The typical focus of these actions is the city’s crime rate, which often gets misinterpreted by others.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s administrative team took a stance against the initiative of the task force on that same Thursday. A spokesperson for the team, Alex Gough, shared that if truly the Department of Justice aspired to eradicate antisemitism, they would broaden their target beyond simply attacking politically-oriented motions in selected Democratic cities and states. They further emphasized the importance of the freedom to protest granted by the First Amendment. ‘No circumstance should grant the federal government the privilege to corrupt these rights,’ Gough added.
Despite the tensions between Mayor Johnson and Chicago’s Jewish community, his adviser Lee insisted that Johnson has consistently and vocally condemned antisemitism. When questioned about Johnson’s efforts to safeguard Jewish students at Chicago Public Schools and the city’s universities, Lee expressed ambiguity regarding the nature of the responsibilities ascribed to Johnson’s office.
‘It was presumably the duty of the schools and their administrations to respond to these issues in some fashion. The suggestion that cities and mayors are under obligation — the liability in question remains uncertain,’ Lee argued.
Jewish students at DePaul and Northwestern universities reportedly feel threatened regarding their safety at school, according to sources. This atmosphere of fear and intimidation seems to have reverberated down to CPS students as well, creating a broader concern.
Silverstein argued that Johnson has evidently failed to adequately defend Jewish students. According to her, Johnson started by lauding them for demonstrating against the biased ceasefire resolution, which she believes ignited the issue, and since then not much has changed.
In response to these serious accusations, CPS addressed their position in a Thursday evening statement, defining student and staff safety as a priority while vehemently denying any space for antisemitism or any other form of bigotry within their campuses. Affirming their commitment to student expression, CPS maintained that the school system is designed to safeguard free speech rights, but any form of discriminatory harm is unacceptable and will not be endured.
As per a recent report on the University of Chicago, the quality of educational life for Jewish students was rated as ‘excellent.’ The campus behavior and atmospheric concerns were recorded at ‘medium,’ and the administration’s public resolutions were classified as ‘below anticipations.’
Ever since he was the deciding vote on the contentious cease-fire resolution, Johnson’s interactions with several Jewish community leaders have been frosty. The tension escalated further when Johnson declined to dismiss Kennedy Bartley, his main lobbyist, and refused to extract 33rd Ward Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez from her post as the City Council’s Health and Human Relations Committee chair, due to their social media posts perceived by Jewish leaders as antisemitism.